Minnesota Literacy Council
Scientific Method
Here is a resource with a descriptive approach to explaining the scientific method. It's simple, but effective for both introduction and reinforcement of this concept.
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Reading Primary Sources: Darwin and Wallace
Take your classes back in time. Learners read real historical texts from both Darwin and Wallace as well as an announcement of their findings. Using guiding questions, they make inferences and draw conclusions from the information in the...
Curated OER
What Was Columbus Thinking?
Why is Christopher Columbus one of the most studied figures in history? Upper graders will investigate why Christopher Columbus traveled to the New World and what happened to the native people he encountered. They read and discuss...
Curated OER
Comparing Kwakiutl, Cheyenne and Navajo tribes
Third graders study the difference between the Kwakiutl, Cheyenne and Navajo tribes. They identify the people, resources, lifestyle and beliefs of the Kwakiutl, Cheyenne, and Navajo Indians. Afterward, they present their projects on each...
Curated OER
Decision Making: Who Was Right?
Help your class explore the question "Is it ever right to disobey a law?" With a strong base of knowledge about the Civil War, anti-slavery movement, and Underground Railroad, your class explores civil disobedience in Marshall, Michigan...
Curated OER
Lovely Ladybugs
Make cute ladybugs with egg cartons and pipe cleaners! After you read some facts about ladybugs, use different materials to make some ladybugs for your classroom.
Civil War Trust
Gettysburg Address
The Gettysburg Address may have been four score and seven years ago, but its message is still as relevant today. Young historians explore the context of the famous speech, as well as its central theme and argument, before discussing the...
Penguin Books
A Teacher's Guide to the Signet Classic Edition of William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar
Are the lessons of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar still applicable today? Explore themes, characterization, and plot structure with a thorough teacher's guide to the play. The resource covers the entire text and offers rigorous activities...
Newspaper Association of America
Community Connections with Geography and the Newspaper
Understanding geography and government begins at the local level. Using maps and the parts of a newspaper, a unit plan introduces the concept of community. It starts with the creation of classroom and school maps, and then moves through...
DocsTeach
Fannie Lou Hamer and Voting Rights
To understand the challenges Black voters faced in Mississippi, middle schoolers first gather background information about Fannie Lou Hamer and then read her testimony given during the 1964 Democratic Nation Convention. After a...
Anti-Defamation League
Student Dress Codes: What's Fair?
The controversy over school dress codes continues. The debate involves questions like, why is there a policy? Who sets the policy? Who enforces the policy? What is a fair policy? Tweens and teens have an opportunity to engage in the...
Curated OER
Cause or Effect
Catch the attention of your class by holding a ball and asking your learners what will happen if you let the ball go. Now that they're thinking of possible effects, introduce them to the day's topic: cause and effect. Present sentences...
Curated OER
Guided Reading: Main Idea
Readers are presented with a list of three questions and asked to actively listen to a story or article to answer them. They verbally answer the questions to learn the strategy. Next, read a story to them or have them silently read a...
Crafting Freedom
F.E.W. Harper: Uplifted from the Shadows
Young historians discover the life of an incredible African American woman who, as an anti-slavery lecturer prior to the Civil War, defied stereotypes of what women could accomplish. Pupils explore the concept of stereotyping, read...
Maryland Department of Education
The Concept of Identity Lesson 4: The Psychological Approach
Readers apply Sigmund Freud's theories of the unconscious mind and the psychological approach to literary criticism to analyze and evaluate the relationship between two characters in A Separate Peace.
Maryland Department of Education
The Concept of Diversity in World Literature Lesson 3: Igbo Culture
What cultural concepts must readers understand in order to connect to Things Fall Apart? As part of their study of Chinua Achebe’s novel, class members research Nigeria and the Igbo culture to create a collaborative, web-based,...
Curated OER
Career & Technical Education: Grade 7
Educate your learners on the importance of using bio-diesel as an alternative transportation fuel. Provided here are several links to books (with reviews), a 24-page informational text in three reading levels, a corn activity, and...
Curated OER
Cyberbullying and Civic Participation
Encourage your class to create rules and regulations for cyberbullying. Learners explore civic participation by thinking about the rules and regulations already in place in their lives and studying Canada's Canada Gazette. As a final...
Teaching Tolerance
Civil Rights Activity Book
An activity booklet includes a timeline of the movement, a song, and various informational reading passages on leaders, events, and the Civil Rights Memorial in Washington DC. Reading response questions and word puzzles are sure to...
K5 Learning
Changes
You can't unring a bell, but can you unmelt an ice cube? Readers consider reversible and irreversible changes with a short informational reading passage and accompanying comprehension questions.
Channel Islands Film
Dark Water: Lesson Plan 3 - Grades 6-12
After watching the documentary Dark Water about a traditional Chumash ceremony and reading a Chumash origin story, viewers are asked to create a coat of arms and to craft an essay that details a family tradition or their own origin story.
Curated OER
Headings and Titles
Fifth graders explain the difference between the title of a text and the headings. In this language arts instructional activity, 5th graders discuss how the heading is related to the main idea of a text. Additionally, students write...
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Talking Safety
Chances are, many of the teens in your class have jobs or want to have jobs in the near future. Educate them about the hazards and emergencies that could occur in various workplaces with a set of lessons published by the National...
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Recent Adaptations in Humans
You've probably spent plenty of time discussing animal adaptations with your young biologists, but what about human adaptations? Explore the evolving traits of humankind through an interactive that combines text and video clips. Scholars...