Curated OER
Forming Open-Ended Questions
Help readers learn to create their own open-ended questions for any text you are working with. Using Bloom's Taxonomy, learners begin on the lower levels and work their way up to form questions that focus on synthesis instead of simple...
Curated OER
Science in the Court Room
Share their opinions on the use of DNA databases in criminal investigations. After reading an article, they evaluate the pros and cons of the databases and work in groups to answer discussion questions. They write a letter to a state...
Curated OER
Kids These Days!
Young scholars create a scrapbook of college student life during the 1960's using digital archives and Internet research. They read and discuss the article "What's the Matter With College?" and then compare college experience of today...
National First Ladies' Library
Women's Lives in the Victorian Era
The lives of middle-class Victorian women were circumscribed by strict standards that governed all aspects of behavior. To gain a better understanding of the Victorian Ideals for women, class members research the life of a middle-class...
Curated OER
The World of Amelia Bedelia
Get ready to laugh with your class by reading the book Amelia Bedelia's First Day of School. After they read the book and do activities comparing their first day of school with Amelia' they will then have conversations around the story....
Curated OER
Dewey Decimal Game
Engage all the upper elementary classes in your school in a game to learn Dewey Decimal Classification. On 5 or 6 consecutive visits to the library, teams from each class learn how the system works, locate books in each category, and...
Curated OER
"Jack and Jill" Microsoft Word Picture ID Unit
Using Microsoft Word and the blank "Jack and Jill" templates provided, class members find picture files of themselves and create a written photo ID document to be printed and lamented for the classroom. The lesson is divided into 4...
Curated OER
Around Your School - Bonding Students to Staff
Students participate in an interview of a school employee. For this interview lesson, students develop appropriate interview questions and carry out an interview of a school employee to show that all jobs well done is worthy of respect....
Curated OER
Voice of History
Way before the digital age radio was the medium of popular culture. After listening to excerpts from radio programs (easily available on the Internet), participants return to the radio age by creating a two-minute sketch based on a...
Curated OER
Long Vowels
Now here is a great set of activities that will make learning about long vowel sounds a snap. The activities cover two days and include vowel identification, reading, and several great games. Kids will hunt for long vowel words, play...
Curated OER
Independent and Subordinate Clauses
Middle schoolers identify independent and subordinate clauses and differentiate between the two. They discuss sentences, complete a practice worksheet, write independent clauses, and identify independent and subordinate clauses in the...
Curated OER
Screen Play
High schoolers examine the New York Times review of the film adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and explore the elements of scriptwriting. They read the article about the film adaptation screenplay and examine a...
Curated OER
Organizing by Writing
Middle schoolers analyze how to use writing for generating and organizing their thoughts before communicating them. They use the questions on the first handout to organize a three-minute introduction of themselves to their small group....
Curated OER
Lessons from the Holocaust
In an ultimate lesson about listening to opposing points of view, your young historians read testimony from the Nuremberg Trials by Nazi SS officers regarding their actions during the Holocaust and a brief speech by Himmler to SS...
Curated OER
The Personal Narrative - Part Five
Create a class anthology with your young writers. In this personal narrative lesson plan, each writer reflects on actions and events from their own lives and chronicles them in a three-part written sequence. They create a table of...
Curated OER
Making A Story Map
Sixth graders learn to plan a story by using a story map. They analyze a detailed sample story map and answer 5 questions about it. Then, plan their own story using a story map template.
Curated OER
Vocabulary: Make Connections with New Vocabulary
Connecting meaning to a given word via image or sentence can really help learners build their vocabulary and in turn enhance their reading ability. The class constructs a chart where they define each new vocabulary word, come up with an...
Curated OER
That's the Spirit
Is, as Walt Whitman contends, America’s “almost maniacal appetite for wealth,” the heart of the American dream? Class members grapple with this question as they read David Brooks’ article “The Commercial Republic,” and quotes that...
Curated OER
Shakespeare Was A Black Woman
"I all alone beweep my outcast state." After a discussion of the "Shakespeare in American Life" segment in which Maya Angelou's relates her reaction to Sonnet 29, class groups create and perform a scene about an outcast that includes the...
Curated OER
Dandelion Wine: Anticipation Guide
What brings happiness? An anticipation guide for Dandelion Wine asks readers to ponder the concepts in Ray Bradbury’s novel about the joys of summer. The scripted plan includes the guide, additional activities, and assessment options. Do...
Macmillan Education
A Class or Company Newsletter: A Collaborative Writing Lesson
A class newsletter? The possible extensions for this activity are endless. After examining examples of news print-outs from hotels or workplaces, class members develop their own articles and produce a newsletter. A great way to keep...
Curated OER
Meter in Poetry
A good poem has form and structure built into it. Middle schoolers see that the structure of a poem consists of stanza, form, rhyme, and meter. The structure also contributes to a poem's meaning. After listening to, and discussing, a few...
Virginia Department of Education
Counterarguments
Create an urbane battle royal in class with the old Coke vs. Pepsi challenge that develops upper level high school learners skills in developing counterarguments in essay writing. The educator divides the room according to tastes, and...
Virginia Department of Education
The Writing Process for Persuasive Writing
Get your junior high writers stimulated with the strategies and ideas available in this activity. Learners discuss and debate controversial subjects, and outline their reasons with an online graphic organizer (link included) that creates...