Curated OER
Let's Write a Collaborative Novel!
Find out what it would be like for your class to write and publish a complete novel.
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
Implications of Google Books, a Virtual Library
In this implications of Google books, a virtual library worksheet, students use the Internet to research the virtual library, online collaboration, and social networking. This page has several links to web resources.
Curated OER
Library Media: Poetry
Fifth graders explore different kinds of poetry. They work in groups to collect different styles of poetry. Then they use charts to organize the attributes of various poems. Conclude the lesson by having each individual choose the style...
Curated OER
Strip-Teasers: A Collaborative Writing activity
Young writers engage in a fun writing activity. They write three different sentences on three strips of paper. Then they get into groups of three, and take a look at all nine sentences that have been written. Their task is to write a...
Curated OER
Things Fall Apart: Research, Writing & Presentation Project
A great resource for your unit on Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart. Small groups conduct research about related topics (list included), write papers, present PowerPoint slide shows, and take a student-created test. Fill in a few gaps to...
Curated OER
After Reading: "Plot the Plot" Activity in the Library Media Class
"Plot the plot" of "The Adventures of the Speckled Band" with your young readers. Take a few days to read Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's short story as a class or in pairs, having learners write down what they consider to be the most important...
Teaching Tolerance
In Our Own Words: A Story Book with a Purpose
Academics turn into storytellers in an engaging activity on activism. The activity focuses on promoting social change in local communities with stories. Young historians plan a storybook to target a specific audience and social issue and...
Curated OER
Using Informational Books: Index, Table of Contents & Alphabetical Order
Students recall and use previous knowledge of the library's reference and nonfiction sections. Also they utilize various forms of reference (encyclopedias & dictionaries) and nonfiction books.
Curated OER
Picture This!
Students explore and generate story elements for wordless picture books. In this collaborative writing lesson, students review wordless picture books and write a story based on the illustrations. Students use post-it notes to organize...
Virginia Department of Education
Researching Information
Give your junior high researchers a clear concept of how to go about starting their research paper with the resources available in this exercise. Students develop an idea to research, and spend time in the library or computer lab...
Curated OER
Sorting
Students experience sorting. In this organization lesson, students play a computer sorting game called "Flood Game" on the "Between the Lions" website. Students visit a library and observe and discuss book organization. Students work in...
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Silly Spoonerisms!
Looking for a fun activity for your vocabulary lesson? Bring a activity on "spoonerisms" to your fifth grade class. Kids decipher seven phrases that have mixed up the first letter sounds of each word. They then think of their own...
Middle Tennessee State University
The Declaration of Independence: Its Legacy and Ideas in Today’s World
How is it possible that such an old document still triggers modern discussions? Teach scholars why the Declaration of Independence is still so important today using an informative resource. They watch various educational videos, work in...
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King Bidgood's in the Bathtub
students add their own scenarios to the book using the same rhythmic pattern. Students describe what is happening in the picture as a class shared writing activity. Students discuss reasons why the people in the kingdom were upset that...
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What's The Story?
Teams of learners integrate reading, writing, math, social studies, and science in this simple, yet effective lesson. They work in groups in order to solve a ten-step problem which requires internet research, the use of a calculator, and...
Curated OER
Hamlet Research Paper: Find, Evaluate, and Select Appropriate Research Sources
Help young researchers find credible sources online. Modeling with a Google search for information about Shakespeare’s Macbeth, use a computer projector or Smart Board to show class members how weak the top three search results are....
EngageNY
TASC Transition Curriculum: Workshop 9
Here's a workshop for teachers that rocks the academic world! Using earthquakes as a medium for instruction, educators learn about crosscutting engineering with science. Fun, hands-on, collaborative exercises encourage participants to...
EngageNY
TASC Transition Curriculum: Workshop 12
How can opinions slant facts? Workshop participants learn how to examine primary and secondary sources and identify the author's point of view. They also examine how visual art impacts the meaning and rhetoric of sources. Full of...
Curated OER
How to Locate and Evaluate Information, Part I - Online Catalog
Using the online catalog, researchers locate and record on a citation template specific sources for their research paper. A library specialist models searching strategies while the teacher introduces the research paper process. Daily...
Curated OER
Ban That Book!
Take advantage of Banned Book Week to pique high schoolers' interest and get them reading! Create a classroom display of previously banned books and allow each member of your class to choose one to read. After they have read their book,...
Curated OER
The News Behind the Story
What a fun way to analyze plot, setting, and character. Learners review story elements, read a short fictional story, then turn the events of that story into a headlining news paper article. Not only does this lesson engage critical...
Curated OER
Social Studies Wonders: An Exploration
Help middle schoolers conduct Internet research and develop a working definition for the discipline of social studies. From a list of websites, they develop classification skills and differentiate between primary and secondary sources....
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U.S. Geography: The South
Young geographers complete a research project. They list the physical features found in the American South. They then discuss the economy, culture, and geography found in the South. They work in groups to research one of the five...