Rockefeller Archive Center
Understanding Mass Media News
In an age of fake news and photoshopped images, it is vital that 21st century learners development the skills they need to evaluate mass media and assess its validity. A great way to launch such a study is with a carefully crafted lesson...
Media Smarts
Broadcasting Codes
Let your learners be the judges for a series of case studies that focus on broadcast codes in Canada. In order to familiarize your class with the codes and guidelines that govern the broadcasting industry, in particular Canada's...
Curated OER
Art of Illustration: N.C. Wyeth and Literacy
High school artists observe and research the illustrations and techniques of N.C. Wyeth. They read (and reread) stories and illustrate the texts using methods inspired by Wyeth's practice. Includes detailed instructional plan and useful...
Curated OER
Ocean Animals - A Kindergarten Research Project
Something’s fishy! Assign each of your pupils an individual sea creature and investigate the oceans. Young oceanographers utilize Kidspiration software to research a creature, illustrate an image, and create fact cards about their...
Apple
A Curriculum for Digital Media Creation
Consumer technology has made it possible for filmmakers to create entire movies from the comfort of their home computer. Guide high school film buffs through the process of designing a documentary with an extensive unit published by...
Curated OER
Marching to the Beat of a Different Drum
Henry David Thoreau and Linda Ronstadt? Ann Tyler and Pete Townshend? Joyce Carol Oates and Pearl Jam? This richly detailed plan pairs classic literature with contemporary music and asks learners to analyze how the theme of conformity is...
Curated OER
The War of the Words
“Who’s This Guy Dylan Who’s Borrowing Lines From Henry Timrod?” The basic question in this lesson from the New York Time’s Learning Network is whether artists and authors who use the words of others are stealing from that artist or...
Curated OER
1900 America: Primary Sources and Epic Poetry
Using Walt Whitman's Song of Myself and Hart Crane's The Bridge as models, class groups first craft their own epic poems for 1900 and, using primary sources, create a multi-media presentation that captures the sights and...
Curated OER
Mixed Media Landscape Design
Seventh graders create mixed media representations of landscape designs in Africa and Asia. The lesson is great for cross-curricular projects with the Social Sciences and/or Literature, or can be used as a self-contained project. ...
National Center for Families Learning
The Summer Fun Summer Learning Drama and Plays Unit
The play's the thing that puts the play in a summer learning drama program designed to combat summer slide and encourage family literacy. Participants learn about drama as an art form, engage in dramatic presentations, write scripts, and...
Curated OER
Artist Online Report Form
Get those middle schoolers ready for writing excellent reports. This outline provides instructions and organized space to help learners gather information in a thoughtful and useful way. They research the life and works of an artist....
Concordia University Chicago
Winter Landscape with Skaters by Hendrick Avercamp
In need of a quick set of ideas to use on a wintery day? Why not analyze Winter Landscape with Skaters with your class? After a thorough discussion, learners compare and contrast two paintings, research what curators do, draw landscapes,...
Media Smarts
Cinema Cops
A study of how public perception is both reflected and influenced by film and television, this instructional activity helps students develop an awareness of audience as well as a critical view of media. Depictions of police in television...
Curated OER
Podcasting
Students explore play writing. In this literacy and technology lesson, students choose a familiar historical event and write a play with the corresponding setting. Students write text and dialogue, produce sound recordings,...
Curated OER
Media Awareness: Key Concepts in Advertising
Students examine the basic concepts of advertising. In this media awareness activity, students discuss target audience, art, and purpose in advertising to determine what makes an advertisement effective or ineffective. ...
Curated OER
Lesson: Unmonumental: Yesterday's News
Upper graders are tasked with developing a social consciousness as they analyze the impact of the news media. They view a presentation depicting various media events in order to understand threshold moments in history. There are three...
National Center for Families Learning
The Summer Fun Summer Learning Dance Unit
Summer slide. Alas, not a term synonymous with a type of sliding board, summer slide refers to the fact that learning slips during summer break, especially in the areas of spelling and math facts. Enrich summer break with a...
Curated OER
Expressive Self Portrait - Mixed Media
Students create self-portraits using prior artistic knowledge and personal experiences. Emphasis is placed on the works of Albrecht Durer, Vincent Van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, Frida Kahlo, Romare Bearden, and Chuck Close for inspiration.
Curated OER
CNN Interactive: Reading, Discussing and Writing
Students access the internet for current news articles; increase awareness of issues in world news; to read critically; and to write critical reactions.
Curated OER
Endangered!
Students research endangered species. In this ecology and literacy research lesson, students work with a partner to research an endangered species of their choice. Students choose from a variety of presentation methods and...
Curated OER
The Tell-Tale Hearts of Writers
Knock, knock, knock...Creep out your class with a critical thinking lesson plan focused on word relationships in Edgar Allen Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart." They investigate the relationship between word choice, mood, and...
Curated OER
Olympic Shadow Boxes
What a cool way to incorporate art and use reference materials. Learners use classroom reference materials such as almanacs, encyclopedias, and dictionaries to answer one of four questions, and then they use the information to create a...
Curated OER
African Country Study and PowerPoint Presentation
Students investigate the geography of Africa. In this African culture lesson, students research the lifestyles of African residents and create a PowerPoint presentation based on a single African country. Students share their...
Curated OER
Free Form Sculpture
Tenth graders explore abstract and non-representational art forms through research and artistic expression. They research a free form artist, their work, and abstract sculpture. They then work with pantyhose, chicken wire, plaster, and...