Curated OER
Writing Portfolio: An Autobiography Assignment
An extensive portfolio project encourages your kids to reflect on their personalities with multiple writing assignments. From activities on extended metaphors to writing about an important day in their lives, kids explore the way they...
Florida Center for Reading Research
Phonics: Encoding and Decoding, Three-In-One
Scholars use the provided pack of alphabet cards to construct basic CVC words, then write down each word they make in one of two columns. Column one is for real words and column two is for nonsense words.
Florida Center for Reading Research
Phonics: Variant Correspondences, Say and Write Letters
Scholars sound out and write twelve different words. Using Elkonin boxes, pupils say the name of each picture, then write the letters that make each sound.
Valhalla Free Union School District
End of the Year Writing Portfolio Project
Ask class members to reflect on their year-long writing experience by creating a portfolio of their work. Here's a resource that details what should be included in such a portfolio, and provides a rubric that can be used to assess...
Florida Center for Reading Research
Phonics: Onset and Rime, Word Swat
With a fly swatter in hand, learners swat the rime-flys with their onset swatter to make, read, and write words by blending the onset with the rime-fly. Scholars blend words, make and write words, and also work to determine if the words...
PBS
Writing a Historical Poem
Students conduct field research of a historical site in order to discover a more complete understanding of a time period. They choose one particular historical figure and write a short poem about the site from the historical person's...
Ball State University
Dear Pen Pal
Keep your class in conversation with others across the country or across the sea by writing letters to pen pals. The activity calls for students to be pan pals with pupils in Africa; however, the listed steps could be used for any...
Florida Center for Reading Research
Vocabulary: Morphemic Elements, Make It Meaningful
Scholars learn to find meaning in words using affixes with a language arts activity. In pairs, children sort cards with printed sentences that include words with the prefixes mis- and pre- and the suffixes -er, -ness, and -able. Then,...
Florida Center for Reading Research
Vocabulary: Morphemic Elements, Build-A-Word
An affix plus a base word equals what? A new word! Invite your class members to discover words using affixes and base words. Learners then write sentences using the real words that they put together.
Florida Center for Reading Research
Comprehension: Monitoring for Understanding, What Do You Know?
An activity promotes reading comprehension. Readers analyze a text of their choice while activating prior knowledge and asking and answering questions. Scholars enforce multiple strategies to improve comprehension.
Florida Center for Reading Research
Comprehension: Text Analysis, Persuade, Inform, and Entertain Sort
Why do authors write? Practice determining the author's purpose with a categorizing activity. Learners sort twelve short passages into three categories: persuade, inform, and entertain.
US National Archives
We the People Focusing on Details: Compare and Contrast
Even the most inspiring documents in American history had to go through a few drafts before they were ready for publication. Reinforce the importance of the writing process, as well as the collaborative nature of democracy, with an...
Florida Center for Reading Research
Phonics: Onset and Rime, Word-Roll-A-Rama
Learners roll two die; die one contains various onsets, and die two contains different rimes. They write down the onset and rime pair they get, then blend and read their word.
Florida Center for Reading Research
Phonics: Encoding and Decoding, Letter Cube Blending
Emergent readers use a letter cube to identify, blend, and make words. They roll each of the three-letter cubes, mark down the letters they rolled, then blend the letter sounds together to make a word. They record each word on a...
Florida Center for Reading Research
Phonics: Varient Correspondances, Silent "e" Changes
Engage early readers in a silent e activity to help them understand the changes the letter can make to a simple word. With the provided cards, learners read and write each word as it appears without the silent e. Then they read and write...
Florida Center for Reading Research
Phonics: Encoding and Decoding, Vowel Stars
Learners are given a star; each star contains a c_c form in the center and vowels on each point. They use the vowels to fill in the blank between the consonants making a simple CVC word. They write each word they make on a piece of...
Florida Center for Reading Research
Phonics: Encoding and Decoding, Digraph Delight
There are three spinners to use in this phonic activity. Spinner one contains digraphs, spinner two contains vowels, and spinner three contains consonants. Learners spin each spinner, write down the letters they get, blend them to make a...
Florida Center for Reading Research
Phonics: High Frequency Words, Sand Paper Words
Learners use a stack of words embellished with tactile elements, such as sandpaper, to practice high-frequency words. Pupils trace the tactile surface of each letter in the word, write it on their paper, then find and glue that word from...
Florida Center for Reading Research
Phonics: Syllable Patterns, Picture It In Syllables
Scholars practice blending syllables by playing a matching game. Pairs flip two cards and blend syllables; if they create a word, the player writes it on a worksheet; if not, the cards return to the collection.
Teach Engineering
Considering Trade-Offs and Maximizing Efficiency in a Fast Food Restaurant
Make fast food restaurants even faster. Groups consider trade-offs when maximizing efficiency in fast food restaurants. Restructuring schedules and floor plans, as well reassigning job duties, all fall under this directive.
PBS
Predicting/Making a Hypothesis
As an introduction to the hypothesis and testing method of investigation, young history detectives engage in a special investigation of a family artifact. After watching a short video that demonstrates the method, they develop a...
Florida Center for Reading Research
Advanced Phonics: Morpheme Structures, Compound Construction
A phonics lesson focuses on morpheme structures—compound words. Pairs choose letter cards, identify a compound word that starts with that letter and write it on a whiteboard. Extension opportunities include additional practice pages.
Thoughtful Learning
Setting and Reaching Goals
An activity boosts self-management through goal setting and reflection. Scholars choose one goal they wish to obtain by the end of the week. Participants brainstorm ways to make their goal a reality then reflect on whether or not their...
Teaching Tolerance
Journalism for Justice
Roll the presses! Or at least have your class members participate in the time-honored tradition of the student press by creating their own newspapers or journalist pieces on a social problem. After conducting research and collaborating...