Curated OER
Writing a Personal Narrative
What is the difference between a news story and a personal narrative? This plan has learners write a personal narrative using the topic of service projects in their community. Consider completing a cross-curricular extension by bringing...
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TEXT MESSAGING
Students examine the differences between standard and non-standard English and use text-speak to rewrite a plot summary and a news story. They identify a type of non-standard English and determine the characteristics that make it...
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Zero Tolerance and Toy Guns
Seventh graders write a short reaction to the "Zero Tolerance" policy in regards to students and play guns. They read several news articles about the problems associated with the zero tolerance and students with play guns. They write a...
The New York Times
Decision Point: Understanding the U.S.’s Dilemma Over North Korea
Simulate the Situation Room and analyze the US's relationship with North Korea. The plan starts off with a quick review and an examination of a online timeline that updates as the situation continues. Next, the class reads an article and...
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The Long and Short of It
Learners take a look back at the week's news by exploring the news summaries article offered in The New York Times' Week in Review section each week. They look further into ongoing news stories of interest to them in order to create...
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Writing a Personal Narrative
Students learn characteristics of an effective personal narrative. In this personal narrative lesson, students discover ways to show rather than tell, adding richness and detail to their writing. Students evaluate a news article for...
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Two Sources of Story Ideas for Our Paper
Students research and identify story ideas for the school newspaper. In this story ideas lesson, students pitch story ideas to their teacher on a weekly basis using a specific format. Students find the majority of their ideas from print...
Energy for Keeps
The Energy Times
Extra! Extra! Read all about past and present energy use in a classroom-made historical newspaper. Useful as a cross-curricular assignment between science, history, and language arts, the project is sure to get young journalists...
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The Environment In The News
Students explore environmental issues. Using a newspaper, students scan headlines for articles related to environmental or sustainability issues. From the article title, students predict the article's intent and then read the article for...
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Summary, Note Taking, Main Idea and Details
High schoolers take notes from oral readings and lectures to create a summary of the material. They use different sizes of post-it notes to complete the activity. They practice pulling the main ideas out of the given material.
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Arkansas' Top Ten Events of the Century....Says Who? Why? Deciding What is Important in History
Middle and high schoolers work in small groups to compare four different lists published in the Arkansas Times newspaper which chose the "top ten" Arkansas news events of the 20th century. Learners look for similarities and differences...
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A Newspaper?
Sixth graders use newspapers to investigate fractions. They work in small groups to categorize articles, measure them with the grid transparency, and calculate the values represented. Afterward, they write a reflective essay on the role...
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Current Events Research
Students use one newspaper article and the internet to research their current event. Using the information, they write a summary and create a PowerPoint presention. To end the lesson, they share their research with the class and discuss.
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Warriors Don't Cry
Students write a journal depicting a day in the life of a character and a newspaper article. In this Warriors Don't Cry lesson, students summarize the main events of integration and find out about the life of Melba Beals. Students...
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Reading Clues
Critically Evaluating Alarming News students use a guided reading strategy to explore news articles about the Washington-area sniper attacks, and conduct a roundtable discussion to investigate public reaction to the case. October 17, 200
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.
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Listening for Leschi: Voices from the Past
Students interview a family other than their own to learn about oral history. In this oral history lesson plan, students also create a newspaper article about Leschi and pretend they interviewed him back in the past.
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Mixing Metaphors with Politics
Students discuss different literary devices and use them to write summaries of New York Times articles dealing with international news. They reflect on the effectiveness and appropriateness of sports metaphors in the political arena.
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Lake Log: Diary of the Basin
Learners log news articles about the changes in the Lake Pontchartrain Basin. In this wetlands and news lesson, students track articles about the wetlands area around Lake Pontchartrain, write brief summaries, include pictures, and put...
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The First Humans: Prehistory-3500 B.C. "Lucy"
Students explore prehistoric times by completing web activities in class. For this human ancestry lesson, students identify the archaeological discovery of the "Lucy" skeleton and what it meant for science. Students investigate the...
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Greetings from Maya Angelou
Students investigate the life and works of Maya Angelou. They complete a Webquest, read poems, listen to a reading by Maya Angelou, answer discussion questions, and write a poem, short story, or essay based on a newspaper article.
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Samuel's Choice - Social Studies Using Children's Literature
Fifth graders read a book about independence, freedom, and slavery. Students create a story map of the book. They research the causes of the Civil War. Students write a newspaper article from the point of view of an American colonist.
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News real?
Students distinguish and evaluate information from various sources and determine whether the information found is fiction or facts. They also view television shows, radio stations and newspaper articles Internet sites are also visited by...
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Introduction to Canada
Ninth graders investigate the country of Canada by examining their media in this geography lesson. They use the Internet to research Canadian newspapers and analyze a topic covered by both US and Canadian media sources. After comparing...