Curated OER
Showdown on the Frontier
Especially critical following a series of shootings in schools, theaters, and religious buildings, it's safe to say that we need to evaluate the current laws on gun control. Eighth graders read a New York Times article in order to better...
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Weighing the War
Study opposing viewpoints with this lesson, which examines President Bush's September 2004 address at the United Nations. Middle schoolers study the text of the address, and then stage formal debates arguing for or against the reasons to...
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"Name Those Vowels"
Help your class recognize the capital and lower-case forms of the five vowels. They will learn how to make capital and lower-case forms of the vowels and all the rules surrounding vowels. Fun songs and activities are included. Links to...
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A City Council Meeting
Here is an interesting plan for introducing your pupils to the workings of the local city council. The teacher must go videotape a city council meeting in it's entirety. Learners watch the tape, and discuss what they observed from the...
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Slimy Advertising and a Wicked Resume
Young scholars compare and contrast a classic fairy tale with a fractured one. They write an advertisement that would entice a witch and a resume for a frog prince who is hiring. They publish their completed work.
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Student Newspaper Project
Writing teaches us so much. One can identify the many characteristics of a newspaper, use the Internet to gather information, and communicate with others. Primary students create a class newspaper for publishing and dispersal.
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Getting Started: Pre-Writing Techniques
Pre-writing activities are covered to help your students examine topics and personal experiences. Your class will discover how to choose topics which create a strong piece of writing and incorporate personal knowledge.
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On the Cutting Edge
Introduce the background of design and designers and their role in communicating their thoughts to others. In groups, you can assign participation in a writing cluster on various designers and write paragraphs to submit to magazines. To...
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New Gun Control Politics: A Whimper, Not a Bang
Using an article from The New York Times, students answer discussion questions about gun control. They are divided into four groups to research different standpoints on gun control, including the Executive Office, Congress, Gun...
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Cite Your Sites!
The New York Times article “Lessons in Internet Plagiarism,” launches a look at how the Internet has increased the prevalence of plagiarism. The richly detailed lesson includes warm-up and wrap-up activities, discussion questions,...
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Are Gay Rights "Special"?
Inspire critical thinking with this activity, which prompts students to compare lesbian, gat, bisexual, and transgender rights with the rights guaranteed by the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. By collecting topical articles about...
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Radio Program
Students identify and assess the impact of unions on workers, management, and community. They listen to radio stories, students are asked what can they conclude about the impact of unions on the lives of the workers, management, and...
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Come Fly with Me . . . Open a Book: Travels through Literature
This detailed overview of a curriculum unit suggests using travel literature to engage and stimulate your third graders’ interest in reading. The suggested reading list includes fiction and non-fiction materials and offers urban children...
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Great Expectations: Group Writing
Examine the differences between totalitarianism and democracy in this writing lesson. Using the same format and theme from Great Expectations, young writers work in pairs to compose their own short stories. They follow guidelines for the...
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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...
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The Economics of Information
Create an expert guide to local businesses in this instructional activity. Through research, young readers consider their local businesses and the services they provide, paying attention to any conflicting information they might find....
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The Laundry News
In this reading worksheet, students answer 10 multiple-choice questions about the book. For example, "What happened to the very first edition of the Laundry News?"
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Olympic Report Planner
Use this worksheet to research a future or past olympian. There's a space for researchers to brainstorm things they'd like to know, a space for them to record notes, and a KWL chart. There's also an open space to write a cumulative...
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Skill Building: Alphabet Poem
Amateur poets explore alphabetical poetry. They choose a topic and brainstorm vocabulary that relates to the topic using each letter of the alphabet. The class then generates ideas for a group alphabet poem. After creating one as a whole...
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The Final Analysis: Cause and Effect, Fact and Opinion
Middle schoolers read and review informational texts, analyze cause and effect, and distinguish fact from opinion. They assess a "one-minute mystery" you read aloud for cause and effect relationships. Resource includes complete set of...
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An Era of Innovation
Research milestones from the past century. Transportation milestones have changed society, the economy, communication, and travel. Pupils research these changes in order to create a transportation exhibit showing the enhancements in...
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Conventions - Punctuation Research
Study unusual punctuation marks in this punctuation instructional activity. Young grammarians work in small groups to research one of the unusual punctuation marks (semi-colon, colon, dash, comma, ellipses, or quotation marks) and...
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March 2, 1877: Hayes Declared Winner in Disputed Presidential Election
After reading an interesting article comparing the disputed presidential election of 1877 to a similar event in the year 2000, kids blog a response. They read the article, check out the embedded links, then respond to four related...
K12 Reader
Narrative or Expository?
Narrative or expository? That is the question readers face on a two-part comprehension learning exercise that asks kids to read a short passage about these two different types of writing, and then to answer a series of comprehension...