Curated OER
Discovering Angel Island: The Story Behind the Poems
Learners watch a video, view websites, and discuss the Chinese Exclusion Act that took place on Angel Island. For this Chinese exclusion act lesson plan, students discuss the interrogations that went on and fill out worksheets bout the...
Curriculum Corner
7th Grade ELA Common Core Checklists
Track your class's progress on all of the ELA Common Core standards with these handy charts. Along the left side, each seventh grade identifier is listed along with the full text of the standard. As you teach, reteach, assess,...
Louisiana Department of Education
Essential Elements Cards
Use essential elements cards to help lesson plan! Each card contains an informational text common core standard for grade levels six through eight and suggestions for activities and supports. Cards address skills such as citing textual...
Curated OER
Whittling Out Haiku
Inspired by magazine photos, your young writers hone word choices to create a meaningful haiku. Charged with brainstorming 100 words associated with a photo of their choosing, they whittle their list to the top 10%, make three sentences...
US Institute of Peace
Perspectives on Peace
Is peace simply the absence of war, or is there more to the story? Young social scientists define peace in the second installment of a 15-part series. Groups work together to explore cultural concepts of peace and the peacemaking process...
Curated OER
Using Imagery
Show, don't tell! Pairs work together to change a list of telling sentences into showing sentences using picture words that create vivid pictures in the readers’ minds.
Southern Nevada Regional Professional Development Program
Reading Literature - My Last Dutchess
Draw back the curtain, add a spot of joy to your class, and let learners be instructional activityed by a close reading exercise that models how to develop an interpretation based on evidence drawn from a text. Robert Browning’s dramatic...
Curated OER
From the Land, Of the Land: An Interdisciplinary Lesson on Indigenous People
Students research the concept of indigenous people then write a diamante poem about them. They research online and use an online poem tool to create their poem.
Curated OER
On Top of the World
Students listen to excerpts from an autobiography about the first blind man to reach the summit of Mt. Everest. They discuss Erik Weihenmayer's life, and write a bio-poem using a bio-poem formula.
Curated OER
Letters to Home
Seventh graders research historical events and everyday life in Texas in 1836-1837. They write a letter using Mr. Mitchell's perspective.
Curated OER
Poetic Analysis
Students write a poetic analysis on a poem by Carl Sandburg. They take their previous knowledge of poetic devices and apply them to a piece of writing that displays their knowledge on a specific poem. They explain what they know about a...
Curated OER
The Coffee House
Students study and write poetry. In this poetry project, students read, analyze, and produce poetry. Students examine and analyze fifteen poems and at the culmination of the unit, perform one of their poems for an audience.
Curated OER
Stanza Proud
Students examine different decades in American history, finding connections between the historical events and the poetry written during these time periods. They write their own poetry based on current world events.
Curated OER
Our City, Our Words
Students write poetry that captures their feelings about their city or town. After presenting their poetry at a class reading students compare their poetry to the work of published poets who have written about the same city.
Curated OER
The Power of Dialect
Students explore the power of dialect in poetry. In this poetry lesson, students listen to a reading of "In-a Brixtan Markit" while viewing the poem. Students rewrite the poem in English or using another dialect; or write...
Curated OER
Dali & Desnos
High schoolers explore surreal art and poetry. In this visual arts lesson, students examine works by André Breton, Robert Desnos, Salvador Dalí, and Joan Miro. High schoolers then apply the techniques in the works they analyze to their...
Curated OER
A Rose Is a Rose
Flowering learners explore the concept of figurative language as it relates to poems, songs, or creative written expression. In this creative writing lesson, they complete several phrases using similes, metaphors, and...
Curated OER
Words of Deep Meaning
Students create their own poems to express a deep feeling or transformative experience, then write imaginary letters to people in the article, responding to their poetry and sharing their own creative process.
Curated OER
I'm A Poet and Now I Know It
Eighth graders gather ideas generated from other poems and their own inspiration, to create original poetry. A celebration is included as students bind and submit poems for publication.
Curated OER
The Element of Color
Eighth graders study and analyze the elements of color by creating an personalized color wheel. Emphasis is placed on constructive criticism of student work by others for assessment. Students create short poems for their color wheel...
Curated OER
The Last Meow
Students explore the popular culture phenomenon of the musical 'Cats' and the T.S. Eliot poems that were its inspiration. They write original poems about animals, and read them aloud to their peers.
Alabama Learning Exchange
Our Solar System
Second graders research the Solar System using the Internet to complete questions. They sing The Planet Song and study the names of the planets using an acrostic poem. They write descriptive paragraphs with a partner with whom they check...
Curated OER
The Law and Human Rights
Students read and discuss the poem, Like You. They simulate a space colony and list what they consider to be the three most important human rights. They compare their space colony rights to those of the Universal Declaration of Human...
Curated OER
"The Women Who Went to the Field"
Students study the selfless contributions of women nurses during the Civil War through poetry. They read Clara Barton's poetic tribute to the brave women nurses of the Civil War, answer questions, and practice a chorale reading.