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Pizza for Everyone
Pizza is the inspiration for the cross-curricular lesson detailed here. Start out with a poem about pizza and move into a discussion about balanced eating. To close the language arts portion of the lesson, ask your pupils to write...
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The History of the Holocaust From A Personal Perspective
Students research and identify how Holocaust events affected lives of real people who lived in Europe from 1933 through 1945 and after, and create original artwork, poetry, and essays that reflect understanding of Holocaust, and its...
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WHO WE ARE
Students work with Elders or a knowledgeable adult/expert to learn details of their culture which may include the language, dance, songs, art, and stories and create a play or poem which reflects aspects of their culture.
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Calling Names
Students explore how language shapes debate by researching the names and tags both advocates and opponents use when discussing a topical issue. For homework, they create name collages and write prose poems.
National Endowment for the Humanities
A Raisin in the Sun: Whose "American Dream"?
How does Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun factor into a discussion of the American dream? High schoolers define the American dream and recognize the historical setting of the play. Additionally, they identify...
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Landforms
Students study how landforms affect all aspects of a community. Students work in groups to identify landforms from other works of art. In cooperative groups Students select a work of art depicting a particular land form and create a poem.
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Vivid Adjectives
Students review adjectives and play a game where students compete to see who can write the most adjectives for a given noun. They write a story about one topic and try to use a variety of adjectives in sequence tto describe a noun.
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The Gift That Keeps on Giving
Students reflect on the role of DNA in society since its discovery in 1953 by creating works of art and poetry that metaphorically illustrate the importance, influence and concerns of DNA research.
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Prize-Winning Prose
Learners develop criteria for 'Kids' Pulitzers,' awards in categories of writing determined by Students. Each student then bestow a 'Kids' Pulitzer' upon a piece of writing which they deem to be distinguished based on the established...
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A Nation in Mourning
Students reflect on what the deaths of John F. Kennedy Jr., Carolyn Bessette Kennedy and Lauren Bessette mean to them. They then work to compose and read aloud found poems from The Times' coverage of the burial and memorial services.
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The Musher's Trail
Second graders follow the Iditarod race that begins in March. They research data and select a musher to trail in the race. Then they write daily in a journal about events that happen on the trail, including pictures from the Website.
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Gratitude Journals
Students brainstorm ideas of thankfulness or being grateful for things and use these ideas to create a personal gratitude journal. They build a book using copy paper, twigs and rubber bands then explore different techniques to create a...
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Ice -T's Rap School
Students research the history of rap and gain an understanding of the components of rap music. They experience the correlation between Shakespeare's poetry and rap music of today.
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Introducing...Me
Tenth graders create a tri-fold brochure that includes past assignments from their writing portfolio. They examine these assignments of career choices, learning styles, dreams, and goals. In addition, they construct and then publish a...
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Bioethics: Where the Future May Take Us
Students investigate bioethical issues. In this bioethical issues instructional activity, students research gene cloning, imaging technologies, transplantation, and other bioethical issues. Students share their finding with their...
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Adopt a Tree
First graders describe the characteristics of a tree. In this science lesson, 1st graders create predictions about a book they will be listening to, Have you Seen Trees. Additionally, students describe their trees using their 5 senses....
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Language Arts: Learning About the Self
Tenth graders explore the self through a study of autobiographies. By writing daily in their journals, they improve their writing skills and write reflection pieces at the end of the year. Through a series of writing assignments, 10th...
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Safari Sentence Scramble
Students use real life experiences for writing. In this identifying details lesson plan, students use information such as colors, numbers, sizes, shapes and locations to write sentences about the zoo. Students position the words...
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Unit Plan for Mark Twain and American Humor
Students create brochures about the humor of Mark Twain. For this literature-analysis lesson plan, students read "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" and other short stories by Twain. Students write analytical paragraphs and...
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Harriet Tubman Integrated Unit
Students organize facts about Harriet Tubman. For this writing lesson, students research Harriet Tubman, sort facts about her into two categories, and use the information they have found to write about her life in complete paragraphs.
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Celebrate A People!
Young scholars explore African-American students literature as an integral building block in empowering all young scholars to a better awareness when reading and writing. They use as a productive Social Studies tool for overall...
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Can Peace Prevail?
Students examine terrorist attacks in Amman, Jordan, and consider how events like these affect the global war against terrorism. They write reflective pieces exploring their own opinions about terrorism and the state of current affairs...
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Rock & Roll through Literary Terms: An Upbeat Lyrical Adventure
Young scholars participate in a variety of activities surrounding Rock & Roll music, lyrics, drama and visual art and how they all help demonstrate examples of literary terms. They use Rock & Roll as an effective aid to stimulate...
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Read On
Students consider the question "Why do we read?" through creating and sharing individual timelines of their own histories as readers. They then choose a book on which to write a personal essay.