University of Arizona
Yoruba Legends: Southern Nigeria
Explore legends and storytelling with your learners. After listening to some legends, pupils work collaboratively and then individually to come up with original legends about animals.
Curated OER
A Heritage Study: Using Information Resources to Research Family History and Traditions
Learners research their family history through ethnographical study. They locate information through a variety of sources, interview people, write a report and present an oral presentation to the class.
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The Roadmap to the Jewish Golden Age of Spain
Learners discover, through analysis of media and of primary source historical documents, how Jews achieved high levels of assimilation and acceptance under Islamic rule during the Golden Age of Spain, from the tenth to the twelfth century.
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A Literature of Democracy
Eleventh graders analyze how American literature shows a lot of different genres. In groups, 11th graders create a short report about the passage they have chosen.
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Voices of Louisiana Worksheet
In this voices of Louisiana worksheet, students choose at least three quotations from the Voices of Louisiana webpage and look for clues about each person's folk groups and the genres they mention; for example, oral tradition, folk...
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Acting Like a Bunch of Animals: Fables and Human
The video "The Tales of Aesop" traces for viewers the history of fables and identifies their characteristics. The class then goes to the web site "The Fisherman and the Little Fish" where they examine the classic and a modern version of...
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Exploring Arthurian Legend
Students investigate the evolution of the King Arthur stories and analyze them as a window into the culture that preserved them. They trace the legends through their earliest versions through medieval and Victorian times and into the...
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November - Poetry
First graders respond to poetry through a group activity. They interact with rhythm and tempo in poetry through an oral presentation. They experiment with choral speaking. They discuss Thanksgiving family traditions.
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Lesson Plan for Granny Will Your Dog Bite and Other Mountain Rhymes
Sixth graders practice choral reading of poetry. In this creative literature lesson, 6th graders incorporate elements of performing arts into their choral readings of various poems. They discuss musical instruments, facial...
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Anglo-Saxon Period: An Introduction
Students read information about Anglo-Saxon rulers and literary techniques, then complete a worksheet to help them review. Students take notes about the oral tradition, Anglo-Saxon literary terms, and Anglo-Saxon poetry. Students create...
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Personal Experience Narratives
Help your middle schoolers identify personal experience narratives in their own lives through telling stories themselves and from family members or other adults. They study personal experience narratives in Swapping Stories and compare...
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Could You Repeat That?
Students participate in an oral story telling activity designed to show how story embellishments occur. They read "Beowulf" and identify incongruities that suggest additions and embellishments over the years.
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Those Fabulous Fables
A video leads off this activity on fables, introducing the class to this important form of traditional storytelling. The group defines fable and hears an explanation of the origin of this type of folk tale. They summarize the story they...
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Discovering Yourself
Students explore Aboriginal storytelling. In this literature lesson, students read Knots on a Counting Rope and then create a story line as they discuss the attributes of Aboriginal culture. Students retell the story in their own words.
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Oral History: Interviewing Elders
Sixth graders examine oral history traditions. They interview family members about their childhoods and compare them to their own. Students use the collected information to make posters, letters, essays, or poems about their research.
Japan Society
Our Family and Other Families: Using Totoro to Teach Family Structure
What do families around the world have in common? Explore this theme through the popular animated film My Neighbor Totoro by Hayao Miyazaki. Over the course of two days, pupils view the film, pausing to discuss their own families and the...
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Three Arts in Retrograde
Middle schoolers make connections between music, the other arts, and other curricular areas. They compare characteristics of two or more arts within a particular historical period or style and cite examples from various cultures.
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Getting to Know You
Third graders explore different types of poetry and illustrate their own experiences through creating their own poem. In this getting to know you lesson, 3rd graders create and recite their poems with a self-portrait.
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Music With a Message
Students write a line by line analysis of a song which they feel expresses a powerful message that can change society for the better. They then present their analysis to the class in an oral report.
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Reporting Live From...
Students examine the many disasters in West Virginia. In this US history lesson, students write about and give an oral presentation of one of the disasters as if they were reporters.
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Understanding Genres
Young scholars identify genres of literature. In this literature instructional activity, students read definitions of the various genres. Young scholars choose books and list clues in the texts that help them identify the appropriate genre.
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Japanese Culture
First graders research information about Japanese people and culture. They read a Japanese story listening for rhyme schemes. They create their own rhyme schemes. They discuss Japanese food and sample rice cakes. They read Haiku and then...
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Norse Mythology
Third graders read several selections of Norse mythology and compare this mythology to others studied in the past. They are introduced to runes. They read poetry and compile a class book of favorite poems. They define idioms and cite...
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Free Speech Comes At a Price
Students use communicative activity strategy, Go, Ask and Tell, or more traditional whole text comprehension activity to read, discuss and explore issues in article, Free Speech Comes at a Price, by Hugh Mackay.