National History Day
“Saving the Bear”: The Russian Expeditionary Force of World War One
How have Russian politics affected countries on a global stage? The discussion of the Russian Revolution and World War I begins with an analysis of primary resource letters. Learners finish with a project where they create a timeline of...
University of Wisconsin
Teaching Things Fall Apart in Wisconsin: A Resource Guide for Educators
“There is no story that is not true, . . .” And uncovering the truths in Things Fall Apart is the focus of a 68-page resource packet designed to provide instructors with a wealth of materials that enhance understanding of Chinua Achebe’s...
University of Georgia
Energy Content of Foods
Why do athletes load up on carbohydrates the evening before a competition? The lesson helps answer this question as it relates the type of food to the amount of energy it contains. After a discussion, scholars perform an experiment...
Curated OER
Living The Life of a Scribe
Students write a descriptive letter about life in ancient Mesopotamia. Through video streaming, students discover the history of Mesopotamia. They assume the role of a scribe and compose a three paragraph essay using main ideas and...
Curated OER
Changing Seasons
Explore expository writing and using precise language in this descriptive paragraph writing lesson. Learners brainstorm prior knowledge about the changing seasons in Ohio. They describe seasonal items, view seasonal pictures from...
Curated OER
Paragraph Structure
Make sure your writers have the buns and the meat in their paragraph burgers with paragraph exercises. The resource gradually leads up to individuals writing their own paragraphs, starting with identification exercises, moving on to...
Channel Islands Film
The Legendary King
After viewing two documentaries about the history of the Channel islands, individuals craft an essay in which they compare the lives of Juana Maria, the Lone Woman San Nicolar Island, to Lester Holt and his family featured in the...
California Education Partners
Follow the Water by Arthur Dorros
Assess scholars' reading and writing capabilities with an exam that challenges learners to respond to an informative text. Through note-taking and peer discussion, pupils analyze a passage from the story, Follow the Water from Brook to...
Santa Barbara City College
Structure of a General Expository Essay
A great student reference tool and graphic organizer in one worksheet! Young writers can read a detailed description of each section of a standard five-paragraph essay before completing a graphic organized with their own writing. The...
California Education Partners
Vincent Van Gogh
Living in someone's shadow would be difficult for anyone, including one of the most talented artists of the modern age. Middle schoolers read an excerpt from Vincent Van Gogh: Portrait of an Artist by Jan Greenberg and Sandra Jordan...
Channel Islands Film
Magic Isle: Lesson Plan 4
After watching West of the West's documentary on Catalina Island, The Magic Isle, class members research how Walt Disney's and William Wrigley's different visions impacted the island.
California Education Partners
Eleven
It is difficult to articulate how growing up feels as accurately and beautifully as Sandra Cisneros does in her short story "Eleven." After seventh graders read the story and note the author's use of figurative language, they respond to...
Curated OER
Regions of the United States
Your learners practice writing ideas on paper and logically presenting them in an organized manner. They brainstorm ways to write down ideas while creating a travelogue about a particular U.S. geographic region. When they present...
Science Matters
Post-Assessment
Twenty questions make up an assessment designed to test super scientists' knowledge of ecosystems. Scholars answer multiple-choice and short-answer questions about organisms, food chains, energy flow, and more.
ReadWriteThink
Captioning the Civil Rights Movement: Reading the Images, Writing the Words
Scholars boost their knowledge of the Civil Rights Movement with a instructional activity that challenges writers, readers, and historians to analyze primary sources and caption their observations. By way of reading, writing, discussion,...
Literacy Design Collaborative
In Pursuit of Happiness
What ideas and philosophies guided the Transcendentalist movement in America? Scholars explore the topic, reading texts by Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. Additionally, they write essays comparing the authors' structural...
Pearson
Practice Test English Language Arts: Grade 8
As teachers, it is our job to encourage learners to stand up for what they believe in and help them learn lessons from life's events. A set of practice questions designed for the ELA MCAS assessment features passages that teach positive...
EngageNY
Connecting the Universal Refugee Experience of Fleeing and Finding Home to the Title of the Novel Inside Out & Back Again
What does it mean to turn inside out? Using the resource, scholars begin planning their end-of-unit assessment essays. They complete two graphic organizers to form claims about how refugees turn "inside out" and "back again."
EngageNY
End of Unit 2 Assessment, Part 1a: Writing Body Paragraphs
It is not what you say but how you say it. Class members prepare for writing their A Long Walk to Water essays by analyzing row four in the writing rubric. Learners discuss the words used and talk about the importance of correct grammar...
Curated OER
Home in the Desert: Lesson for Use with This House is Made of Mud
Third graders examine how a family modifies their environment to create a home out of mud. They read the book "This House is Made of Mud" by Ken Buchanan, and write a description of their own home that compares the home of mud to their...
University of North Carolina
Verb Tenses
Twelve categories of verbs exist in the future tense, ranging from simple present to future perfect progressive, but only three have a place in academic writing. Those three tenses make up the content of an informational handout that...
Flipped Math
Transformations of Functions, Pt. 1
It is transformational! With the beginning lesson on transformations, pupils learn about vertical and horizontal translations. Scholars see how to graph important points to show the translations and then to write the transformed graph in...
EngageNY
Analyzing the Model Essay: Studying Argument (Chapter 27 Plus Synthesis of Scenes in Previous Chapters)
Scholars partner up to review a model essay and talk through the process leading up to writing their essays. During a second reading of the essay, learners locate and underline the claim given, reasons, and counterclaim. They then...
EngageNY
Mid-Unit Assessment: Drafting the Position Paper
Halftime! Scholars write the rough draft of their position papers to serve as the mid-unit assessment. At the end of the sessions, pupils turn in their rough draft essays and work on independent reading.