Curated OER
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 instructional activity, 3rd graders create and recite their poems with a self-portrait.
Curated OER
A Look at Judith Leyster
Students consider the question, "How do I want people to see me?" as they examine the self-portrait of Judith Leyster. They develop and refine characterization of a subject through poetry writing
Curated OER
Memories
Fifth graders collect artifacts of their fifth grade school year and make a technology based Memory Book.
Curated OER
Getting to Know You
Students complete an getting to know each other activity. In this personal names lesson, students play a name game, read a book about names, and then discuss why names are important. Students design a name card on oak tag rectangles and...
Curated OER
Let's Clean the Beach!
Students volunteer their time to clean a local park. They estimate the amount of debris they collect and make observations. They write a poem and draw an illustration about their experience.
Curated OER
Pipe-Cleaner Stick Figures
Second graders create puppets out of pipe cleaners and, in groups, put on a puppet show based on a section of a story they have read from their readers.
Curated OER
A New Life, a New Home
Young scholars connect with an immigration unit through research, journal writing, digital photography, and a movie production using iMovie. By acting out the immigrant's experience, students gain a deeper understanding and appreciation...
Indiana University
World Literature: "One Evening in the Rainy Season" Shi Zhecun
Did you know that modern Chinese literature “grew from the psychoanalytical theory of Sigmund Freud”? Designed for a world literature class, seniors are introduced to “One Evening in the Rainy Season,” Shi Zhecun’s stream of...
Curated OER
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.
Curated OER
Transforming Fairy Tales
Students use the computer to write, draw, explore the Internet, and combine all of these elements. They write their own fairy tales, use computer software to create drawings of the characters for their tales and use the Internet to...
Curated OER
Can Peace Prevail?
Young scholars 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...
Curated OER
Hollywood
Pupils listen to a play, or perhaps, take turns reading portions of it aloud. Afterward, they thoughtfully analyze and discuss the components of a well-written play. Next, a theme is assigned, and each person writes a play in conjunction...
Curated OER
Molly's Pilgrim
Third graders recognize and discuss multi-ethnic nature of America's citizens through a variety of activities.
Curated OER
Decades
Students work cooperatively to research the people, places, events, and things that represent their assigned decade. They creatively, write and present ten minute dramatizations of information about their assigned decade.
Curated OER
Golden Door Book
Students use the Golden Door as a theme to search for historical and aesthetic content. They create a paper collage containing relevant images, text and expressions.
Curated OER
What Is a Business?
Learners discover how to maintain successful businesses as they assume the roles of owners and drivers of their own ice cream trucks.
Curated OER
I Just Learned About the Coolest Person
Learners present information on the public lives and work of a chosen philanthropist. They write bio-poems highlighting the work of philantropists.
Curated OER
Culture in Atlantic Canada
Ninth graders discuss the aspects of culture and what makes them unique. In small groups, 9th graders use digital cameras to take photos. Groups use their pictures to create a PowerPoint presentation storyboard of their culture.
Curated OER
Japanese Noh Masks
Students examine Japanese theatre and create their own face masks which display certain emotions, props, costumes and perform in improvisational theatrical games.
Curated OER
Daily Actings
Students view clips of Anna Deavere Smith's work. They interview people on video or audiotape to learn their lines, dialect, and syntax to assist them in theater. They create a play which emulates the people in which they interviewed.
Library of Congress
Loc: Found Poetry With Primary Sources: The Great Depression
Students explore poetry using American Life Histories: Manuscripts from the Federal Writers' Project, 1936-1940 collection of American Memory, which covers personal stories collected by the Works Progress Administration. In particular,...
Writing Fix
Writing Fix: Paulsen Inspired Nature Poems
In this instructional activity students will write a poem based on the descriptors in one of Gary Paulson's novels.
Writing Fix
Writing Fix: An I Pod Inspired Poetry Lesson: Song Parodies About School
After celebrating (and singing) some of the delightful songs from Alan Katz's "Take Me out of the Bathtub" and listening to songs by Weird Al Yankovic, like "Eat It," students will discuss the concept of parody. To practice writing a...
Writing Fix
Writing Fix: Right Brained Lesson: Serendipitous Love Metaphors
Based on its title, student writers predict what Benatar's song means when it says that "Love Is a Battlefield." After discussing Benatar's extended metaphor as a class, learners will create an original extended metaphor about love in...