Louisiana Department of Education
Gulliver’s Travels
Gulliver's Travels tells the story of a man who goes on voyages and encounters strange people. A unit plan introduces readers to the classic text, as well as excerpts from other examples of sarcasm and satire, such as "A Modest Proposal"...
Bantam Books
The Martian Chronicles: K-W-H-L Activity
Prepare your class for a unit on Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles with an activity that works for pre-reading, during reading, and post-reading. Learners fill out a K-W-H-L chart to reflect on what they already know, what they'd...
Curated OER
Writing and Publishing Skills
Seventh graders experience the satisfaction of writing for a purpose; their self-selected piece be published for an audience. They write using techniques appropriate to the selected genre.
Curated OER
Outlining Main Ideas and Details Adapted from: Expository Writing by Tara McCarthy
Students examine articles from a number of sources to determine their main ideas and details, and discuss them as a class. Using a worksheet, they practice outlining a report after watching a teacher demonstration of the outlining...
Curated OER
Critical Path
Students widen their understanding of the different points of view surrounding current news topics. They research a current controversy on which public opinion is divided and write a concise commentary on the topic expressing a strong...
Curated OER
The Keith Haring Car
Learners examine Keith Haring's artwork. In this art activity, students paint a car using his style of art known as Pop Art.
Curated OER
Powerful Words Can Warm the Heart: Art from the Heart
Students explore how artists contribute to the public good. In this art and community lesson, students identify a community's needs and wants, identify how characters in a story meet their needs and wants, and identify ways that arts...
Curated OER
Interactive Art: Let's Make It Happen
Students examine art by Christopher Janney. They discuss what the art is showing and what it means to them. They create their own piece of interactive art.
Curated OER
Mood In Art And Poetry
Seventh graders investigate the concept of mood and how it influences various types of art. They create an abstract painting and demonstrate how mood is present in the work. Also, 7th graders construct poems using word choices to set...
Curated OER
Speak Up
Bring back some of your favorite kids for this activity. Emerging speakers observe older learners making effective and ineffective oral presentations. They discuss each presentation and then prepare a speech of their own to deliver to...
Curated OER
Indiana Historical Site Brochures
Fourth graders research information about one historic site in Indiana. They then use the Publisher program on the computer to create an informational brochure. Finally, they share their brochure with the class.
Curated OER
Expressions of Culture, History and Politics Through Art and Music
High schoolers analyze a piece of music to identify its political, cultural, and historical messages. They discuss relationships between art, history, culture and aesthetics and examine how Hawaiian artists transmit cultural traditions,...
Curated OER
Islamic Art
Students examine the various forms of Islamic Art. Using the art, they identify the basic elements and research its history and style of calligraphy. They create a piece of art based on information they collected and demonstrate...
Curated OER
The Geometry of Indigenous Art
Students examine the concepts of symmetry, rotations, reflections, translation, dialations, and tessellations and apply them to indigenous art. They also do Internet research and create artwork (painting, pottery, computer graphic design).
Curated OER
African Art and Personal Adornment: Jewelry
Students observe and identify examples of personal adornment in African art and recall how African jewelry relates to beauty, status, and wealth. They create their own clay pendants or other personal adornments.
Curated OER
Art Changes You And the World
Students explore advertising as a way to change their world. They use the Internet to research an energy, an environmental, and a cultural issue and create three 'world changing' pieces of advertising/artwork to express their ideas.
Poetry4kids
How to Create Book Spine Poetry
Can you create a poem without writing a word! With found poetry, you can! Practice one version of found poetry with a lesson on book spine poems. Learners create poems by stacking books and reading the lines created by their spine titles.
Curated OER
Analyzing documents
Students sort information pieces by structure and purpose. In this resource analysis lesson, students view several types of informational materials and work in teams to look for the way that piece is organized.
Curated OER
Separate But Equal Opinions
Students examine the ways in which editorials and Op-Ed pieces respond to current events. They write editorials in response to news items from the New York Times.
Curated OER
Keeping Us in Stitches Activity: Crazy-Quilt Collage Design
Students create collages using the irregular-shaped and sized pieces, decorative stitching, and applied or painted motifs that reflect the Crazy-Quilt style, and explain how and why their design fits into that style.
Curated OER
From Mark Twain to David Bowie: The Artistic Persona vs. The Individual
Students explore the concept of public image. In this public persona lesson, students discover what public image is and discuss the role of an author's life when interpreting pieces of their work.
Curated OER
Dolphins
Students explore sea life. In this cross curriculum fine arts, science, and P.E. "dolphins" lesson, students sing songs and play games about dolphins, perform water experiments, create mosaics, and use their five senses to explore sand...
Curated OER
Can You Hear a Story?
Young scholars listen to, analyze, and describe music. They explain relationships between music, the other arts, and disciplines outside the arts.
Curated OER
Who's on Trial Here?
Learners discuss privacy issues that public personalities encounter when they are accused of committing a crime after reading an article in The New York Times. Students then write essays after researching several trials of public...