Street Law
Mock Trial - Hester v. Metro City Public Schools
The mock trial case, Hester v. Metro City Public Schools concerns a fight, a tattoo, and a locker search.
Curated OER
School Uniforms: Debating the Issue and Creating an Advertisement
Fifth graders debate the issue of school uniforms. They research, finding supporting evidence supporting their stance. Using the Lincoln-Douglas form of debate, 5th graders discuss the positive and negative issues of the topic. They...
Newseum
Editorials and Opinion Articles
Reading the news is fun, and that's a fact! With the lesson plan, scholars differentiate between fact and opinion as they read editorial articles. They complete a worksheet to analyze the information before writing their own editorials...
Curated OER
36 Public Policy Questions to Energize Your Government/History Classroom Debates
Need topics that are sure to engage your debaters? This list of public policy questions includes such topics as school mascots, regulation of major league baseball, physician-assisted suicide, and violence in video games. A great...
Curated OER
Writing a Newspaper-Style Article
Help your secondary reader/writers assess texts by studying press releases from Statistics Canada and drafting articles based on them. They then compare the press release, their own articles, and actual news stories they find online. I'd...
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How Often Do You Interact with People of Another Race or Ethnicity?
Is interacting with people from different backgrounds part of a well-rounded education? A big question awaits young readers as they explore two New York Times articles that discuss modern-day segregation, population statistics, and...
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School, Unplugged
What would school be like if you couldn't teach lessons that require technology? Would it benefit the class? Would it hold them back? Have your learners read this article and answer the basic reading comprehension questions. Then have...
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Either/Or Speech
Have your high schoolers practice their public speaking skills by writing an either/or speech. Individually, they complete an outline on what they want to discuss and give their speech to the class. To end the lesson, they complete a...
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Tell Us All: Tools for Integrating Math and Engineering
What a scam! Middle and high schoolers pose as journalists exposing consumer fraud. In this lesson, they write an article for a magazine using data collected during previous investigations (prior lessons) to defend their findings that a...
Curated OER
Helping Homeschoolers Be College-Ready
Advice on essential skills for college from a homeschooled, public school teacher.
Curated OER
Writing Prompts for High School
Here’s a great teacher resource - thirty-five writing prompts designed for high school writers. Categories include cause and effect, definition, expository/informative, persuasive, how to, descriptive, narrative, biographical narrative,...
K12 Reader
Public Education
Your pupils may not know that school was not always required. Teach them a bit about the history of public education with a reading passage and related questions.
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Writing Prompts for High School
Are you teaching a high school language arts class and stumped for writing topics? Five pages of writing prompts for all kinds of writing should help you out. Many of these prompts refer to texts that are not included in this resource,...
Media Smarts
Thinking like a Citizen
Explore the influence social activism can have on important issues, and create a class full of young citizen activists. This plan calls for learners to participate in a whole class discussion and brainstorm about ways to effectively...
Curated OER
Justice Is Blind, Colorblind That Is
It's so interesting to see kids respond to articles about education. To start the day, prompt learners to discuss the words colorblindness and diversity. Then, split your class in two and have one side read an article from 2007 and the...
Curated OER
The Internet of Things: IoT
How has the Internet of Things affected our lives? Scholars examine the massive influence of mobile devices in this analysis activity, which begins with a seven-minute documentary clip. They also read a New York Times article (linked)...
Curated OER
Past School Practices
Students research the history of a school system. In this school system lesson, students list the grade levels and subjects taught in their school and interview their teachers and administrators. Students collect past photographs of...
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Summarizing, Paraphrasing and Quoting
How skilled are your class members at summarizing, paraphrasing, and quoting from a text? Find out with this assessment that asks readers to identify the thesis statement, the summary, the paraphrases, and the quoted material in an...
Curated OER
Middle School Masters of the Web- Video Newsletter
Students develop a school newscast. In this school newscast lesson, students practice interviewing skills, use of video and podcasting equipment, and editing skills. They work in groups to develop a school newscast using digital pictures...
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Elementary School Uniforms
Fifth graders debate the pros and cons to wearing school uniforms. In this uniforms lesson plan, 5th graders identify, research, and present pros and cons in a debate setting.
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Celebrate Commencement with Class Presentations
Bring the year to a satisfying close by asking class members to reflect on the year in personalized graduation speeches.
Newspaper Association of America
The News
Young journalists learn about topics such as newspaper ethics, parts of a newspaper, credible sources, and different types of articles. The lesson empowers individuals and gives them the capability to express their voices through the...
Curated OER
Sharing Information: Schools, Police and FERPA
Students research Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), interview school officials to see how FERPA is interpreted in local schools, speak with community journalists to find out if they have ever had a hard time getting...
Curated OER
Create a Youth Consumer Magazine
To underscore the importance of being informed consumers, kids check out youth consumer magazines and websites and then create their own. Although no detailed plans are included in the resource, it is packed with ideas and suggestions.