Conneticut Department of Education
Instructional Strategies That Facilitate Learning Across Content Areas
Imagine 28 instructional strategies, appropriate for all subject areas and all grade levels. Directed Reading-Thinking Activities (DRTA), Question-Answer Relationship (QAR) activities, KWL charts, comparison matrixes, classification...
Curated OER
Child Literacy
Students read information on the importance of literacy and complete a worksheet. In this community service lesson, students evaluate children's literature and practice reading fluency. Students spend two hours per week reading to...
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Go Speed Racer!
Students increase their reading fluency through one-minute drills. Working in pairs, students read a grade level appropriate text in one-minute intervals. After reading they determine their speed through a word count. Students...
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Information Fluency Unit
Fourth graders, after defining the task and searching for some creative strategies, role play being a Park Ranger who tries to save Big Bend from being removed from the National Park system in Texas. They support the keeping of Big Bend...
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Lyddie: An Instructional Unit Resource Guide
Katherine Paterson’s young adult novel Lyddie is the foundation of a differentiated instruction unit that not only explores the rise of industrialization and labor but women’s rights issues as well. After learners read the novel, they...
Pearson
Unlocking and Exploring Folktales
Designed with many of the Common Core standards in mind, this 10-lesson unit is brimming with ELL strategies, teacher's notes, and the best of core instructional methods for teaching the common elements of folktales, and exploring...
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Writing American Diaries
Young scholars examine the concept of historical perspective in writing. They read the diary of Sally Wister, a young Patriot from Philadelphia during the Revolutionary Era. Additionally, they must include different points of view in...
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Random Acts of Kindness For Kids
Develop a world-wide, email chain on which class members can showcase their acts of kindness. After defining the meaning of random acts of kindness through discussion and through a reading of Random Acts of Kindness,...
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Las Misiones de California
Fourth graders work in partners to complete a series of activities. After reading the introduction, Students select a role of either a "Padre" or "Indigena." As partners, they need time on the computer for research as well as time to...
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Dear Mrs. Roosevelt
Students develop an understanding of how the Great Depression impacted people. In this writing, analyzing and cooperative groups lesson, students inquire about the Great Depression. Students identify problems children faced during...
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Kazan, Miller, and the McCarthy Era
Students read The Crucible in order to investigate the McCarthy era and the Hollywood Blacklist. Students watch video clips of the McCarthy witch hunts and investigate the time period through online research. Students recreate sections...
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A Map Mystery
Second graders solve a map mystery. In this technology lesson plan, 2nd graders develop an awareness of maps and the symbols associated with maps as they the "Neighborhood Map Machine."
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Lost Worlds
Students, while using the strategy of identifying the main idea and supporting details, explore the three nonfiction selections of the lost worlds of Machu Picchu high in the Andes Mountains, Great Zimbabwe, and Anasazi. In addition,...
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African Novel Study
Seventh graders participate in literature circles as they read African novels. They read, work on word studies, and complete comprehension activities. They share their reading with other literature circle groups in the class.
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I Have A Dream
Students create a reader response essay as they react to the I Have A Dream speech made by Martin Luther King. In this Martin Luther King lesson plan, students read the speech, fill out a Civil Rights movement sheet, have discussions,...
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Other Faces of Discrimination
High schoolers explore the bullying experienced by those who graduated from one-room school houses to large high schools. In this discrimination lesson, students read the 2 provided handouts on the topic and then complete the included...
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The Underground Railroad
Fourth graders participate in a literature circle after reading a book about the Underground Railroad. They discuss their selected book with their literature circle group, and complete a handout about their role in the circle. Students...
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Technology's Affect on Life
First graders read and analyze hypothetical scenario in which accident at local power company causes homes and businesses to be without electricity for five days. Students create chart listing which tools, appliances, and equipment would...
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Studying the Great Depression Through Novels
Eighth graders view pictures of life in a small town during the Great Depression in Illinois to gain an understanding of living conditions during the era. They read novels based on life of this era.
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"You Shall Do Your Best Endeavor" - Working With Primary Documents
Students read and interpret primary source documents regarding historic Jamestown. In small groups, they read the primary documents, answer questions, and view online maps of Jamestown Island and Virginia.
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The Silly States: Where Is Your State and City?
First graders read The Scrambled States of America and discuss whether it is real or fantasy as compared to the United States. In this geography lesson, 1st graders identify their city or state on a map and work in groups to color the...
New York State Education Department
TASC Transition Curriculum: Workshop 13
The six instructional shifts in this workshop definitely move math and science teachers' understanding of instruction. The workshop, 13th out of a series of 15, asks participants to examine sample tests and to look at how the six...
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Twelve Days of Christmas--Prediction, Estimation, Addition, Table and Chart
Scholars explore graphing. They will listen to and sing "The Twelve Days of Christmas" and estimate how many gifts were mentioned in the song. Then complete a data chart representing each gift given in the song. They also construct...
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An Acquaintance with Darkness, a Civil War
Eighth graders explore the Civil War, and people and events surrounding the assassination of Abraham Lincoln and his funeral procession.