Learning for Justice
Looking Closely at Ourselves
A thoughtful discussion about self-reflecting leads to a conversation about skin color and making a list of words associated with "beauty." Budding artists use a mirror to examine their features and create a self-portrait. Peers critique...
Ashoka
A Toolkit for Promoting Empathy in Schools
Instill kindness with a unit all about empathy. Lessons and activities follow a prepare, engage, reflect, and action sequence. Learning experiences include making the classroom a safe environment, peer-invented handshakes, discussions...
Curated OER
Lesson: Elizabeth Peyton: The Self in the Other's Image: Portraiture and Identity
Art, identity, and an imaginary community, three components that should make for an interesting instructional activity. Critical thinkers explore and evaluate the work of contemporary artist, Elizabeth Peyton. They discuss her use of...
Freeology
Weekly Learning Log
Providing children with opportunities for self-reflection is an important component of learning process. This weekly log supports students with monitoring their growth, asking them to write about what they have learned, what they were...
Maryland Department of Education
The Concept of Identity Lesson 2: The Historical/Biographical Approach
"How does our environment shape our identity?" After researching biographical information about John Knowles and considering how these experiences are reflected in A Separate Peace, class members consider the strengths and weaknesses of...
Curated OER
A Glimmer of Beauty: Lesson Plan
Fully analyze the elements of art and unexpected beauty in the William Merritt Chase's Still Life with a Fish. The class will examine the painting very closely, then use photography to express unexpected beauty in still life. This is a...
Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment
Safety and Managing Risk
Teenagers love to take risks to test their personal boundaries, but many risks are too dangerous to try. The set of exercises in this packet teach your class about the ways they can stay safe and protect themselves while still having fun.
Curated OER
The Clique
Ninth graders identify and demonstrate the ability to use interpersonal skills needed to maintain quality relationships. Then they identify personal responsibility in conflict situations, while continuing to apply problem-solving and...
Lions Clubs International Foundation
Mindful Self-Management Exercise: Goal Setting
Boost self-management skills with a sports-themed prompt that challenges scholars to reflect on their goals, choose one, and make a plan to achieve it.
Ohio National Guard
Emotional Intelligence
Guide young learners through the tumultuous emotions of growing up with a set of worksheets about self-esteem and empathy. Each activity focuses on a different skill, allowing youngsters to work through their feelings and relate to...
EngageNY
End of Unit 3 Assessment: On-Demand Writing— Photograph and Song Choices for a Film
Ready, set, write! Every great film begins with a script, and every presentation starts with a plan. Directors use their research and experience to compose an essay explaining the rationale behind their film's musical and visual choices...
Walden Woods Project
19th Century Lessons for 21st Century Lives
The words of Henry David Thoreau on Civil Disobedience seem particularly relevant today, as are his writings and those of other transcendental thinkers who ask what it mean to live deliberately and what are the responsibilities of...
EngageNY
Writing, Critique, and Revising: Two-Voice Poems (Chapter 14: "Las Ucas/Grapes")
Continue work on the two-piece poem that compares two characters from Esperanza Rising. Give class members a few minutes to finish their drafts. After they have a complete product, model how to critique and edit the poems with one group....
Curated OER
The Princess's Point of View
Everyone wants to be part of a royal family. Let your pupils experience the privilege of royalty by rewriting the story The Frog Prince from the point of view of the princess. While the story line remains the same, perspective is bound...
K20 LEARN
Allow Me To Introduce Myself: Writing A Letter Of Introduction
"Who am I?" is not only a great philosophical question that requires a lot of reflection but is also at the heart of a letter of introduction. The challenge, of course, is figuring out where to start. Middle schoolers get a little help...
Kiddie Matters
Goal Setting Worksheet for Children
A one-page worksheet gives scholars the opportunity to list three goals and how they plan to accomplish them. Three questions challenge learners to reflect on their goals.
Curated OER
lesson: Facing a Stone Situation
Can you imagine what it's like to be able to carve an animal out of stone? Kids do, as they analyze the techniques used to create the South Indian sculpture, Sacred Bull of Shiva. After a critical look at the piece, they write a...
EngageNY
Coda: What Gives My Story Power? Celebrating Student Work
It's time for a celebration! Scholars go on a gallery walk around the classroom to view their peers' completed illustrated children's stories. Using sticky notes, pupils provide feedback about the powerful elements they find in their...
Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment
Feelings and Emotions
Eighth graders express their emotions with a set of activities about self reflection and feelings. With a set of emotion cards and a worksheet that details negative thought patterns, the resource empowers young learners to discover and...
Talk, Trust & Feel Therapeutics
Step Back and Breathe
Create emotional superheroes with a unit equipped with several activities and lessons designed to establish coping skills and practice tools that boost healthy habits. Through discussion, chants, writing, and drawing, scholars learn to...
EngageNY
End-Of-Unit 2 Assessment: On-Demand Analytical Essay About How Esperanza Changes Over Time
Close the unit on Esperanza Rising with an in-class analytic essay on how Esperanza changes over the course of the novel. Writers can use any of their notes and work from the unit as well as their drafts of the first two paragraphs of...
Western Justice Center
Self Awareness
Being aware of one's perceptions and biases is especially important when involved in a conflict. After watching an introductory video and four scenarios, viewers write out how they would feel or react to each situation. The subsequent...
What So Proudly We Hail
The Meaning of America: Self-Command
Even for one of the most accomplished men in American history, there was room for improvement. Challenge high schoolers to use Benjamin Franklin's Project for Moral Perfection to analyze text, make inferences, connect to historical...
University of California
re:Write Journaling as Healing
Sometimes a person needs an ear unattached to a mouth, a place to vent or clarify emotions. Journals are a great way to offload or gain insight into mixed emotions. The trick is to find a starting point. This list of 30 journal prompts,...