EngageNY
Building Background Knowledge: Small-Group Work to Learn More about the History of Wars in Vietnam
Scholars take a close look at "The Vietnam Wars." They answer questions and discuss in groups to conclude that the author respects the Vietnamese. They participate in a modified jigsaw discussion and end the exercise with a quick writing...
WindWise Education
Are Birds Impacted by Small Wind Turbines?
How do we know if the wind turbine at our school is impacting birds? Here, small groups work together and conduct field work in order to determine the impact of a human-made structure on birds. The groups also determine their searcher...
Baylor College
What's That Food?
Get things cooking with the first lesson in this series on the science of food. Working in small groups, young scientists make and record observations about different mystery foods. These descriptions are then shared with the class and...
State Bar of Texas
Roe v. Wade
At what point does the right of privacy end and the government begin? Scholars research rights under the Ninth Amendment to the Constitution. Using the 1973 Roe v. Wade Supreme Court case as a starting point, along with small group work...
Curated OER
The Color Spectrum: How Does it Work?
Create models of the infrared, visible, and ultraviolet portions of the electromagnetic spectrum. Working in small groups, your class can investigate metric conversions calculations. They will find the length of the waves in nanometers,...
Scholastic
Lesson 2: Values and Barriers
Scholars investigate and discuss the importance of values and how they can be used to break barriers. Small groups work collaboratively to examine the text and draw inferences to answer questions. A writing assignment challenges pupils...
Curated OER
The Bill of Rights
In groups, learners review one of four selected Supreme Court cases. The whole class watches a video introducing the four cases, and then small groups dive into Internet research in an attempt to write a two-paragraph summary of the...
EngageNY
Group Discussion: Accessing Books Around the World
Continue work with an informational text by following the procedures detailed here. The plan, part of a series, focuses on My Librarian is a Camel. Class members complete text-dependent questions and then prepare for and participate in a...
Pace University
Urban Communities
Urban communities are the focus of a series of lessons created to meet specific needs using differentiated instruction. A pre-assessment designates scholars into three groups based on their ability level. Small groups take part in...
EngageNY
Introducing Working Conditions in the Mills
Scholars discover how working in a textile mill in the nineteenth century affected the title character from Katherine Paterson's novel, Lyddie. Partners analyze quotes from the novel and then add evidence and questions about working...
Media Smarts
The Newspaper Front Page
Hot off the presses! A perfect instructional activity idea for a journalism class or even a language arts class looking to incorporate some informational texts. Young writers analyze the front pages of various newspapers to determine the...
Federal Trade Commission
Ad Awareness
Movie theaters, shopping malls, television, the Internet ... no matter where people go, they are inundated with advertisements. Scholars discuss the topic of ad awareness using the first of four Admongo lessons about advertising. Pupils...
Illustrative Mathematics
Designs
A resource that makes for excellent group work as students explore the area and perimeter of different complex designs made up of squares and circles. The commentary gives a clear definition of perimeter, but suggests that group members...
EngageNY
Launching the Readers Theater Groups: Allocating Key Quotes and Scenes
There's no I in collaboration! Scholars work in small groups to write a Readers Theater script for a scene from Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird. Next, within their small groups, pupils discuss how their scenes communicate the main...
Constitutional Rights Foundation
If Men Were Angels: Teaching the Constitution With the Federalist Papers
Much like the methods of group work, the writers of the Federalist Papers worked together to advocate for their viewpoints against the anti-federalists. The resource enables learners to break into small groups and conduct research before...
Curated OER
Working in Small Groups
Learners learn the advantages of working in small groups and how it is a lifetime skill. They learn that each member has responsibility to contribute to the plan of the group. They then learn group cooperation rules.
Virginia Department of Education
Distance and Midpoint Formulas
Small groups work through two guided activities to derive the distance and midpoint formulas for the coordinate plane. The activities begin with concrete examples and move to abstract.
EngageNY
Relationships Between Two Numerical Variables
Working in small groups and in pairs, classmates build an understanding of what types of relationships can be used to model individual scatter plots. The nonlinear scatter plots in this instructional activity on relationships between two...
Curated OER
Group Product-Pitch Presentation
Are you just about to teach persuasion in your class? If so, you should consider this short unit. In small groups, learners create a product, develop a magazine ad for the product, and pitch this product to the class using a visual...
US Institute of Peace
Organizations Working for Peace
From helping refugees to negotiating peace treaties, the peacekeepers of the world keep busy! Introduce young activists to the many individuals and organizations throughout the world that work daily toward peace. 14th in a series of 15...
Virginia Department of Education
Similar Triangles
Pupils work in pairs to investigate what it takes to prove that two triangles are similar. They work through various shortcuts to find which are enough to show a similarity relationship between the triangles. Small groups work with the...
Generation Rx
Medication Safety Patrol: Trivia Game
It trivia time! Small groups work collaboratively to answer questions all about medication safety. Groups earn points with each correct response, and as the ultimate game changer, they wager all or a portion of their points on one final...
EngageNY
Getting to Know Esperanza (Chapter 2: "Las Uvas/Grapes")
Delve into Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan with close reading and evidence-based, text-dependent questions. Part of a unit series, this well-sequenced, Common Core-designed activity draws on material from the previous day and homework...
Media Smarts
Scripting a Crime Drama
Develop novice script-writers. Small groups sift through a sample script, noting any script-writing conventions to share with the whole class. Using these conventions and plot structures, these groups compose a script for a 10-minute...