California Department of Education
Learn to Reach Out
How can social media help my career? Explore the world of networking through a lesson about professional organizations. The fourth of six career and college readiness lessons has seniors research organizations in their professions of...
Overcoming Obstacles
Gathering Information and Making the Commitment
Scholars create and commit to a contract for their Service Learning project. The contract details who is responsible for which tasks on the action plan they developed in a previous lesson plan.
Personal Genetics Education Project
Introduction to Personal Genetics
Adolescents have the opportunity to consider how they feel about the possibilities presented by the current availability of genetic sequencing. After some instruction, they participate in a four-corners activity in which you read a...
Curated OER
Project Based Learing: Social Responsibility
Students explore social responsibility. In this service learning lesson plan, students participate in 4 weekly activities that require them to research "communitarians", write poems about their contributions, and create works of art that...
Curated OER
Evaluating Nonviolence as a Method of Social Change
During a lesson on Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr, the Civil Rights Movement, and/or nonviolent resistance, students can gather their thoughts in this activity. The questions cover Dr. King's philosophy of nonviolence, and two opinion...
Curated OER
Grocery Store Field Study
Students visit a local grocery store (not a community market) to gather information about where some commonly eaten produce items come from. Once they have collected this information, locate the countries of origin on a map and research...
Curated OER
The Spread of Enlightenment Ideas
Looking for a simple and straightforward reference on the Enlightenment for your young historians? Check out this list of key terms and important figures from the period, followed by a traditional assessment where your learners will be...
Missouri Department of Elementary
Respect for Self and Others—Giving and Getting the Big R
Tween find out what it means to give and get respect. After reviewing the Recipe for Relationships studied in a previous lesson, groups create a dramatization of two-minute scenario in which an individual behaves inappropriately in a...
Curated OER
Freshmen Mentor Program: Meeting My Mentor
Students develop skills that address the transition from middle to high school. They take part in a series of activities that help them to become more comfortable in their new social setting.
Curated OER
Cyberspace Safari
Middle schoolers go on an information gathering hunt on the Internet to study West African empires. They work in teams; meteorologists, bankers, writers, and archaeologists. They collect data on all sorts of topics related to West...
Curated OER
Reformers versus Residents in Five Points: A Role Play
Social Studies and role-playing can go hand in hand. Learners use supporting evidence found in primary and secondary source material to develop a character from the Five Points neighborhood in the 1850s. Each student takes on the role of...
Curated OER
A Presidential Portrait: Andrew Jackson
Eighth graders examine the role of intended meaning in Ralph Earl's portrait of Andrew Jackson. They, in groups, research periods in Jackson's life and use gathered information to create their own portraits of Jackson.
Curated OER
Who's The Boss?
Upper elementary and middle schoolers research and analyze some different types of governments. Democracies, Monarchies, and Dictatorships are some of the types that are looked at. Learners use the Internet to gather information that...
Curated OER
Scouting Civil War Sites
Students evaluate websites after gathering information from various search engines. In this Civil War instructional activity, students browse the web and find strategies for rating websites. Students choose the best sites in their...
Missouri Department of Elementary
Safe and Healthy Life Choices (Part I)
As high schoolers seek to grow more and more independent, they must constantly make choices. Some options are healthy and some not so much. To begin the discussion, class members are asked to identify five safe and healthy (or...
Missouri Department of Elementary
Keep Finding the Positive
Group members take on roles to create a positive classroom community. Learners perform their role—leader, recorder, presenter, timekeeper, encourager, and collector—in preparation for a formal presentation of their positive thinking...
Missouri Department of Elementary
Acting Out Respect and Compromise
Puppets showcase the importance of being a good friend. Following a discussion about positive character traits, scholars create a paper-bag puppet and role-play scenarios with a peer.
Missouri Department of Elementary
What Are Bullying and Harassment? Part 2
After reviewing notes from the previous lessons, small groups obtain a scenario card that describes a situation in which bullying is happening. Peers discuss the event and brainstorm two solutions using the STAR method then present their...
Missouri Department of Elementary
Can You Erase the Damage?
A pencil and an eraser bring forth the message that negative comments never truly disappear. On a large piece of paper, scholars list negative comments then attempt to replace them with kind ones. Pupils discuss the impact of negative...
Missouri Department of Elementary
Character Clovers
Build a classroom community with a lesson that uses character clovers to examine scholars' roles. Following a whole-class discussion, participants list four roles they play and accompany it with the character traits that go along with it.
Missouri Department of Elementary
An Apple a Day
Three apples—green, red, and rotten—exemplify character traits, negative and positive. Following a discussion about the classroom community, scholars complete an apple-themed worksheet that challenges them to read each trait, color it...
Missouri Department of Elementary
I’m A Star!
A lesson plan encourages scholars to be star community members. Pupils take part in a class discussion that challenges them to brainstorm at least two ways to show responsibility within one's community. Small groups play a game in which...
Missouri Department of Elementary
My Problem…Your Problem…Our Problem
Encourage sixth graders to take responsibility for their actions and become a problem solver. Pupils discuss new problems faced in sixth grade then identify ones that involve other people. A worksheet guides their practice in conflict...
Missouri Department of Elementary
Same and Different
A take on "If You're Happy and You Know It" opens a lesson about similarities and differences. Scholars speak in-depth on the unique characteristics that make up their classroom. The teacher or counselor records responses. Class members...