Media Smarts
Gender Messages in Alcohol Advertising
Make your students critical consumers of media, and foster an awareness of how culture is reflected and shaped by media. This resource covers how alcohol advertising presents and promotes gender stereotypes. After a discussion on...
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Lesson 3: Conflict Resolution
Students identify and discuss different types of conflicts in which they have been involved, discuss positives and negatives about how conflicts were resolved, and role play situations discussed to practice conflict resolution skills.
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Social Studies: Adolescent Characteristics
Students examine the various characteristics of adolescence. In a Powerpoint presentation they observe the physical, emotional, and social traits of adolescence. In groups, they investigate researchers associated with developmental...
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Poetry Through Digital Storytelling
Bring digital storytelling to your language arts class! To begin, learners select their own topic, such as a poem that reflects a life experience they had or a historical figure who interests them. Then they work to create a storyboard...
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Do You Have a Blog?
Ask learners about their personal writing habits, such as whether they keep a journal or a blog, or if they'd ever want to. Though this is not a fully developed lesson, you can use this article and question to provoke discussion and...
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Compare and Contrast Night to Life is Beautiful
After reading Elie Wiesel's Night, watching the movie Life is Beautiful, and researching World War II, class members write a comparison essay on the book and film. This includes a prior knowledge activity, discussion in whole and small...
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Historical Agency in History Book Sets (HBS)
Study historical events by combining the study of historical fiction and non-fiction. Learners read about true past events in historical fiction novels and then research non-fiction accounts of the same events. What are some differences...
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Another Trip to the Nurse's Office
Students consider the role of the nurse at their school. Using Internet resources and archived articles, they gather information regarding relevant health topics. Students use their information to create pamphlets on health topics...
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Helping the Adolescent Cope with Family Life
Students are introduced to the proper ways to deal with conflict at home. In groups, they define family based on what it means to them and identify factors that lead to a breakdown in communications. They participate in role-playing...
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Language Arts: Biography and Autobiography
Learners examine autobiographies and biographies through a series of reading and writing exercises. By writing journals during this semester-long course, they improve writing skills and discover their own voice. Among other activities,...
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Made You Look
Students spend some time in the world of marketing and advertising by analyzing and creating slogans and campaigns geared toward adolescents. Students work with a partner to create their design and share with the class
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Identity in A Raisin in the Sun
Ninth graders read the play, "A Raisin in the Sun," and participate in a class discussion about "identity." They discuss racial identity and examine and interpret how community influences a personal identity. They demonstrate how...
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Mystery and Mayhem
Learners use literature to examine the violence and loss of innocence during the 1960s. In this U.S. history lesson, students read Robert McCammon's Boy's Life to investigate the social unrest, violence and loss of innocence in the...
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Words Hurt
Young scholars identify the various forms of bullying in a class discussion and to sort out the situations that can hurt outside and inside. They count the number of bullying incidents posted on the bulletin board to find which occur...
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Pictures in Words: Poems of Tennyson and Noyes
Students analyze poems by Tennyson and Noyes. They identify examples of alliteration, onomatopoeia, personification, metaphor, and simile. Students create examples of alliteration, onomatopoeia, personification, metaphor, and simile.
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What is Manga?
Students research graphic novels. In this manga lesson, students work in small groups as the read graphic novels in literature circle format.
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Tru Confessions
Students view the movie "Tru Confessions" about the life of teenagers. They participate in activities in which they analyze themselves. They record their thoughts and feelings to be analyzed at a later date.
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You Are What You Eat!
Young scholars create believable self-portraits incorporating selected food items as details, forms, and texturesThe compositional focus is a head-and-shoulders portrait appropriate to the food theme resulting in a humorous illustration....
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What is effective communication?
Learners practice a series of communicaton activities. In this communication skills lesson, students role play listening and active listening strategies to improve communication. Learners write a set of guidelines for improving...
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ESL Network: Tezen, A Haitian Folktale
Sixth graders brainstorm various types of friendships prior to reading "Tezen," a tale about a young girl's friendship with a fish. After writing story reviews, they work in small groups to create dramatic skits based on the text and...
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Caps for Sale/Color Words
Students read the book "Caps for Sale." Students model reading a sentence and using one color cap and the color word (written in its color). They match the color word (written in its color) to the correct color hat.
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Quit Smoking-Together We Can Do It!
Students explore how tobacco threatens the health of smokers and non-smokers. They research smoking and second hand smoke using the Internet. Students create a Quit Smoking brochure. They present a computer slide show to describe how...
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Change Over Time
Middle schoolers write a personal narrative that is designed to help them reflect on the nature and meaning of change in their lives.
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Dialect Awareness in Literature and Life
Eighth graders realize the impact of dialect in literature as well as their own speaking and writing by reading selections from Frances O'Roark Dowell's novel, Dovey Cove.