Digital Writing and Research Lab's – Lesson Plans
Teaching Close Reading through Short Composition/Revision
This activity may have writers evaluate short compositions, but their subjects are quite tall: great Americans. Pupils read one another's compositions and closely examine how specific phrases and diction contribute to shaping American...
Curated OER
A Twist On Teaching Affixes
Engaging your class in prefix and suffix instruction with these helpful ideas.
Anti-Defamation League
10 Ideas for Teaching Black History Month
Celebrate Black History Month with the help of 10 ideas that delve deep into the history, major events, contributions, famous African Americans, and sheds light on how scholars today can take a proactive stance on current civil rights...
Scholastic
The Flight of Amelia Earhart Teaching Guide
Amelia Earhart's accomplishments and strength of character extend beyond her status as one of the first female aviators in America. Elementary and middle schoolers learn about Earhart's early life and the historical context surrounding...
The New York Times
Kiev in Chaos: Teaching About the Crisis in Ukraine
Provide a historical context for the political unrest between Russia and Ukraine that began in late 2013. Learners review their prior knowledge and chronicle new understandings with a KWL chart, watch a video explaining the Ukrainian...
College Board
Teaching Students How to Write AP Statistics Exam Responses
But this is math—we don't need to know how to write! The article makes a point that class members in AP® Statistics should be comfortable writing as the exams require it. Individuals quickly realize that quality writing is crucial...
National Park Service
Reduce Our Carbon Footprint, Let’s Compost!
Roll up your sleeves and get a little dirty with this elementary and middle school compost lesson plan. All you need is a large plastic container, a couple old newspapers, some organic waste, and a few hundred worms and you're ready...
Curated OER
Grammar Re-review: Now You Teach Us!
Turn the tables on your language arts pupils by letting them be the teachers! With a list of grammatical topics to choose from (subject, adverbs, direct objects, etc), eighth graders plan a presentation to "re-review" the concept with...
Curated OER
Mystery Strategy for Elementary Students
Learners of all ages solve historical mysteries. Elementary learners research historical topics by organizing information presented by their instructor, formulating hypotheses, and considering solutions to mysteries presented about...
Scholastic
Soccer Balls
Add some variety to your teaching of two-digit multiplication with this fun skills practice exercise. Presented with a geometric design of six soccer balls each with two-digit multiplication problems written inside of...
Curated OER
Training Students for Literature Circles
Role sheets clearly define expectations of all group members in this introduction to literature circles. By using a variety of picture books or short texts, readers can practice roles while the teacher circulates to each group observing...
Noyce Foundation
Time to Get Clean
It's assessment time! Determine your young mathematicians' understanding of elapsed time with this brief, five-question quiz.
ReadWriteThink
Promoting Student Self-Assessment
Keep class members accountable for their own learning with a series of differentiated instruction strategies. From rubrics created by pupils to learning contracts written at the beginning of the year, the resource offers multiple ways...
Curated OER
Choosing a College
How can mathematics help scholars choose a college? High schoolers learn how they can use decision matrices to rank colleges based on selected criteria. They also see how to weigh criteria using multiplication of the decision matrix by a...
Council for Economic Education
Federal Budget Lesson Plan and Fiscal Ship Student Game
The federal budget has never been so fun! Using an interactive game, high schoolers choose from a variety of policy options after identifying goals and try to balance these changes in policy with a federal budget.
Curated OER
The Teachings of Confucius
Sixth graders study who Confucius was and when he lived. They explain the basic ideas of Confucius, his plan for a good government, and his ideas on harmony in society. They explain the impact of Confucian teachings on contemporary...
Curated OER
Teaching The Personality Profile
Students write a comprehensive personality profile feature that demonstrates knowledge of the Wall Street Journal formula of feature writing and the concept of show, don't tell. They experience a press conference interview situation.
Curated OER
Teaching with Video in an English Class
Students participate in a video English class. In this video instructional activity, students read a play then video activities they do to better understand the play. Students video themselves answering questions about the play then...
Curated OER
How to Use Technology to Teach the Water Cycle
Young scholars answer six content-related questions on reproducible information sheets. They predict how the jury vote at the end of the trial.
Curated OER
Reciprocal Teaching: Aunty Misery
Fifth graders investigate the qualities of a good reader by participating in a role play with the provided scripts. They focus on the five main strategies of good readers -- predicting, clarifying, questioning, summarizing, and...
Curated OER
What a Garden Can Teach Us
Third graders read "Seedfolks" and "What a Garden Can Teach Us" and discuss how a garden is like a community. They create a class quilt illustrating how their classroom community the lines of the poem.
Curated OER
Guidelines for Teaching the Holocaust
Eighth graders view a presentation about the importance of the Holocaust. In groups, they complete a workshop in which they discover the reasons and actions behind the event. They share their feelings about the material and stereotypes...
Curated OER
Using Comic Strips to Teach the Use of Quotation Marks
Young scholars identify when and why quotations are used. Using comic strips and speech bubbles, they read and discuss examples of quotation marks, and in pairs write text for a cartoon on a piece of paper using quotation marks around...
Curated OER
Let the Phone Get Them Talking! Using the Yellow Pages as a Teaching Resource
Learners categorize information in the Yellow Pages. In this Let the Phone Book Get Them Talking! activity, students find pictures in the Yellow Pages and thus gain a better understanding of how the book is organized. Learners locate...