Teach Beside Me
Benjamin Franklin Lesson Ideas
Bring Benjamin Franklin to life in the classroom with a set of five activities. Discover the type of person he was and his accomplishments through a study of his inventions and comments about life virtues.
Annenberg Foundation
Gothic Undercurrents
Terror, mystery, excitement. American writers of the 19th century, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, and Emily Dickinson, used these elements to create morally ambiguous tales that challenged the prevailing belief in...
Reed Novel Studies
The Janitor's Boy: Novel Study
The perfect plan can easily backfire. Jack, in The Janitor's Boy, thinks he has the perfect plan to get back at his father. Little did he know he would end up being sentenced to help his father. Scholars read about Jack and his...
Stephen F. Austin State University, College of Fine Arts
The Ugly Duckling
It's not about what you look like on the outside! A study guide for the stage adaptation of The Ugly Duckling reminds learners that being cruel to those in need is not helpful—and that we all belong somewhere.
Curated OER
We're Going to the Zoo!
Students write and publish a poem as part of a class poetry collection after analyzing the poetic structures of haiku, limericks, sound poems and free verse. After viewing a multimedia demonstration of the poetic structures, and after...
Curated OER
Flowers, Flowers, Flowers...A Visit with Georgia O'Keeffe
Young scholars analyze, discuss, and research Georgia O'Keeffe and her flower paintings. They select a flower to paint and create a watercolor painting in the style of Georgia O'Keeffe. Students compose a poem describing their painting.
Curated OER
Bums in the Attic
Students engage in a study about the life of young girl in the book "Bums In The Attic". They read the narrative story while considering the first person point of view. Students write a journal that analyzes the author's style of writing.
Curated OER
Art and National Identity: Analyzing Painting and Literature from the Era of Manifest Destiny
Young scholars begin the lesson by discussing the causes and effects of the movement west. Using primary sources, they develop their own definition for manifest destiny. In groups, they view examples of paintings and read poems on the...
Curated OER
Karen Hesse's Witness; Tolerance and Non-Discrimination
Students complete a graphic organizer depicting character views regarding African Americans during the early 20th century in America. In this graphic organizer of views instructional activity, students read the book Witness and become...
Curated OER
Honoring Our Veterans Through Poetry Prewriting
Students learn about the origins of holidays and cultural practices in the United States
Curated OER
October's Lesson Plan
Pupils listen to poetry about crocodiles. After discussing the relationship between humans and crocodiles, they make a list of ways humans hurt crocodiles and then write Prelutsky's poem from the crocodile perspective.
Curated OER
Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur
Students participate in various activities which address Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur. In this holiday lesson, students are exposed to Hebrew songs and construct Haiku poems about Yom Kippur.
Curated OER
So You Want to Be A Poet?
Fourth graders study different types of poetry and then write examples in this unit. They write, among others, free verse, Diamante, Clerihew, and color poems.
Curated OER
Listening for Tone
Students read and listen to various poems as they are read by different readers using different tones. They read "Jabberwocky" and in groups, determine what they think the nonsense words in the poem mean. The groups compare thier ideas...
Curated OER
Tongue Twisters
Second graders read the poem, "Betty Botter" and give their opinion of it. They discover what a tongue twister is and read the poem out loud together. Then as a class they read "Peter Piper" and discuss the similarities of the two poems.
Curated OER
Night Sounds
In this activity, children will discuss the different sounds they hear at night, sounds that they don't usually hear during the day. Then they will write and record a poem about these night sounds.
Curated OER
The Spider and the Fly
Students incorporate the knowledge they learned about spiders on the ISM Web site, Spider Collection, and other Web sites they viewed on
spiders to write a rhyming poem (possibly choosing a poem type illustrated here) about an aspect of...
Curated OER
Night Sounds
Pupils listen and discuss the sounds they heard at night. They write a class poem about those sounds at night. They keep a chart on their desk for ideas. The poem is read aloud to the class when it is finished.
Curated OER
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Students complete activities for the autobiography of Maya Angelou. In this autobiography lesson, students write a journal entry about their life and discuss the morphology of the word autobiography. Students use active reading...
Curated OER
Incident
Students gain insight into human behavior from the study of literature. They read a poem and respond by creating a poem of their own. After a lecture/demo, students utilize a worksheet imbedded in this plan to help them compose an...
Curated OER
Do They Rhyme?
Students pick out words that rhyme. In this lesson on rhyme, students listen to the teacher read the poem "My Robot Does My Homework" by Kenn Nesbitt and pick out words that rhyme.
Curated OER
Searching For The American Dream
Ninth graders explore the meaning of the American dream and how it has been explained in various forms. After reading various immigrant accounts, 9th graders use poetry and writing to explain how different cultures view the American...
Curated OER
I Was Hungry
Learners engage in a instructional activity that focuses on the problem of hunger in the world. They are presented with the concept of being a global citizen. The context of the instructional activity is the reading of poetry and...
Curated OER
30 Days Hath September
Fourth graders memorize the poem, Thirty Days Hath September in preparing for learning about the number of days in the months and year. Once memorized, they practice using the calendar to count the number of days in different problems.