Curated OER
Waterfalls
Third graders practice identifying the main idea and supporting details when reading informational text. They read text related to waterfalls and practice note taking skills to identify critical details. Students use their notes to...
Curated OER
Story Wheels
Learners use a Story Wheel to summarize a novel, practice sequencing skills, visualize story elements and recognize story structure. In groups, they each complete a piece of the story wheel and put it all together. They complete the...
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Renaissance Realities
Students analyze passages by Niccolo Machiavelli and Francis Bacon as an analysis of Renaissance ideas in contemporary situations. For this Renaissance writings lesson, students read excerpts from Machiavelli's The Prince and multiple...
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The Jigsaw Strategy: Students Put Pieces of Reading Together
Students demonstrate the jigsaw strategy by individually reading different selections of a text, and then coming together to share what they have learned.
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Reading Comprehension Worksheet: Cells
In this cell worksheet, students read a short passage about simple cells or ground cells found in stems and leaves of plants. Students then answer four questions about the text.
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Reading Between the Lines: Making Inferences About Idioms
Students discover idioms. In this inferencing lesson, students identify idioms from passages and infer meanings of unknown idioms using prior knowledge and experience. Students write sentences using newly learned idioms.
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Discovering Japan Through Cooperative Research
Search a variety of sources to create a multimedia or book project about Japan. Learners use the independent investigation method to plan and conduct research about Japan. They use the information they discover to create a computer book...
Utah Education Network (UEN)
8th Grade Poetry: Sonnet Poem
The third instructional activity of five in an eighth-grade poetry unit has young scholars comparing Shakespearean sonnets with Petrarchan sonnets. To begin, they examine the different structures of the two forms and their different...
Curated OER
One Grain of Rice
Upper graders read the story One Grain of Rice, and use a Venn diagram to compare and contrast topics found in the story to current event topics today. Groups of three learners work together to create their diagram. The topics they must...
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Propaganda
How does word choice affect the reading of a text? Compare two headlines that were written about the same event. Is one biased? Discuss how word choice often reveals the author's feelings about a topic. Then look at different techniques...
Core Task Project
Whatif by Shel Silverstein
What a skillful way to incorporate Shel Silverstein, a wonderful author, into the classroom. Composed of three tasks, children are led through a series of text-dependent questions that force them to unveil the meaning of Silverstein's...
Curated OER
A River Ran Wild: An Environmental History
The Nashua River serves as the focal point of an investigation of the treatment of and care for natural resources. A reading of A River Rand Wild: An Environmental History by Lynne Cherry, launches the study and class members consider...
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Poetry Project
Choosing a poet or a theme, eighth graders conduct research in the world of poetry. They conduct Internet research and select five poems that fit their poet or theme, and create a seven slide PowerPoint presentation on their selected...
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Analyzing Literary Devices
Eighth graders identify figurative language and poetry in this literary analysis lesson. Using Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll and a YouTube video for "The Walrus and the Carpenter," young readers complete a literary device...
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The Iditarod Race Compared with the Movie, Iron Will
Feel the freezing rush of an Alaskan sled dog race in this reading lesson plan. Using research about the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, seventh graders compare and contrast the depiction in the movie Iron Will. The lesson plan lasts for...
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From George to Martha: Writing a Sonnet Using Primary Sources
What was the relationship like between George and Martha Washington? To protect their privacy, Martha Washington destroyed all her husband’s letters after his death so historians have little evidence of their lives together. Two letters...
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Express Yourself Lesson Seed 11: Setting
Encourage your learners to examine the setting in Theodore Taylor's The Cay. Pupils work in small groups to put together a description of the setting before reading two more chapters of the book. They use their double-entry journals to...
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The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Explore Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" in this literature analysis lesson. Middle schoolers read and summarize the plot of the story. They then adapt passages for a contemporary audience and analyze the...
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Martin Luther King Jr.
After listening to a story about Martin Luther King Jr., first graders answer questions about the text. They discuss the importance of the illustrations, identify the beginning, middle, and end of the story, and complete a writing...
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Introduce Vocabulary: Kindergarten Count to 100 (Rogers)
Combine counting and vocabulary in context using Jacqueline Rogers' Kindergarten Count to 100. Suggested words for this text are: first, fountain, salute, second, and third. By introducing the terms before reading the text,...
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Cry, The Beloved Country: Anticipation Guide
“Poor people are poor because they are lazy and don’t work enough.” “If you are desperate, the means justify the ends.” Prior to reading Cry, The Beloved Country, class members complete an anticipation guide that focuses on issues raised...
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What Are the Advantages and Disadvantages of Conforming?
Dive into Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and determine what it means to conform in society, and discuss as a group with the thoughts and plans available in these documents. Included are multiple activities and brain targets that form the...
Star Wars in the Classroom
"Shakespeare and Star Wars": Lesson Plan Day 6
How can a screenplay create meaning and drama in ways that other forms of writing cannot? That is the question class members must answer as they compare the cantina scene of the screenplay for George Lucas's Star Wars: A New Hope...
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Julian Secret Agent: Commas
Your class participates in a variety of shared reading and writing activities related to the book Julian Secret Agent. They complete a class story chart, examine how to use punctuation for dialogue, write an alternative...