National First Ladies' Library
Jefferson's Legacy: A National Library
Students examine the creation of the Library of Congress. They investigate reasons why Thomas Jefferson sold his personal collection to the Library. Employing various research resources, students write newspaper articles about the sale...
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Picture This
Students explore finding facts from the Internet to create a nonfiction story. In this writing lesson, students fill out KWL charts and do internet research about the given topic of spiders. Students then create and illustrate...
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Greed is Good?
From Mr. Merdle to Mr. Madoff? A viewing of the PBS adaptation of Charles Dickens’ “Little Dorrit” launches an examination of greedy characters in literature and a study of greed, unfairness, and economic hardship today. The richly...
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Comparing or Contrasting Two Books
Students compare two pieces of literature. In this literary comparisons lesson, students read 2 books that they personally select and then compare and contrast the literary elements of each in a comparative essay.
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Story Pyramid And Comparison
Learners investigate the details of a chosen story of literature. They use a pyramid graphic organizer to record information. The information is used to write a summary of the story. Students use a rubric while writing the summary to...
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If These Walls Could Talk: Seeing a Culture Through Human Features
Students read Talking Walls and discuss the walls presented and their importance to the culture. In this geography lesson, students locate and label each country/continent discussed in the book on a world map. Students take a walk and...
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Looking at Owls in Literature, Art, and Science
Fifth graders investigate the characteristics of owls through various science and art activities. They analyze drawings by J.J. Audubon and complete a Venn diagram comparing the similarities and differences of different kinds of owls,...
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Most Wanted Villians
Learners review the characteristics of various characters in fairytales. As a class, they review the story details and create a concept map using a software program. They create their own wanted poster of the villians in the fairytale to...
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Family Traditions
High schoolers research their family traditions. They select a tradition that has meaning to them and write about the traditions. They retell the story to a partner and add details. They write a draft of their story to a partner and...
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Stories
Students read and write a short story. In this short story lesson plan, students read a short story and answer comprehension questions on it that teaches them about the world around them. Then they write a short story to teach...
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A Little Mystery and Intrigue in Writing Short Detective Stories
Pupils read and analyze the twelve short stories in the novel "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes." They create their own detective that has to solve a new kind of crime, and write and edit a short story with their original detective as...
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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...
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Pigging Out on Reading Comprehension
Students summarize a piece of fiction text. After reviewing the correct way to read in order to summarize, students independently read the story "Pig in a Bag." They write a summary paragraph using the process outlined by the instructor...
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Mythical Mayhem
Students explore Greek and Roman mythology in this five lessons unit. Common gods, their roles in the myth and stories of the era are surveyed as students take on the personality of a mythical character.
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A Wrinkled Relationship
Students become familiar with the hardships of mothers during the Great Depression. They also gain an understanding of the literary style of monologue and first-person point of view through creating their own monologues in response to a...
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How Logical is Garfield?
Third graders analyze comics found in the newspaper for samples of logical, emotional, and ethical appeal. They write a paragraph for each selected comic strip explaining how the comic strip represents the use of logic, emotions, or ethics.
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Whitewashing Southern History
Students discuss the fact and fiction of slavery in the South. After viewing a video on two New Orleans plantations, they determine the accuracy of the facts presented. In the computer lab, they visit various sites and examine which ones...
Hawaiʻi State Department of Education
Story Design
Stories contain very specific elements; plot, characters, and key events. Learners use pantomime to retell a key event from the beginning, middle, and end of a story. They discuss setting and character as each group discusses and then...
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War Poetry, Journals and Letters: Viet Nam
Examine letters written during war-time. In this cross curricular history and English instructional activity, middle and high school scholars read letters and poems written by soldiers in the Vietnam war. They will examine the...
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Teaching Language Arts in Kindergarten Using Stories, Aesop's Fables, and Tall Tales
Students search into a variety of story elements in the eight lessons of this unit. The title, author, illustrator, setting, main character, problem, solution, events and the story are the components of the lessons.
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Essential Narrative Concepts
Students interact with the main concepts of a narrative text in the six lessons of this unit. The setting, prediction, retelling, sequencing, and the identification of the beggining, middle and end of a story are investigated.
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Time to Read
Students identify how the literary elements of theme, point of view, characterization, setting, and plot illustrate the effects of a certain disease on a community. They identify the aspects of the book that are specific to the...
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GODS OF THUNDER: Myths and Mythical Characters
Students explore the myths and legends of the Ancient Greek and Romans in the ten lessons of this unit. Students compare and contrast the myths and the cultures that created them. Norse myths are included in this unit.
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K Is for Keelboat
Fifth graders investigate the significance of the keelboat in the Lewis and Clark expedition. They define the key themes of the expedition and classify them in prescribed format, an ABC book.