Curated OER
Different Audiences
Students examine levels of language difficulty for different audiences. They explore how to simplify texts to suit a younger audience. Students use a thesaurus to find synonyms. Students select a news article to rewrite. They create...
Curated OER
Vocabulary - Unfolding Meaning
Learners use the dictionary and thesaurus and are able to explain a definition in their own words.
Curated OER
The Thrill of Big-Wave Surfing
Students view a PBS Nature program about big-wave surfing and participate in a class discussion about their experiences with surfing, body boarding, or body surfing. Students create a drawing based on a reading and post their art around...
Teachers.net
Smoking and the Advertising Industry (Middle, other) SMOK_AD.DOC
Middle schoolers study advertising techniques and the effects of smoking on health.
Curated OER
Look It Up!
Sixth graders improve their writing skills by finding, defining, and correctly using new and interesting vocabulary words. Groups of students work together to find, define, and use in sentences ten words with which they are all unfamiliar.
Curated OER
Speech Marks
Students will read through a transcript. They then brainstorm words that demonstrate that people are talking. Students then rewrite the transcript report as a description of the actual conversation.
Curated OER
Research Project
Sixth graders use research, word-processing, graphic skills and a multi-media presentation. They complete a research project that meets the requirements for the Grade 6 Renaissance report.
Curated OER
Pond Animals During The Seasons
Students interact with a CD Rom to examine pond life. For this pond life lesson, students access a CD Rom entitled "Sammy's Science House CD Rom" in order to see pond life during the different season of the year. They study the...
Curated OER
Journeys
Young scholars write a story using their journey to school as the setting. In groups, they discuss their experiences and browse through books to get ideas for their story. They practice using a thesaurus to find new verbs or adjectives...
Curated OER
Where to Look for the USA?
Fifth graders, in groups, explore the the type of reference sources are needed to answer a question. Each group identifies where the material was located, and the teacher records the guess.
Curated OER
Intrigued with Yo-Yos!
Fifth graders review the writing process and complete a research activity. In this writing process lesson, 5th graders research yo-yos online and write a research paper about the topic.
Curated OER
Learning Vocabulary by Using Reference Materials
Finding engaging ways to help your middle schoolers build their vocabulary is not easy to do. The instructional activity presented here offers a great way to motivate them to build vocabulary by making it into a game. Teams of pupils use...
Curated OER
Ornithology and Real World Science
Double click that mouse because you just found an amazing lesson! This cross-curricular Ornithology lesson incorporates literature, writing, reading informational text, data collection, scientific inquiry, Internet research, art, and...
Curated OER
Homophone Cartoons
A terrific lesson on homophones awaits your youngsters. First, pupils access a website that contains lists of homophones. Then, it's time to get creative! Everyone gets a piece of poster board and they create a homophone cartoon -...
Curated OER
Technopoet - Poetry Lesson Plans
Practice word processing while writing different types of poems. First, elementary and middle schoolers use Word templates to write poetry. They use rhyming and descriptive words as they work with clipart, text wrapping, and picture...
Curated OER
A Twist On Teaching Affixes
Engaging your class in prefix and suffix instruction with these helpful ideas.
Texas Education Agency (TEA)
Byzantine Architecture
View Byzantine architecture from the comfort of your classroom. A PowerPoint presentation introduces important vocabulary terms and examples of Byzantine architecture in the ninth lesson of the 11-part series. A Jeopardy game reviews...
Curated OER
Locating Information Quickly in a Variety of Resources
Here is a instructional activity which may be best suited for a library science teacher, or one that can be done by a regular teacher when in the library. In it, learners explore the best ways to use print and electronic resources to...
Texas Education Agency (TEA)
Geometry in Architecture #1
Discover how to analyze architecture from a geometric standpoint. The fourth installment of an 11-part unit on architecture first provides a presentation on axis, balance, basic form, formal, pattern, proportion, symmetry, and tripartite...
Curated OER
Nouns in a Story
Young scholars, assessing a variety of formatting tools with Microsoft Word, utilize a bank of vocabulary words to make a personal dictionary of nouns. They classify nouns for people, places, things and ideas and separate them into...
Virginia Department of Education
The Writing Process for Persuasive Writing
Get your junior high writers stimulated with the strategies and ideas available in this activity. Learners discuss and debate controversial subjects, and outline their reasons with an online graphic organizer (link included) that creates...
Curated OER
Desert Plant Detectives
Students examine and categorize plants in their own schoolyard desert garden and then observe other plant areas of their schoolyard.
Curated OER
Become an Expert
Students are assigned a separate species of plant or bird to research. Using a worksheet, they are responsible for finding a variety of information on their assigned plant or bird. They also complete a mini-poster and give an oral...
Curated OER
Children Around The World
Students read a multicultural book called "This Is the Way We Go to School" by Edith Baer and Steve Bjorhman. They become culturally aware of the different nationalities around the world and different ways that they may do things on a...