Curated OER
Teaching Julius Caesar: A Differentiated Approach
While the themes of Julius Caesar may appeal to most readers, the act of reading the play can be a challenge. A unit plan related to the popular play by Shakespeare provides lesson plans and activities designed for differentiated...
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A Multi-Media Approach to Teaching The Grapes of Wrath
Integrate history, math, and art into a study of The Grapes of Wrath with a series of activities that ask learners to investigate the social, political, economic, and environmental factors at play during the 1930s. Designed to be used...
Peace Corps
Introducing Culture
Growing up within a culture leaves a lot of ideas and values unspoken. Take a closer look at the cultures in which your learners live with a discussion activity that addresses cultural identity and traits of those living within the...
E Reading Worksheets
Context Clues
Reinforce language and reading comprehension skills with a learning exercise focused on context clues. Scholars carefully read twelve sentences, use prior knowledge and sentence clues to define an unknown word.
Curated OER
Social Studies: Exploring Boston's Big Dig
Students, in a high school class for autistic children, take a virtual tour of Boston's "Big Dig" and the artifacts discovered there. During weekly lab sessions, they discover the processes involved in artifact preservation. Using...
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Gender Bender
Learners explore the effects of Title IX. In addition, tudents create revised rulebooks for a sport in their school based on their understanding of Title IX and write a related article for the school newspaper.
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About Life: The Photographs of Dorothea Lange Image as Metaphor
Students define metaphor in both art and writing. In this metaphor lesson, students examine a photograph by Dorothea Lange and discuss the metaphor that is displayed in the picture. They write about an object that symbolizes a personal...
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Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales
A thorough lesson introduces learners to Hans Christian Andersen, the nineteenth-century author who created wonderful tales. They read the original texts of several of his stories, including "The Ugly Duckling," "The Little Mermaid,"...
Curated OER
Editorial Writing: What's On Your Mind
Young scholars write an editorial column for a newspaper. For this journalism lesson, students discuss and analyze editorials in print and broadcast media. Young scholars will compare the differences in these two formats of...
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Learning Types of Editorials - and Writing Some
Students recognize and differentiate between the three types of editorials in order to write editorials for the school newspaper. In this editorials instructional activity, students read example persuasive and interpretative editorials....
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Story Generators
Students develop news stories for the high school paper based on current issues in the local news. Students identify different sources for articles, and develop interviews questions. In this news ideas and sources lesson plan, students...
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Perspectives on Written & Spoken English
Learners explore issues surrounding language norms, including the distinction between prescriptive and descriptive norms, the differences between norms for spoken English and those for written English, how word meanings change, and...
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Where Do I Begin: Writing an Effective Feature Story
High schoolers write an effective feature story. In this journalism lesson plan, students learn through 6 activities to ask open-ended questions, write effective leads, and handle quotes, and write headlines for news stories.
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Ethics and Hazelwood: What Journalists Should and Can Write
Students explore the code of ethics in journalism. In this journalism ethics lesson, students use Hazelwood and Tinker to explore journalism ethics. Students compare ethics of journalists and pirates, read a related article, write their...
Curated OER
A Holiday Newsletter In MS Word For Elementary School
Students produce a holiday newsletter using a software program. In this holiday newsletter lesson plan, students use a software template to write a newsletter. They fill in the template with appropriate information and pictures.
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Writing Headlines
Students define the purpose of headlines and practice writing their own. In this news writing instructional activity, students define the elements of headlines and view examples. Students read a news story in groups and create a headline...
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Create a Storybook in KidPix
Students create a storybook by using KidPix software. In this technology lesson, students write creative short stories and publish them on KidPix. Students illustrate the stories using Kid Pix tools.
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Using Best Newspaper Writing in a Journalism Class
Students explore the genre of journalism. In this journalism lesson, students examine newspaper articles and identify reporting techniques. Students collaborate to identify excellent pieces of newspaper writing.
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Proofreading with Peer Editing
A standard peer editing activity, young writers get into groups and pass their papers to each of their peers in turn; each person checking their peer's paper for spelling, punctuation, and grammar mistakes. In a fun twist, your class...
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Writing Children's Literature
Students examine the common themes and characteristics of children's literature. They develop a list of characteristics, read and discuss examples of children's literature, and create an original children's book.
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Bulleted Lists: punctuating items in vertical lists
What is easier to read: a bulleted list or a block of text? Look at different examples with your class and then go over the style guidelines for vertical lists.
Portland Public Schools
Teaching Tone to Teenagers
Tone is a tough topic to teach to teenagers. But never, fear, help is here in the form of a unit plan that takes advantage of their interest in music to set the stage for a series of activities that lead them to understand how setting,...
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Put the Title of the Lesson Here
Eighth graders write a Compare and Contrast essay comparing the lives of similarly aged students at different Latitudes. They share their essays with epals, via e-mail. They may include digital photographs in their correspondence as well.
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Preparing for the Possibility of Terrorists
Students investigate what schools and communities can do to be prepared for terrorist attacks, review school's disaster plan, research types of possible attacks, prepare infographic that makes facts clear, and write news article...