Curated OER
Japanese Objects as Cultural Artifacts: A Model Lesson Using Textiles
Middle schoolers complete a unit on the cultural significance of textiles in the Japanese culturre. They analyze cotton, line, silk, and wool fabrics, examine various fabric creation and decoration techniques, select an object and write...
Curated OER
Collecting, organizing and comparing data for cellular telephone buying and calculating average, and median price and best deal per cost.
Pupils research data and develop statistical methods such as mean and median price and make convincing arguments as powerful ways for decision making.
Curated OER
Narrative Strategies
Sixth graders explore strategies authors use to make characters and setting seem real to readers. They develop characters and describe setting in original narratives. Students read myths and determine common themes found in myths from...
Curated OER
Language Arts- Word Origins
Sixth graders locate, access, and select appropriate information from a variety of resources, including electronic sources. They analyze the audience and purpose of the task to make decisions about content and format.
Curated OER
Evaluating an Olympic Sport
Learners research the political context of the Winter Olympics in general and within certain countries in particular. They read authentic, published articles on the topic from the Internet and add this information to the spreadsheet as...
Curated OER
Revolutionary Women Portraits: Finding and Viewing New Perspectives
Students identify and analyze portraits of Revolutionary-era women. Creating a concept web, they record the actions by women during the war to be made into a chart and timeline. They discuss the cultural and social expectations of women...
Curated OER
Rock Art
Students create replica symbols of rock are found in Wisconsin and work cooperatively to create a rock art panel. They observe rock art to find their meanings and reasons why they were created.
Virginia Department of Education
Balancing Act
How many different interpretations of the mean are there? Scholars place numbers on a number line and determine the mean. They interpret the mean as the average value and as the balance point.
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...
Science 4 Inquiry
Layers and Laws: The Law of Superposition and Index Fossils
What can layers of rock teach us about the climate? Young scientists solve a mystery about who stole a cookie by applying the law of superposition. Then, they apply the same concept to solve a more difficult mystery, trying to determine...
Curriculum Corner
ELA Common Core Checklists for K-6
In the hustle and bustle of life in the classroom, it's easy for teachers to lose track of the standards they have taught, and those that still need to be addressed. This Common Core checklist provides educators with an easy-to-use...
Science 4 Inquiry
Temperature of Inner Planets
Mars, Earth, and Venus contain atmospheres that generate weather. Young scientists explore the temperature of inner planets. They create a model simulating the greenhouse effect before researching and answering guided questions to...
KERA
Matisse and Picasso
Discover Modernism through the eyes of artists. Over the course of six well-thought-out lessons, learners examine works by Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse while completing a range of collaborative and hands-on activities. A great resource!
Curated OER
Anne Frank: One of Hundreds of Thousands
Middle schoolers conduct research to put Anne Frank's diary into historical context. They use maps, timelines, essays and websites to examine the early victories of the German army, paying special attention to the Netherlands and...
Curated OER
Friar Margil and the Spanish Missions
Students examine the concepts of diversity and assimilation. They identify the validity of sources and recognize bias, and create original illustrations from the students' point of view which show the impact of the Spanish friars on the...
Noyce Foundation
Ducklings
The class gets their mean and median all in a row with an assessment task that uses a population of ducklings to work with data displays and measures of central tendency. Pupils create a frequency chart and calculate the mean and median....
Curated OER
Discovering Language Arts-Intermediate Fiction
Explore the elements of science fiction. Young scholars investigate the literary elements present in science fiction and write their own science fiction stories.
Gwinnett County Public Schools
Analysis of the Tuck Everlasting and The Birchbark House Text Exemplars
Looking to introduce some text-based questions into your ELA lessons? Practice the kinds of skills the Common Core demands with the seven text-based questions and the essay prompt provided here. Designed to be a three-day lesson, day one...
Curated OER
Bring Literature Circles Into Your Classroom
Tips and strategies for adding literature circles to your language arts curriculum.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Songwriting Skill - Choosing a Tone: Jordan Pruitt - “One Love”
"Tone means attitude." Or so says this resource that uses Jordan Pruitt's "One Love" to model for songwriters how to develop an attitude in their lyrics. Class members engage in a number of exercises designed to give them direct and...
Biz Kids
Understanding Business Ethics
After screening an episode by BizKids, scholars show what they know about business vocabulary, then take part in grand conversations about role models and ethical dilemmas.
Reed Novel Studies
The Wednesday Wars: Novel Study
Teacher's pet or enemy? Holling, a character in The Wednesday Wars, feels his teacher is out to get him. However, he has to remain on his best behavior to ensure his father's business does not suffer. How will he ever survive 7th grade?...
Star Wars in the Classroom
"Shakespeare and Star Wars": Lesson Plan Days 13 and 14
How important are sound effects in films? In stage plays? In radio programs? To gain an understanding of the impact of these special effects, class members watch a short video spoof of the sound in a scene from Star Wars: A New...
Reed Novel Studies
From The Mixed Up Files Of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler: Novel Study
Claudia Kincaid decides to run away to bring some excitement to her life, but she never expects the adventure she finds. A helpful study guide takes readers through the novel From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler....