Curated OER
Beyond the Story: A Dickens of a Party
Seventh graders collaboratively research the life and times of Charles Dickens as it relates to a character from the story, and write and present a first-person character analysis.
Curated OER
Gearing up for Grammar
Students input autobiographical information to apply in a Diamante' poem that utilizes the different parts of speech. Students interact with each other sharing their autobiographical information completed on the database created....
Curated OER
Reading Artifacts
Students explore and analyze categorizing objects, material culture artifacts, from a variety of perspectives, to consider the story behind each one. They research skills by assessing how to look at artifacts as cultural outsiders would....
Curated OER
Danger on the Underground Railroad
Student examines the role of the Underground railroad. In this Post-Civil War lesson, 7th graders read and analyze primary sources. Students create a timeline that details the events of the stories.
Curated OER
Progressive Movement in Kansas
Seventh graders examine the Progressive Movement in Kansas. In this Progressive Era lesson, 7th graders study various facts about this era in Kansas. Students create a presentation on a law that was passed during this time.
Curated OER
News View
Students read and analyze three different news sources that describe the same event. They compare/contrast the similarities and differences of the news sources, and write an essay describing the main event.
Curated OER
From Different Angles
Young scholars participate in Socratic seminar discussing a person's right to refuse to say the Pledge of Allegiance.
Curated OER
The Seasonal Round and The Cycle of Life
Students identify important dates in the life of the school and the community through reserach and interviewing. They identify important dates in the state and nation and research various holidays and special occasions. Students design...
Curated OER
Reporting Live From...
Young scholars examine the many disasters in West Virginia. In this US history lesson, students write about and give an oral presentation of one of the disasters as if they were reporters.
Curated OER
Look What I Found Out!
Students attend a field trip. Upon their return to the classroom, students write unanswered questions related to the field trip. Using the internet and other resources, students find answers to their questions. They write their...
Curated OER
Empowering Young People to Repair the World
Learners analyze the role of study vs. good deeds in contributing to improving the world. They discuss how study and action are important and consider their obligation to make the world a better place. After discussing the concept of...
Curated OER
Teaching the Toki Kaku Dako
Students complete various readings and decorating, constructing, and flying a kite. They analyze how the parts of a system to together. Students comprehend the concept of area.
Curated OER
Figurative Language
Students put poetic interpretations back together to explain the poem. Starting with cliches, students learn what various phrases mean. They analyze words, phrases and levels of meaning.
Curated OER
Electrical Circuits And Switches
Students design and draw circuits with batteries, small light bulbs and common household conductors. They build and test the circuit then modify it so someone who couldn't use their hands could turn the circuit on and off.
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University
De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: Classify and Summarize Information [Pdf]
This learning module contains a link to graphic organizers that will help students categorize content and comprehend short and extended texts. The graphic organizers are designed to be applied to reading nonfiction passages in science...
ReadWriteThink
Read Write Think: Scaffolding Summarization With Fishbone Mapping
Lesson that teaches students how to find important and significant information while reading text. After locating information through strategies, students learn how to summarize content-area text. A downloadable fishbone template is linked.
ReadWriteThink
Read Write Think: Get the Gist: A Summarizing Strategy for Any Content Area
A five-part standards-based lesson plan in which students learn to write a 20 word summary of an informational text by focusing on answering the questions who, what, when, where, why, and how. This strategy can be applied to any content...
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University
De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: Expand Story or History Text Based Dialog[pdf]
Students will use graphic organizers to help them make inferences about historical figures' feeings and motives. Students will summarize the information during an extension activity.
Other
Keys to Literacy: How to Write a Summary
Learn the seven steps to writing a summary of an informational text. Includes a summary template and completed examples.
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Walmart Middle School Litercy Initiative
Interactive, student-paced lessons on such literacy skills as categorizing, comparing and contrasting, summarizing, evaluating, determining cause and effect, using text features, connecting, inferring, sequencing, understanding problems...