K12 Reader
Biography of Abraham Lincoln
One skill essential to reading comprehension, is learning how to summarize a text. After reading a biography of Abraham Lincoln, readers demonstrate this ability by crafting a brief summary of Lincoln's life.
Curated OER
Rachel's Life is in a Hole
Explore how lack of access to water impacts peoples' lives in poor countries. Through text reading and discussion, middle schoolers are presented with the story of a young girl who lives and functions with limited water resources. They...
Polk Bros Foundation
Analyze History
Determining the central idea of a historical event or theme involves identifying key points of information, such as the people and place involved in the history, challenges faced, and choices made. Your young historians can use this...
Polk Bros Foundation
Common Core Constructed Response Organizer
Get your writers ready to compose a constructed response essay in response to either an informational or fictional text. Pupils note down the big idea they wish to address as well as up to nine examples from the text that they wish to...
Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
Slave Narratives: Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs, and the Columbian Orator
Young historians practice in-depth, quality analysis of primary source texts in this three-lesson unit, which examines excerpts from the slave narratives of Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs, and Caleb Bingham.
Curated OER
The Long and Short of It: Summarizing Important Details
Students practice their summarizing skills while listening to a brief biography of Amelia Earhart. Students take notes while the teacher reads the article and write a paragraph that summarizes the important events from Amelia Earhart's...
Curated OER
Academic Raceway: The Telltale Heart
This literature study PowerPoint summarizes and reviews the key points of the book, The Telltale Heart. The slides display a mock raceway where students must answer questions about the text in order to complete the raceway. This is an...
Curated OER
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
Explore Washington Irving's "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" in this literature analysis lesson. Middle schoolers read and summarize the plot of the story. They then adapt passages for a contemporary audience and analyze the...
Curated OER
Cite Right
What do you need to cite, and how can you avoid plagiarizing? This presentation is aimed at beginning writers, and it details some of the ways people plagiarize (even accidentally) and what sort of information needs to be cited. The best...
Curated OER
Lesson 11: Illinois History 1800's Dual Timeline
Middle schoolers identify and research key event in the history of Illinois during the 1800's and create a dramatic skit or oral report based on the event.
Achievement Strategies
CCSS Unpacked Learning Targets for Reading and Writing History/Social Studies
How do all the lessons and activities you have planned for your class align to Common Core State Standards? This can feel like a very daunting question. Help ease the process by referencing a template that not only lists and organizes...
iCivics
A Trip Around the World
How do the rights of citizens in other countries, such as India, Germany, Brazil, and Iran, compare to those of Americans? Take a closer look at the provisions of various foreign constitutions, and compare and contrast the protections...
Curated OER
Collaborative Book Club Groups
Students participate in book club forums where they write descriptive, evaluation, analysis, synthesis, or inference essays. They take on the role of a character in their bok and publish a web page.