Curated OER
Community Journals
Students visit a multimedia online journal as a model for their research and journal about their own communities. They examine writing for themselves and writing for an audience as they study the community and present it in more than one...
Curated OER
Reading My Hero Stories
Learners use the My Hero website to help them develop their reading skills. They create a KWL chart for the hero of their choice.
Curated OER
Daily Language Practice Builds Skills, Test Scores
Students develop their proofreading skills. In this daily language practice lesson, students improve their writing skills as they edit passages. The editing work encompasses capitalization, punctuation, and grammar.
Curated OER
Organizers for Students
Young scholars . In this organization lesson, students have a general discussion about sports cards and make a chart to answer the questions. Young scholars read the baseball card story from USA Today. Students watch a web video about...
Curated OER
Read-a-thon
Students gain an appreciation for books. They track and calculate the amount of money collected in a classroom or school-wide read-a-thon. The lesson plan encourages students to become better readers with the end result being an increase...
Student Achievement Partners
Laura Hillenbrand's "Unbroken" and Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and James D. Houston's "Farewell to Manzanar"
Passages from Unbroken and Farewell to Manzanar provide the context for a study of the historical themes of experiencing war, resilience during war, and understanding the lasting trauma of war. Appendices include extension...
Curated OER
Create a Magic Lantern Show; Freed People in the Reconstruction South
Engage your scholars by having them create "magic lantern shows" inspired by the film Dr. Toer's Amazing Magic Lantern Show: A Different View of Emancipation. As they study the South's Reconstruction through primary...
Smarter Balanced
A New Kind of News
Newspapers and broadcast news. Social media, blogs, and blogospheres. Class members generate a list of news sources they use to get information about events. The big idea here is to introduce the necessary vocabulary and to establish a...
Mark Twain Media
Understanding Informational Text Features
Everything you need to know about informational text features can be found in this resource. Recognizing these types of text features and how they are used in text allows readers to better understand information. Teachers...
Curated OER
Myth and Truth: The First Thanksgiving
Encourage learners to think critically about common myths regarding the Wampanoag Indians in Colonial America. They discover that behind every myth are many possible explanations—and that learning more about American history helps them...
National Geographic
Altitude: What's in the Air?
Introuduce your scientists to the differences in air at varying altitudes with a colorful explanatory graph. After some discussion, they view unbelievable footage of mountain-climbing Leo Houlding and a narrative about how he might do...
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
The Day the Mesozoic Died
While this is not the traditional, step-by-step lesson plan, it is chock-full of material that you can easily incorporate into your earth history unit. Its main purpose is to serve as a guide to using a three-part film, The Day the...
Fluence Learning
Writing About Literature: What Is Happiness?
Jack London's heart for adventure has come to define the spirit of America and its frontier. Selected passages from the foreword The Cruise of the Snark take eighth graders through London's construction and voyage of his ship before...
Teaching Tolerance
Film Festival
Everybody's a critic—even your pupils! Using the included resources as a guide, screen films related to social justice and ask film enthusiasts to critique them. Publish the reviews for your school community or develop a film festival...
Curated OER
Interpreting & Verifying the News in an Era of Info Overload
Students practice their critical thinking skills. In this media awareness lesson plan, students read articles about media overload and interpretation of media. Students respond to discussion questions and discuss how they...
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Evaluating Web Sites for Bias
Students become familiar with checklist they use to evaluate Web content for bias. They use the checklist to evaluate two Web sites from very different sources.
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Radio Free America?
Learners explore the controversy over the recent FCC vote to loosen restrictions on media ownership. After researching the background and position of local radio stations, students evaluate and make recommendations about free speech.
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Teen Scene
Students examine what teenagers value most, and discuss the trend of decadent sixteenth birthday parties. They read an article, analyze forms of teen-focused media, and create a visual presentation on their media analysis.
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Do You Know Your Health IQ?
Students define common medical terms. they prepare quizzes on health-related topics to administer to both peers and adults. They write analysis papers based on their findings.
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Le Grand Voyage
Eighth graders work in collaborative groups to research a country of their choosing. Groups use the internet to their country and plan a trip to that location. Students complete a multi-media presentation of their country, following a...
Curated OER
Lessons from the Holocaust
Learners investigate the horrors of World War II by participating in a role-playing activity. For this holocaust lesson, students read handouts describing the atrocities committed against the Jews in Germany during the mass...
Curated OER
Straight Talk On Tough Issues
Young scholars engage in a lesson that is focused upon the concept of breast cancer and research is conducted using a variety of reference sources. They reflect upon how different people deal with the tragedy of cancer and then students...
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The Art of Violence
Violence and human suffering, as represented in art and film, are the focus of an investigation of the power of visual images and the moral implications of such representations. Class members examine “Guernica,” Pablo Picasso’s massive...
Curated OER
Tutors & Readers Theater
Students complete literacy service learning projects. In this literacy lesson, older students work with younger students to tutor them in reading and writing. They help prepare a Readers Theater for the younger students.