Curated OER
Response to Literature: Anecdotal and Saga Memoir Poems
Students differentiate between anecdotal and saga memoir poems. In this response to literature instructional activity students analyze poems written by others then analyze incidents from their own lives to determine whether they meet the...
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Understanding Characters
Young scholars analyzing characters from a story by creating an article about one. For this story analysis lesson, students read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl, and pick one character to write descriptively about....
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Creating a Life Map
Students create their own life map in which they introduce themselves to each other by sharing what they are most proud of. They use a life map to expressive themselves creatively.
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Tuck Everlasting
Seventh graders use literary terms while discussing literature with their peers. They explore literature on a deeper level. Students formulate their opinions regarding response to literature, as this lesson helps students practice...
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The Road to Success
Students chronicle the main events in their lives so far. They draft, revise, and publish an anecdote. Students get to know their fellow classmates and they build a nurturing learning community. Students take an interest inventory and...
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Can You Make a Difference?
Students write and present a speech. In this service instructional activity, students read an anecdote adapted from The Star Thrower and discuss their feelings about their ability to make a difference in the world. Students make a...
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Arkansas Photographs as Research Tools
Middle and high schoolers look at historical photos and written materials, and they develop questions which they use to interview an elder in their community. Learners are divided into groups and given sets of historical family photos...
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Art Around the World
The non-fiction book Art Around the World by Heather Leonard serves as inspiration for learning how art reflects cultures and values. New vocabulary and background knowledge are fleshed out before reading the story. Afterward, the class...
PBS
Finding Story Ideas
Pitch your best news story to your news team, or the peers in your journalism class, with a lesson about finding, reporting, and presenting a story. After watching clips of different examples, as well as strategies for finding...
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Discovering Me
Read selections from recommended autobiographies, poetry and short stories. Interview family members to collect material useful for constructing a family tree or other types of family history.
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Recycled Greeting Cards
Students create greeting cards from recycled products. They research how paper is recyled and the history of paper. They write free verse and create their own recycled paper. They use Microsoft Word to write their final drafts of verse...
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Once Upon a Time
High school pupils research online to complete a family tree and explore their ancestry. They view a sketch of a family tree, and brainstorm questions to ask their parents about their heritage. They also diagram their own family tree. In...
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A Critical Role
Students read a New York Times review of the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco. They discuss the roles and responsibilities of a cultural critic, and prepare for a visit to a local museum in order to write their own reviews.
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Poetry and Visualization
Learners use visualization techniques when reading poetry. In this visualization and poetry lesson, students work in groups to present a tableau that depicts a word from the poem as classmates guess the word. Learners then...
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Millennium Superheroes
Students develop an understanding of the qualities that "superheroes," or people who have favorably influenced society, possess. They create a database with questions that pertain to what they want to find out about a hero of the...
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I'm A Poet and Now I Know It
Eighth graders gather ideas generated from other poems and their own inspiration, to create original poetry. A celebration is included as students bind and submit poems for publication.
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Horatio's Drive
Students assess the literary quality and elements of Jackson's journey to write a ballad about his automobile adventure.
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Poetry Pop-Up
Third graders, after exploring the process of writing poetry through imagery words that go beyond pen and paper, create a Poetry Pop-Up Book. They incorporate the use of the Thesaurus and clip-art/digital photography to assist them in...
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Digital Poetry Books
Students, after reviewing the writing process and assessing how to use a digital camera to take creative photos, create a Digital Poetry Book. They incorporate the use of Microsoft Photo Draw and Publisher for the creation of their...
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Imagery: Symbolic/realistic
Young scholars recognize and use the visual arts as a form of communication. They use the computer as a visual arts tool to gather images for a story they are telling. They discuss related stories that differ in their realistic images. ...
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All About Me Brochure
Eighth graders complete a prewriting activity to gather information about themselves. They create a brochure using their prewriting activity that will introduce themselves to either a prospective employer or their freshman teachers.
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The Civil War: Learning from Our Peers
Fifth graders discover the Civil War as taught by their peers. For this Civil War lesson, 5th graders create their own lesson plans to teach the class about the Civil War. The students are monitored by the teacher but are given lectures...
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The Making of the Mahatma: Gandhi's Childhood
Students investigate the childhood of one of the greatest philosophers of our time, Gandhi. In this biography lesson, students analyze the upbringing and events that finally shaped Mahatma Gandhi's life. Students locate...
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Just Plain Fancy
Students complete pre reading, writing, during reading, and interdisciplinary activities for the book Just Plain Fancy. For this reading lesson plan, students complete journal entries, go over vocabulary, answer short answer questions,...