Curated OER
Find The Hidden Message: Media Literacy in Primary Grades
Learners practice listening to and reading various types of media and text. In groups, learners use video, newspapers, magazines, and more to compare and contrast different types of information. They identify the differences between fact...
Ohio Department of Education
Word Origins
Understanding a word's etymology can really help with decoding and building vocabulary skills. Readers compare and contrast words of similar origins but with different difficulty levels. They focus on prefixes, suffixes, and affixes....
National Wildlife Federation
Endangered Species: What and Where?
What do endangered species have in common with non-endangered species? Given an endangered species to read about, individuals choose another species that is not endangered to compare it to. As a class, they create a species book with the...
Curated OER
Call it "Macaroni"
Who knew there were so many fun educational opportunities featuring pasta? Scholars read a brief informational text about the history of pasta (note that "macaroni" is spelled two different ways, so address this if kids are reading...
Los Angeles Unified School District
World History Medieval and Early Modern Times
A slew of graphic organizers, worksheets, and student activities are packaged here for your world history pupils. From comparing and contrasting the Qur'an and Sunnah, studying cultural diffusion across eastern nations, or examining the...
Library of Congress
The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
Follow the journey of Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Tin Man, and the Cowardly Lion down the Yellow Brick Road. An eBook version of The Wonderful Wizard of Oz features the original text and graphics. Notice how colors change between...
Curated OER
Memoir
After reading and analyzing two narrative memoirs, middle schoolers engage in a variety of activities, including writing an essay, developing a story map, and creating character charts. They then compare and contrast story maps, and...
Curated OER
Formal versus Informal Language
Engage in an activity that focuses on the concepts of formal and informal language use. Middle and high schoolers compare and contrast each style by using a Venn diagram that includes some examples. They read and hear a passage of lyrics...
Lerner Publishing
Teaching Folklore
Wonderful worksheets and activities complementing six sequential lessons are what you'll find in this unit on folklore. Pupils create folktales using literary devices and included story starters, compare and contrast different folklores,...
It's About Time
Organic Substances
Host an exciting lab in which learners burn fruit rinds to better understand hydrocarbons. A reading passage and analysis questions wrap up the lesson.
Stanford University
The Gold Rush and San Francisco
The California Gold Rush rewrote the history of the American West, but especially that of San Francisco. After analyzing images of the city and primary sources, such as a diary entry, scholars discuss these changes. Scaffolded questions...
US Department of Energy
Hydrogen and Electrolysis
Electrify your science class with this simple electrolysis experiment. After first reading about hydrogen and its potential as an alternative energy source, a demonstration is performed showing young scientists how water molecules can be...
Curated OER
Good Apples
Students investigate diversity. In this diversity lesson, students look at a variety of apples in order to compare and contrast their physical characteristics. They apply the concept to people by listing how people are the same and...
Concordia University Chicago
Winter Landscape with Skaters by Hendrick Avercamp
In need of a quick set of ideas to use on a wintery day? Why not analyze Winter Landscape with Skaters with your class? After a thorough discussion, learners compare and contrast two paintings, research what curators do, draw landscapes,...
VH1
Lesson 2: Moulin Rouge
The pop movie Moulin Rouge was based on the opera La Boheme. Learners watch the last 30 minutes of each musical to compare and contrast social opposites. They'll first discuss the social differences of the main characters and how those...
Curated OER
Gopher It! Exploring German Cyberspace
Students are introduced to the Gopher research tools. In groups, they compare and contrast English and German services on the gopher servers. They create their own dictionary of computer related terms and spend time downloading picture...
Curated OER
Introductory Bacteria and Virus Worksheet
Compare and contrast eukaryotes, prokaryotes, and viruses with a chart and a Venn diagram. Beginning microbiologists consider motility, reproductive ability, DNA content, and the presence of organelles. They write short answers to...
Curated OER
"Music Be the Food of Love:" Found Poetry with Shakespeare and Hip-Hop
Lines from Shakespeare and from hip-hop artists provide learners with an opportunity to examine the literary devices these artists use to express their ideas about love. Groups use the provided lines to craft found poems, and then the...
Curated OER
Finding Meaning in the Badge
Children who are three to five years old study two rank badges from the Qing dynasty to develop an understanding of social rank, language skills, and symbolism. The lesson is discussion-based and requires learners to compare and contrast...
Smarter Balanced
Zoos
How do the experiences of animals living in zoos differ from animals living in the wild? To prepare for a performance assessment on this question, class members are introduced to key concepts and vocabulary, and then groups use a Venn...
Macmillan Education
Sine and Cosine Graphs
Learners compare and contrast sine and cosine graphs in order to describe their characteristics in a collaborative activity. As they explain their reasoning, learners strengthen their writing and vocabulary skills associated with sine...
Georgian Court University
Introduction to Marsh Ecology
Compare and contrast the characteristics of fresh and salt water marshes. After exploring the typical plants and animals found in each marsh type, participants use a set of flash cards to sort into fresh and salt water marsh life. Their...
NASA
Analyzing Tiny Samples Using a Search for the Beginning Mass Spectrometry
Teach the basics of mass spectrometry with a hands-on lesson. The fourth in a series of six lessons explores how mass spectrometry measures the ionic composition of an element. Learners then compare and contrast relative abundance and...
National Museum of Australia
Telling Our Indigenous Stories
How far back is 40,000 years? Scholars research the first indigenous people in Aboriginal Australia. Using museum artifacts, maps, and background readings, they form conclusions on the life of the first Australians and their struggles to...