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Day-to-Day Life in a Small African Village
Students experience just a bit of what it's like living in a village in Tanzania-from language to geography to health and hygiene issues. They compare aspects of school and home life in the United States with those in Tanzania and...
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Are We Safer?
Learners discuss the meaning of feeling safe in their environment after September 11th. After reading National Intelligence reports and news articles summarizing the findings about national security, they write letters to their...
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President Obama's Address to Students Across America
Learners write about goals, responsibility, and persistence, and listen to President Obama's speech. In this President Obama lesson students create concept webs, listen with a purpose, and list the challenges of our generation.
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I Have a Metaphor
Learners locate the literary devices used in Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech. In this figurative language lesson plan, young scholars first distinguish between similes, metaphors, analogies, personification, etc....
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World Consumption: Unequal Slices of the Pie
Students interpret the United Nations Human Development Reports and explain the relevance and use of the human development index in offering insight into a nation and its challenges. They draft a letter to the United Nations.
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Red, Undecided, and Blue
Students analyze voter preferences in past elections, and then write letters to a presidential candidate, recommending winning strategies drawn from their research.
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On the Fence
Students read a news article from the New York Times related to the construction of a fence between Mexico and the U.S. and its impact on the lives of the people living on both sides. They read and discuss a variety of scenarios, answer...
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Not So Sweet
Learners explore farming, slavery and cacoa farming. In this agricultural science activity, students fill out KWL charts, create PowerPoints and do internet research. Learners write letters to chocolate companies requesting them not to...
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The Musher's Trail
Second graders follow the Iditarod race that begins in March. They research data and select a musher to trail in the race. Then they write daily in a journal about events that happen on the trail, including pictures from the Website.
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Name the Constellation
Students read stories about constellations. They create constellations by filling in the letters of their names on a test bubble sheet and tracing the design onto white paper. They make up stories about their name constellations.
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Frosty the Snowman Meets His Demise: An Analogy to Carbon Dating
Students read and discuss an article about carbon dating, then participate in a hands-on lab to discover how carbon dating works. Students also write a letter to a friend explaining the process, and how archeologists use the process to...
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Perks and Perils
Students research the life of the first family. In this U.S. Government instructional activity, students take a White House quiz, read an article about the first family and write in their journals about a typical day in their lives...
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FDR's Fireside Chats: The Power of Words
Students examine Franklin D. Roosevelt's Fireside Chats. In this presidential history lesson, students listen to the radio broadcasts of select FDR Fireside Chats. Students analyze the effectiveness of his messages to the public as well...
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A New Look at Romeo and Juliet
Students explore life and language development in the Elizabethan Age. For this English lesson students complete web-quests and other activities surrounding Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.
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Separate But Equal Opinions
High schoolers examine the ways in which editorials and Op-Ed pieces respond to current events. They write editorials in response to news items from the New York Times.
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Classes For The Masses
Students explore how class is represented in the media by developing ideas for television pilots that deal with class issues. They compile short lists of television characters from working, middle and upper classes.
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Johnny Tremain for the 21st Century
Seventh graders complete a unit of lessons on the American Revolution based on the novel, 'Johnny Tremain.' They define key vocabulary terms, develop a timeline, write a report on a colonial craft, make a colonial flag, and create a...
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An Underground River
Seventh graders describe how water flows through the ground, what an aquifer is and what soil properties are used to predict groundwater flow. They consider the affects of pollution on groundwater supplies and write a letter drawing...
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Whose Peace?
Young scholars discuss the historical conflicts in Israel and the Middle East after reading an article from The New York Times as a class. Students are divided into groups after the discussion and research parties of interest in the...
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Pizza for Everyone
Pizza is the inspiration for the cross-curricular instructional activity detailed here. Start out with a poem about pizza and move into a discussion about balanced eating. To close the language arts portion of the instructional activity,...
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Nursery Rhyme Modernization
Students retell a nursery rhyme updating it and create a video. In this Movie Maker nursery rhyme instructional activity, students use technology to update a nursery rhyme. Students incorporate special effects, actions, and captured...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Edgar Allan Poe, Ambrose Bierce, and the Unreliable Biographers
High schoolers research biographical facts about Edgar Allan Poe and Ambrose Bierce and complete literary analysis activities. In this biographical lesson plan, students research basic biographical facts about Poe and Bierce. High...
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Guess Who's Coming to Dinner
Learners create Thanksgiving menu and pre-dinner blessing or ritual that is sensitive to five different imaginary Thanksgiving guests from a variety of backgrounds.
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A Place for the Birds
Students reflect on bird migrations and develop a project to collect data on bird species from across North America to further investigate the ranges and migrations of common birds. They create a field guide of North American birds.