Curated OER
Bringing Facts Into Science Fiction
Students develop a setting, plot and characters for a science fiction story based on current news themes, and then individually write drafts of the story.
Curated OER
Where the Wild Things Are
Students explore the role of gargoyles in New York City architecture as a starting point to considering architectural structures in their city. They create designs that illustrate ways in which those local structures may be enhanced by...
Curated OER
THE GOOD AND THE BADDE: ARE STEREOTYPES A PERFECT FIT?
Students examine stereotypes of women from The Good and the Badde in juxtaposition with the female characters in The Taming of the Shrew. Through this exercise, students locate evidence from the text of the play to support or refute...
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Celebrating Women: Toni Morrison
Students research Toni Morrison's life, work as a writer, and major contributions to the field of literature; students choose one of her novels to read, & perform a scene from it; each group member writes an autobiographical essay...
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Comparing Tales through Performance
Students compare and contrast versions of The Three Little Pigs. In this fairy tale lesson plan, students read 3 versions of the fairy tale and dramatize them in order to analyze the similarities and differences.
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Reading with Bailey’s Book House
Students decode words as they construct meaning. In this writing lesson plan, students create a story using the software program Bailey's Book House. They listen to their story on the computer, print it out, and read it aloud.
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Othello's Father of the Bride
Students read and analyze Act one of the play Othello. They examine the themes of love and marriage and interpret Brabantio's words by using different subtexts.
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Navigating the Internet with Safe Sites for Students
Students discover ways to surf the Internet while being kept safe from other web dangers. In this web surfing lesson, students utilize several different web programs such as imbee.com, Disney's Surfswell, and Netsmartz, which allow them...
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Substance Abuse Prevention
Students evaluate the impact of substance use and abuse in society and the workplace. They identify support services in the workplace which deal with substance abuse. They create an "ideal" policy statement governing substance abuse in a w
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Enter Ophelia: Stage Directions, Promptbooks, and Film
Students review different film versions of the play, Hamlet, and compare what was presented to the actual stage directions given in the original Shakespearean version.
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Medieval Madness
Students complete a critical reading of the novel "The Midwife's Apprentice." During their reading, students create several journal responses to the character's situation and transformation. Working with computers, students complete...
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What is a Friend? A Multimedia Approach to Comprehension
First graders identify and discuss the characteristics of a good friend. They read the book "Just My Friend" by Mercer Mayer, and watch the videos "My Wet Pet" and "The Berenstein Bears: Road Race." Students identify the friend...
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Define My Own Destiny: Using Arrested Development and Lauryn Hill to Teach Hansberry's Raisin in the Sun
Literary themes don't just belong to literature. High schoolers listen to the lyrics of modern songs by Arrested Development, Lauryn Hill, and others to enhance their study and to connect to characters, conflicts, and themes of Lorraine...
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Uncovering Personalities in Othello
Students explore a unique way to view the personalities of the characters in William Shakespeare's play "Othello." They facilitate online research "deconstructing" poetry and performing scenes from the play with costumes and props.
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Going by the Rules
Students examine George Washington's Rules of Civility. In this George Washington lesson, students investigate how rules influence people, and the roles of citizens in America. Students will discuss and reword rules and work in groups to...
National Endowment for the Humanities
"Old Southwest" Humorists and George Washington Harris
Young scholars discover the work of George Washington Harris and his influence on American humor. For this George Washington Harris lesson plan, discuss cultural differences in the United States and read Sut Lovongwood stories by George...
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Awesome Animals
Sixth graders write descriptive narratives about animals. In this descriptive writing lesson, the teacher models how to write a paragraph with interesting sensory words and exciting verbs. Students choose a picture of an animal they want...
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How Tragic!
Tenth graders read and study, in-depth, a specific classical tragedy, in this case, Oedipus. They explore strategies from making meaning out of or interpreting texts, as well as strategies for determining how authors create meaning in...
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The "Reading Rainbow" Series
Second graders watch a show to gather information about a career. In this careers lesson, 2nd graders watch Reading Rainbow and participate in a class discussion about the occupation presented in the show. Lesson includes extension ideas.
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Book Illustration
Students view a video and discuss what illustrations in a book show and don't show. In this observation instructional activity, students look at the details on a page in Alice in Wonderland and create an illustration.
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Performance Evaluation
Students evaluate in class performance of music previously prepared by the ensemble. The rubric and assessment criteria are adaptable to any orchestra setting which allows the teacher to choose music to be assessed. Critical thinking...
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Bad Brother
Students deal with the historian's dilemma of how to write about people in the past who committed wicked deeds. They analyze a well-known cartoon, "Satan Tempting Booth to the Murder of the President."
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Story Mapping A Favorite Book
First graders create a diagram of a story by using the computer program Kidspiration. In this diagramming lesson plan, 1st graders will pick a book to write about. They then will plug in story elements of the book into the computer...
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Heaven or Ground Hog Day?
Learners discover the ideas of enlightenment by reading historical poetry. In this philosophical lesson, students read poems by Sir Walter Scott and Sergeant Joyce Kilmer while discussing the themes of the writing with classmates....