Smarter Balanced
Intellectual Property
To prepare for a study of intellectual property rights, (or an assessment) introduce your learners to the legal concepts and key vocabulary associated with the debate. After defining intellectual property, copyright, fair use, and...
Curated OER
Drama-Dialogue
Use drama to study and practice dialogue. Creative minds discuss what dialogue tells about a character, and how it can be used to advance the plot. They read a play, think about what they gleaned from dialogue, and record their...
Curated OER
Narrative Writing
Learners create new sentences using adverb clauses identified from a book. In this narrative writing lesson, students write new sentences from some of the dependent clauses used in a book read to them by the teacher. Learners put the...
Curated OER
It’s Your Birthday! – Conventions: Revision and Proofreading
Happy birthday! Celebrate everyone's birthday with this writing activity, which prompts seventh graders to research historical events in a country at the time of their birth to create an essay. Working in pairs, they proofread each...
Curated OER
Recipe for Sensational Sentences
'Cook-up' sensational sentences with your class. They expand sentences by adding more descriptive words. Then discuss the importance of using appropriate grade level language in daily speaking and writing.
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My Mind is Blank
Investigate prewriting activities in this brainstorming lesson. Middle schoolers are divided into groups and are assigned a topic. They decide which prewriting technique to choose from, including free write, looping, brainstorming,...
Curated OER
Varied Beginnings: Research Process / Narrative Writing Techniques
What's the best way to start a story? Learners write a memoir using effective openings. They research the process and work through a list of hooks to use in their writing. They use at least two hooks to begin their personal memoir. A...
Curated OER
Transition Words in Expository Writing
Create to learn! Your class can create posters of transitional words and phrases to help them compose an explanatory text. They work in groups and focus on one type of transition (time, place, importance, etc.). They also create a poster...
Curated OER
Self Advocacy
Students determine the procedures for facilitate a self-advocacy meeting. They enter information about the meetings in a database which they include in a letter summarizes the meeting.
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The Learning Book
First graders identify, comprehend, and evaluate the content and artistic aspects of oral and visual presentations. Then they participate in formal and informal presentations and discussions of issues and ideas. Students also create...
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Author's Purpose: Research Process/Narrative Writing Techniques
Determine the author's purpose in writing a memoir. Eighth graders work in groups to elicit author's purpose in memoirs, taking care to note how subtle the message can be hidden throughout the work. This lesson is a good way to...
Curated OER
Sentence Combining
Students combine simple sentences into compound, complex, and compound-complex sentences. In this combining sentences lesson, students are given short, choppy sentences and combine them into more mature sentences. Students must use...
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Lady Macbeth's Cure
Students role-play the position of Lady Macbeth's nurse. They are to create a project or service that can cure her sleepwalking. They create their own commerical to sell their product.
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Using Aphorisms to Help Dealing with People
Here's a formal plan for what many effective teachers already do: Provide a week's worth of aphorisms and have learners choose one to write about in their journals each day. They reflect on the meaning of each aphorism and project how it...
Curated OER
Pablita Velarde Interview
Have your kiddos work together to discuss different types of interviews. As learners brainstorm different kinds of interviews, record them in a web! This is a great introduction to conducting interviews.
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Drug and Alcohol Prevention
Seventh graders investigate the influence of alcohol and/or drugs. They prepare a written report on the chosen topic related to drugs and/or alcohol. Students utilize technology to share the information about alcohol and/or drugs with an...
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Press Conference on Hurricane Georges
Learners experience Hurricane Georges. In this Peace Corps instructional activity, students examine the devastation of Hurricane Georges by acting as a Dominican Republic citizen being interviewed by an international television network....
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Circle Art
Learners investigate two and three dimensional shapes. In this geometry lesson, students write equations of circles and graph them correctly. They create pictures using circles.
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Comprehension: Setting
Students discuss what setting represents. In this language arts lesson, students review the three elements of setting: where the story takes place, when does the story take place, and is it past, present, or future? Students create a...
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The ABC's of Walter Anderson
Fifth graders examine how motifs, symbols, and ideas influence various pieces of visual art. They compare and contrast the work of Walter Anderson to pre-historic cave paintings and create a glue line print using motifs and symbols found...
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Huichol Yarn Painting
Sixth graders study the Huichol Indians and the art of yarn painting. They create their own yarn paintings in the Huichol style.
Curated OER
Colorful Sentence Writing
Fifth graders practice expressing themselves through writing. In this language arts lesson, 5th graders study the parts of speech and apply to writing sentences.
Code.org
Practice PT - The Internet and Society
Speaking of the Internet. The culminating lesson for the unit on the Internet challenges pupils to prepare short, two-minute speeches on an issue facing society. The pupils chose from three topics that connect the Internet and society,...
GeorgiaStandards.org
Using Connecting Themes in First Grade Social Studies
Foster contributing members of society with a social studies unit focused on five aspects of community. First graders discuss themes of culture, groups, location, scarcity, and change with discussion questions and activities about...