Desert Discoveries
Keepers of the Prairie
Young ecologists examine the case of the prairie dog, and their near extinction. They read a terrific student handout embedded in the plan, and engage in a class discussion that's based on what they read. Learners perform research on...
EngageNY
Mid-Unit 2 Assessment: Inferring About the Silversmith Trade in Colonial Times
The seventh lesson plan in this unit on colonial trade assesses fourth graders' ability to use details from an informational text to make inferences and create a piece of informative writing. The included assessment begins with learners...
Teacher Created Resources
Terrific Topic Sentences
Strengthen writing skills with a introductory exercise to learn how to write topic sentences. Using an informational reading passage, pupils delineate the types of sentences they read and discern what the topic sentence should be.
Curated OER
Prehistoric Pen Pals
Students read online information and identify relevant information about a particular dinosaur species, assume the personality of a specific dinosaur species, and write online "getting to know you" letters to other student-dinosaurs in...
Curated OER
My Secret War: Lesson 5
Fifth graders determine how freedom comes with rights and responsibilities through literature and poetry about World War II. For this World War II lesson, 5th graders use the letters in the word "infamy" to write an acrostic poem. They...
Curated OER
Learning From the Past
Coming up on the Olympics? Be sure your middle schoolers understand the dynamic and ancient history of this global tradition. They begin by recalling traditions parents have passed down, considering their relevance and ways they might be...
Curated OER
"I Believe..." Podcast Style
Use this communication skills lesson to emphasize evaluating a speaker's main point and argument. After reading Martin Luther King's, "I Have a Dream Speech" and John F. Kennedy's speech, "I Believe in an America Where the Separation of...
Curated OER
Everyone Sang - Moods in Poetry
Start by reading the poem "Everyone Sang" by Siegried Sassoon. The archive also houses an audio clip, so consider playing that instead of reading it aloud. After hearing the poem twice, middle and high schoolers will discuss a list of...
Curated OER
Build Mastery: Sequencing
Writing a summary is much easier once you've laid out the sequence of events. Show readers how these two skills are intertwined using this graphic organizer. Review the meaning of sequencing first, presenting the chart and possibly...
Gwinnett County Public Schools
Analysis of the Tuck Everlasting and The Birchbark House Text Exemplars
Looking to introduce some text-based questions into your ELA lessons? Practice the kinds of skills the Common Core demands with the seven text-based questions and the essay prompt provided here. Designed to be a three-day lesson, day one...
Curated OER
2nd Grade - Act. 23: Sprout Houses
Read the story "Sunflower House," by Eve Bunting with your 2nd graders to investigate the relationships between plants and animals. They will discover how living things change during their lives by creating their own sprout houses. In...
Curated OER
Hamlet's Soliloquy
Everyone is familiar with the beginning of Hamlet's soliloquy, "To be or not to be..." While reading Hamlet, help your middle schoolers analyze the lines that follow, but how do you help them make personal connections to the text? Use...
Curated OER
Listening Comprehension: Answering High Level Questions
Kndergarteners work to build strong listening and reading comprehension skills by answering higher level questions. After a teacher demonstration of the task, learners listen to the story The Three Little Pigs, the teacher asks them...
US Citizenship and Immigration Services
Thanksgiving 1—Pilgrims and American Indians
The Pilgrims first arrived in America in order to gain religious freedom. Here is a lesson that takes the class on this journey with the Pilgrims, stopping to look at how they got here, who they met when they arrived, and a peek into...
Code.org
Cracking the Code
Scholars learn how to crack secret codes as they continue reading from the Blown to Bits and try to crack the random substitution cipher. They also begin learning about the Vigenere cipher.
Curated OER
The Gingerbread Man Trail
What a fun way to familiarize your young learners with friendly faces on campus! Scholars read "The Gingerbread Man," discussing the characters he meets. Then, they examine a map of the campus, placing photos of employees (such as the...
Curated OER
Anticipatory Sets for The Odyssey
Start your unit on The Odyssey in a fun and accessible way! Three options help your young readers grasp the concept of brave Odysseus's tale, including making masks of Greek gods and goddesses, and responding to different discussion...
Curated OER
A Clockwork Orange: Anticipation Guide and 4 Corners
Get your kids up and moving with this prereading activity for A Clockwork Orange! After your class completes the anticipation guide (included), they walk to the corner of the room that you've deemed for those who strong disagree,...
National Center for Case Study Teaching in Science
A Strange Fish Indeed
Communication is one of the most important aspects of science. In a two-day activity, your high school or college-level biologists will read excerpts from a fictional diary of Marjorie Courtenay-Latimer, the woman who discovered the...
Minnesota State University
Media Portrayal of the Vietnam War
History classes can explore two different depictions of the Vietnam War experience with this engaging resource. While watching clips of Platoon and reading excerpts from the comic, The 'Nam, students take notes for use in completing a...
Curated OER
Dr. Seuss’s ABC: An Amazing Alphabet Book Lesson
Dr. Seuss's ABC Book is used to help young readers distinguish between the letters of the alphabet and their letter sounds. After a discussion reviewing the letters that are vowels and consonants, the book is read to the class. Then, the...
Achieve The Core
Linda R. Monk, Words We Live By: Your Annotated Guide to the Constitution - Grade 8
“We the people . . .” Thus begins the Preamble to the Constitution. Using a close reading approach, class members examine an excerpt from Linda Monk’s article that traces how the interpretation of these words has evolved. Some of your...
BBC
Lug and the Giant Stork - Capital Letters
Capital letters are the star of the show in a wonderful language arts lesson. After a teacher-led demonstration and discussion on capital letters, groups of pupils get together and work on the computer to fix the flashing letters that...
Curated OER
Scientific Detectives
Middle schoolers examine the legitimacy of advertisers' claims about products using science and critical thinking. They view and discuss ads, read a case study, and conduct an experiment to demonstrate whether a product lives up to its...