Curated OER
Artistic Interpretation of a Classic: The Author's Role
Reading the original Hans Christian Andersen tale of “The Little Mermaid” and viewing the Great Performances: The Little Mermaid from the San Francisco Ballet video offers class members an opportunity to consider how artistic decisions...
Curated OER
Persuasive Speech in Julius Caesar
After reading Julius Caesar 1.2 and 1.3, break your class into pairs for this role-play. Each pair will receive one of four prompts (or more, if you create additional examples), in which one person tries to persuade the other to do...
EngageNY
Building Background Knowledge: Why Do Workers Strike? (Chapter 11: "Los Aguacates/Avocados")
Make connections between Esperanza Rising and human rights with the activities outlined here. The instructional activity starts out with a brief quiz and review of the novel. After that, pupils circulate and share quote strips that you...
EngageNY
Building Background Knowledge About Physical Environment: What Makes it Hard for Some People to Get Books?
How far would your pupils go to be able to have access to books? Revisit Heather Henson and David Small's That Book Woman and challenge class members to take on the role of Cal or the Book Woman. By putting themselves in someone else's...
Penguin Books
Addressing Text Complexity - Making Independent Reading Meaningful
Many English teachers dream of a classroom full of readers silently enjoying their books. A useful guide helps make that dream become a reality by providing book recommendations for a range of readers. Each suggestion includes the...
EngageNY
Contrasting Two Settings (Chapter 6: "Lost Melones/Cantalouples")
Continue working through Esperanza Rising, by Pam Munoz Ryan, by looking into language choices and discussing text-dependent questions. Pupils converse in small groups and as a class about plot, setting, and figurative language. Using...
EngageNY
Mid-Unit Assessment: Answering Text-Dependent Questions About Librarians and Organizations Around the World
This is a skills-based assessment that asks test takers to use textual evidence to determine the main idea of an excerpt from an informational text as well as respond to text-dependent questions. The assessment is the middle point...
EngageNY
Paragraph Writing: The Role of Religion in Colonial America
Informative writing is emphasized in the standards. Help your learners reach that goal with the plan for paragraph writing outlined here. After reviewing the work from the day before and adding to their vocabulary notebooks, class...
Curated OER
Shakespeare: Julius Caesar
Before your high schoolers read Julius Caesar, have them complete this thought-provoking activity! To familiarize them with some of the play's most important lines, break the class into pairs and have them create a skit around two lines...
Curated OER
Express Yourself Lesson Seed 1
Make a study of the First Amendment and its relationship to freedom. Pupils rewrite the amendment and discuss the central idea before focusing on a specific phrase. After discussing, class members write a journal entry about the included...
Texas Center for Learning Disabilities
Second and Third Grade Explicit Phonics Intervention
Support all young learners on their journey to literacy with this five-lesson reading intervention unit. Following a clearly outlined format, each lesson first engages children in practicing their phonemic awareness and phonics skills...
Penguin Books
The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Young Readers Edition
As the saying goes, you are what you eat. A useful set of lesson plans encourage young readers to take a second look at their eating habits. Pre- and post-reading questions bring in reflective writing and discussion while extension...
Curated OER
Informational Text: What's It All About?
With the Common Core State Standards' growing focus on informational text, it's the perfect time to showcase this PowerPoint to your team of teachers. It's 59 slides focus on seven best practice structures: reading-as-thinking,...
EngageNY
Grade 9 ELA Module 1, Unit 2, Lesson 1
Where does a writer find inspiration? "Go into yourself," says Rainer Maria Rilke in "Letter One" from Letters to a Young Poet. Readers of Rilke's letter to Franz Xaver Kappus examine the words and figurative language Rilke uses to...
Achievement Strategies
CCSS Unit Design Template for PE
From baseball and tennis to capture the flag and four-square, here is a great document that will help you design your next unit on a sport-related activity.
EngageNY
Grade 9 ELA Module 1: Unit 3, Lesson 5
Class members continue their study of Romeo and Juliet by watching scenes from Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet and then examining the figurative language Shakespeare uses in Act 1, scene 5, lines 92–109 when Romeo and Juliet meet at the ball.
Santillana USA
Celebra Kwanzaa
¡Celebramos Kwanzaa! Celebrate Kwanzaa through the fictional story Celebra Kwanzaa con Botitas y sus gatitos to delightfully explain the seven principles of Kwanzaa. Dual language learners participate in reading and vocabulary activities...
Curated OER
If At First You don't Succeed Try, Try Core Knowledge!
Students relate phrases and sayings to their life experiences. In this phrases and sayings lesson, students participate in activities and listen to stories to understand the meanings of each saying. One day is devoted to each saying.
Curated OER
Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass an American Slave, Written by Himself
Foster reader confidence when encountering complex text and reinforce the skills readers have acquired to build and extend their understanding of text. The plan uses a section of Douglass’ narrative as an exemplar text. Directions for...
Mary Pope Osborne, Classroom Adventures Program
The Backpack Travel Journals
Strap on those backpacks, it's time to travel through history with this literature unit based on the first four books of The Magic Tree House series. While reading through these fun stories, children create story maps, record interesting...
Curated OER
Farewell to Manzanar
Examine human resilience across two texts with a detailed unit. Over the course of a week, learners will conduct a close reading of excerpts from Unbroken and Farewell to Manzanar. The resource includes clear procedures for reading and...
Scholastic
Prescription Pain Medication: What You Need to Know
The national epidemic of opioid addiction is making its way into high school populations. Educate the young scholars in your class about the ways prescription opioids can both block pain and deliver large amounts of dopamine that make it...
Polk Bros Foundation
I Can Comprehend a Paragraph, then a Page/Section in a Text
Help your class tackle chunks of text with a simple graphic organizer. Pupils read three paragraphs and, as they read, draw pictures in the provided boxes that demonstrate what each paragraph says. There are three boxes on the page and...
Curriculum Corner
7th Grade Math "I Can" Statement Posters
Translate the Common Core math standards into a series of achievable "I can" statements with this collection of classroom displays. Offering posters for each standard, this resource is a great way to support your seventh graders as they...