Curated OER
Writing Classroom Agreements using Inspiration & Word to Go
How can you foster a thoughtful learning community for your class? First, the class brainstorms a list of behaviors that will help make the classroom a great place to learn. Then learners group similar ideas together and come up with...
Perkins School for the Blind
Tactile quilts that tell a story
Learners with multiple disabilities need to engage in projects that push them to know their full potential. They need to be able to express themselves in a variety of ways, and this very thoughtful lesson does just that. They make a...
Curated OER
Time Capsule Essay
Discuss your class' vision of the future. Learners create materials for use in a time capsule. They write letters to explain their contribution and provide photos. Afterwards, they use higher-level thinking skills to reflect on why they...
Perkins School for the Blind
Accessible Labels
When you're blind it is extremely important to be able to navigate your environment in as independent a way as possible. This idea isn't a lesson plan, but it is a great way to foster independent mobility and literacy skills while making...
Perkins School for the Blind
Integrated Skills - Laundry
I hate doing laundry, even if it is an independent living skill that requires me to count money, follow a sequence, and sort clothing by color. Learners with multiple disabilities discuss what laundry is, why they need to do it, and how...
Curated OER
Online —On Stage—and Action
Use your tablets to participate in a culture-sharing project with a class in a foreign country. Your class can communicate and share ideas with a class in another country, swapping information regarding language and culture. Together you...
Perkins School for the Blind
Making Choices
Here is an excellent and well-developed instructional activity intended to promote choice-making skills for learners with visual impairment and intellectual disabilities. It fosters choice-making skills through a soft version of discrete...
Curated OER
Family
Students use Microsoft Word to create the family newsletter which can be mailed out with the family Christmas cards.
Curated OER
Newsmakers
Students create a newsletter that tells others about themselves and their family. They use publishing software to create their newsletters.
Perkins School for the Blind
Conservation of Mass
How do you teach a student with visual impairments about the conservation of mass? You use tactile models that represent the theoretical concept. Baking soda and vinegar are used to add gas to a deflated balloon. Learners will feel the...
Chicago Botanic Garden
Impacts of Climate Change
Scholars become experts on the eight major impacts of climate change through a jigsaw and grand conversation. They then research and present what they learned about effects specific to their region.
Curated OER
Ancient Greece Podcast
In this writing a podcast lesson plan, 7th graders create a podcast involving Ancient Greece. Students follow a rubric and outline to create their podcast. Students present their podcast to their fellow students.
Curated OER
Accordion-Book Summary
Introduce your young readers to the book review. Groups of writers practice the basic steps of writing a book report and complete an Accordion-Book Summary activity. The lesson includes book report basics and directions to make...
Curated OER
Digital Mitosis and Claymation
Take mitosis and meiosis out of the biology textbook and onto the screen! An innovative class project prompts young biologists to create an animation movie using clay, showing the phases involved in mitosis or meiosis by moving the...
Curated OER
Reporters at Gettysburg A WebQuest
Learners create newsletters about the Battle of Gettysburg. In this Civil War lesson plan, students create a webquest based on the battle. Learners use the information and sources to create a Gettysburg newsletter.
Curated OER
Consumerism
Students examine the techniques that companies use to sell their products. In this consumerism lesson students create an ad for a company and create a handcrafted butterfly.
Curated OER
A Tale of Two Schools
Students create different photographs using photographic techniques of camera angles, lighting, and composition. They write non-fiction stories about people they interview and create two school newsletters that portray a fictional...
Curated OER
Goal Setting
Students understand how they can incorporate dietary guidelines in their daily life. In this investigative instructional activity students set dietary goals and incorporate an activity to learn how to create a new seed variety while...
Teach Engineering
Energy Perspectives
The data says ... the resource is great to use. Using Microsoft Excel, pupils analyze data from the US Department of Energy in the fifth lesson of a 25-part Energy Systems and Solutions unit. Each group looks at a different data set and...
Curated OER
The New YouTube
Can you guess how many hits YouTube gets in one day? If you said two billion, you're wrong. If you said three billion, you're getting closer, but you're still over a billion hits away! Use this article to bring current events into the...
Curated OER
Stewart's Boxes
Learners collect memorabilia and create shadow boxes in the style of David Stewart. They also compose a poem and explain their identity in an oral presentation. This is a rare lesson that works quite well for a variety of age levels.
Curated OER
Shared Reading Book Trailer Creation
Scholars summarize sections of a book and compile them to create a book trailer. They are assigned sections of a book to read and summarize before recording as short video segments. The segments are put together in order to create a book...
Curated OER
The Violence in Syria
Several New York Times articles were used to create informative reading material. Kids click on each of the embedded links to access a resource related to Syria and the Middle East conflict. They then answer the nine questions. Note:...
Curated OER
Disposables and Deforestation
Ever think about the impact those cool disposable chopsticks have on the environment? Read about a group of students in Beijing who created a forest using nothing but tossed out chopsticks. Find out how this artistic endeavor is making a...