Curated OER
Build Your Dream Science Lab
Would your ideal science lab be filled with bubbling beakers and zapping Tesla coils? Or would it contain state-of-the-art computer technology and data analysis? Dream big with an innovative lesson that connects math and language...
New York City Department of Education
Grade 11 Literacy in Social Studies: Research Paper
The lesson guides young academics through the steps in producing a 10-page research paper on any topic in American history. Historians begin by formulating a thesis and gathering resources, then move on to creating an outline, and end...
Curated OER
Let's Go Exploring!
Use a Courbet painting of a cave or tunnel opening to reinforce the importance of descriptive writing. Writers of all ages use sensory details to describe what the scene depicts as they pretend to be in the painting. Then they imagine...
Curated OER
Shizuko’s Daughter: Unsent Letter
Have you ever wanted to tell a character what you really thought of him or her? Use a lesson based on Kyoko Mori's Shizuko's Daughter to encourage learners to write a letter in response to a character's actions.
Roald Dahl
The Twits - Muggle-Wump Has an Idea
If a bar of chocolate was on the floor, would you try to pick it up? What if it was covered with glue? The eighth lesson plan in an 11-part unit designed to accompany The Twits by Roald Dahl has scholars imagine crazy scenarios. The...
Teaching Tolerance
Community Newsletter
What does it take to develop and publish a newsletter? Young academics create a newsletter with original artwork for their school or community. They explore social justice themes and spread messages of tolerance and inclusion. Scholars...
Teaching Tolerance
Poetry and Storytelling Café
Academics take turns as actors in an engaging poetry cafe. Elementary learners work in small groups to create original poems or stories addressing community issues and read their work in front of a live audience. Scholars also reflect...
New York City Department of Education
Grade 4 Literacy in English Language Arts: A Call to Action
You have the power! Scholars learn that they have power of the pen in their writing. After reading and viewing various sources about standardized testing, they express their own opinions about the testing by writing letters to the...
K12 Reader
What Is a Simile?
As fun as a barrel of monkeys, this figurative language worksheet will engage your students in learning to write similes. Asking them to first think of adjectives describing the six nouns listed on the page, this exercise has...
Curated OER
Freedom for the Chilean Miners
Have your class read this seven paragraph article about Chilean miners who were trapped and freed from a mine. There are five comprehension questions, a verb-to-noun matching exercise, a role-play suggestion, and a creative writing task...
Curated OER
Creative Writing/Historical Journals
Students write series of journal entries, from the perspective of an immigrant traveling to America via Ellis Island.
Curated OER
How Owly And Wormy Became Friends: Using a Silent Comic To Inspire Creative Writing
Young scholars view a wordless comic before using it as a story starter. They access a story that uses the same characters at a website in order to better understand the nature of the characters. They write a story inspired by the comic...
Curated OER
Writing Folktales
Students consider the structure of folktales. In this writing skills lesson, students list the attributes of folktales that they read in class. Students then complete handouts based on the elements of the tales as well as types of tales...
Curated OER
Writing in First Person about the Atlantic Slave Trade Lesson Plan
Students investigate the Atlantic slave trade. In this slavery lesson, students watch "Slavery, Society, and Apartheid," as well as "Slave Ship." Students discuss the information presented in the videos, especially St. John's Revolt....
Curated OER
Writing Poems Worksheet
In this writing poems worksheet, students record 10 nouns, then write 2 or 3 verbs next to each noun, and finally write a simile or metaphor that matches the noun and verbs in that row. Students then organize these lines into stanzas to...
EngageNY
End of Unit 2 Assessment: Working with Two Texts - Reading, Listening, Summarizing, and Synthesizing
As a summative assessment for this unit on colonial trade, fourth graders listen to and read informational texts in order to demonstrate their ability to take notes, write summaries, and draw connections. Young scholars first listen as...
Curated OER
The Imagine Poetry & Mural Lesson
Readers of all ages can work together in groups to create original poetry on the theme of "Imagine," inspired by John Lennon's classic song. They also create a mural to illustrate their poetry. A beautiful lesson, inspired by a beautiful...
WeTransfer BV
Paper by FiftyThree
There is no such thing as someone who is not artistic when using this app. In fact, this is the type of app that makes you want to go out and buy a tablet computer. Whether you have a creative lesson planned, or just need a place to take...
Scholastic
The Class Election from the Black Lagoon Storia Teaching Guide
One of my favorite things about this resource is that they use a standardized lexile to help you determine who should be reading what book. I also love this great teacher's guide for the book, The Class Election from the Black...
Curated OER
Mystery Lessons
Learn about mysteries with your readers. They will investigate plot, basic elements of mystery, famous characters, and become familiar with genre vocabulary. Bring in props and mystery books to begin and then have learners create story...
Roald Dahl
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
The Charlie and the Chocolate Factory unit is a golden ticket for teachers looking for nicely written plans. Elementary and middle schoolers draw their impressions of characters, design and market their own candy creations, and use...
Curated OER
Picture Perfect: Reading and Narrative Writing
Students will create a fictional narrative based on the cover of a picture book provided by the teacher. In this narrative writing lesson students incorporate all story elements and use strategies to engage the reader.
Curated OER
Strip-Teasers: A Collaborative Writing activity
Young writers engage in a fun writing activity. They write three different sentences on three strips of paper. Then they get into groups of three, and take a look at all nine sentences that have been written. Their task is to write a...
Curated OER
Creative Writing-Farm Group
For this creative writing worksheet, students use words in a word box and work with a group to write a short story about farming. Worksheet contains a link to additional activities.