Curated OER
Jobs in the 21st Century
Young scholars understand the tools that will be used in the lab in the 21st century. In this job preparation lesson, students experiment and understand how to use lab equipment. Young scholars will write about the lab tools they've...
Curated OER
Learning Strategies
Students develop critical thinking skills using questions exploring the Canadian Parliamentary system. The duties of a modern democracy are investigated.
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
How Much Water Do You Use?
Incorporate reading strategies, math, research, and the scientific method into one lesson about water conservation. After reading a story about a landlady trying to determine how many people are living in an apartment, learners develop a...
Clark County School District
Hollywood's Take on the Cuban Missile Crisis: Thirteen Days
Watching the film Thirteen Days is an engaging way of acquainting learners with the Cuban missile crisis, and this learning exercise is the perfect accompaniment for viewership! It includes 15 questions for your young historians to...
Novelinks
The Good Earth: Multigenre Writing Strategy
In response to reading Pearl Buck's The Good Earth, individuals are asked to complete a multi-genre writing assignment, crafting eight different pieces including a research paper.
Curated OER
Directed Reading Thinking Activity: Cold Sassy Tree
Lots of questions arise when reading Cold Sassy Tree. As your class encounters the twentieth chapter, encourage a rich discussion with some of the questions provided here. Then, either independently, or for homework, ask your readers to...
Curated OER
Number Puzzles: Finding ways to solve them
There are four different word problems (number puzzles) for learners to solve. Each one requires them to think critically about the operation they'll need to use and encourages class discussion. Use as a warm up or prior to a lesson on...
Bantam Books
The Martian Chronicles: K-W-H-L Activity
Prepare your class for a unit on Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles with an activity that works for pre-reading, during reading, and post-reading. Learners fill out a K-W-H-L chart to reflect on what they already know, what they'd...
Syracuse University
Ancient World Writing System
Most twenty-first century pupils don't know how to interpret cuneiform. Examining images of cuneiform and papyrus writing and using a chart and Venn diagram, young historians extrapolate what life may have been like for people who lived...
Syracuse University
World War I
World War I was known for its gruesome battlefields and horrific injuries. Using photographs from a battlefield surgeon's scrapbook, scholars see first-hand what life was like in the trenches. After creating a timeline of the war using...
WE Charity
Elementary–Module 1: Sustainable Innovation
Where would society be without the innovations of Thomas Edison or Steve Jobs? Scholars explore what it means to have an innovative mindset. Working in small groups, pupils design a product or service to help solve a social,...
Thoughtful Learning
Creating a Growth Mindset
A quick mimi-lesson models how to replace a fixed mindset with a growth mindset, a mindset that says improvement is possible with practice. Included is an activity that asks individuals to rewrite 10 fixed mindset statements with 10...
Nebraska Department of Education
You're Fired!
Is willing to learn. Follows directions. Takes the initiative. The big idea in this career development lesson is that the work habits that make one successful in school are the same as those required to succeed in a career. Class members...
Curated OER
Reducing Air Pollution
In this critical thinking learning exercise, students evaluate different scenarios to decide how the person or business in the scenario could help reduce air pollution. Students work in cooperative learning groups to decide what...
Curated OER
Wisdom of the Ages
Students reflect on the different stages of life that humans pass through. They challenge common sense assumptions and critically engage media representations of people at different ages. They determine that media have embedded values...
Curated OER
Bring Literature Circles Into Your Classroom
Tips and strategies for adding literature circles to your language arts curriculum.
MENSA Education & Research Foundation
Quotation Station: Using Quotes in the Classroom
An informative list compiled with quotes, authors, and discussion questions, along with 20 out-of-the-box application ideas, make up the collection of lessons geared to spark dialogue and creative thinking about quotations.
Curated OER
Recognizing Propaganda/Bias
Middle and high schoolers examine the uses of propaganda during the Nazi era. Using examples of propaganda used by Hitler, they discuss how it changed the thinking and ideas of people exposed to it. In groups, they identify how and why...
Curated OER
Environmental Risk Management
Students are engaged in cooperative learning strategies and critical thinking activities to introduce topics of analysis, probability, assessment, and management as they apply to environmental risk. They choose a risk from the class...
Anti-Defamation League
What Is Culture?
Explore the complexity of culture with this rich and comprehensive lesson plan, which will prompt your learners to think critically and respectfully discuss our current definitions of culture, and how those definitions might evolve.
Curated OER
The Old Man and the Sea: Problematic Situations
Bring the drama of Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea to class with a fun role-playing activity. Given a list of survival items, readers decide which items would be the most necessary for an adventure like Santiago's, and rank...
Curated OER
Invasive Species in the News
Students explore how invasive species can change an environment. In this critical thinking lesson, students study how invasive animals can change an environments population. They will discuss the implications of an invasive species and...
Curated OER
Media Awareness: Helping a Product Cross the Finish Line
Students develop critical thinking skills to understand and create advertisements. In this journalism lesson, students analyze the elements necessary for effective advertisements and work in cooperative groups to create and present...
University of Oklahoma
Improving My Communication Skills
The two lessons in the fifth unit in this series are designed to help students with disabilities improve their communication skills. The first lesson has class members practice strategies and skills for appropriate communication. They...