Curated OER
Reverse Pastel Paintings
Create a unique spin on reverse painting with oil pastels and acetate. The combination results in a beautiful and vibrant art piece. This is a great project to introduce your class to oil pastels.
Curated OER
Parody
Expand your students' literary likings with this quick PowerPoint about parodies. A detailed definition of a parody on the second slide precedes different examples of parodies in pop culture. Tip: Show videos of famous parodies your...
Curated OER
Van Gough and Picasso
An interesting presentation that shows the work of four masters. Learners view paintings of Van Gough, Picasso, Matisse, and Renoir and then express their opinions about the pieces of art. The final slide asks learners to choose their...
Curated OER
Jazz in America Lesson Plan 6
Students survey bebop, cool jazz, and hard bop. They explore how bebop, cool jazz, and hard bop reflected American culture and society in the 1940s and 1950s.
Curated OER
Jazz in America Lesson Plan 7
Students survey free jazz and fusion. They explore how free jazz and fusion reflected American culture and society in the 1960s and 1970s.
Curated OER
Kumeyaay Indians
Useful for literary analysis, citing textual evidence, or summary skills, this lesson about the Kumeyaay Indians would be a good addition to your language arts class. Middle schoolers read novels and summarize the literature in their own...
Curated OER
African Folktales
Students examine the art of storytelling. In groups, they write their own African folktales, design costumes, props and scenery, and videotape folktale presented in dramatic form.
Curated OER
Weather and Seasons
Use pictures and manipulatives to develop vocabulary with your beginning language learners. This plan can be used with foreign language learners (although you'll have to provide the vocabulary), English language learners, or a young...
Curated OER
The Rooms in a Home
Enhance your foreign language students' skills to describe a house. After reading a description of rooms in a house in their target language, they work to answer corresponding questions correctly. Additionally, they view a PowerPoint...
Curated OER
What I need for School
You can use this instructional activity with English language learners, a young language arts class, or speakers of a foreign language. The phrases learned are I need and I don't need. The teacher collects several items around the room,...
Curated OER
Let's Discuss Current Events
Investigate articles from the daily news and share opinions with classmates. Using current events, learners view a news program without sound and predict what news is being discussed by analyzing the visuals. Then they read news articles...
National Gallery of Canada
The Roots of My Family
Represent family history visually by requiring your young artists to create family trees that express balance and symmetry. Pupils examine works of art, research their family histories, and put together large family tree posters.
Louisiana Department of Education
The Scarlet Letter
Use Nathanial Hawthorne's immortal text on the influence of religion on the early American settlements, as well as its continued impact on American culture, with a unit that focuses on The Scarlet Letter. In addition to Hawthorne's...
Curated OER
Lesson: Unmonumental: Yesterday's News
Upper graders are tasked with developing a social consciousness as they analyze the impact of the news media. They view a presentation depicting various media events in order to understand threshold moments in history. There are three...
Curated OER
A Look Through My Antonia's Eyes
Thoroughly delve into My Antonia by Willa Cather with a plethora of activities. Engage scholars with videos and web sites in this week-long unit that explains the historical context and creates pioneers in the field of research. An...
Curated OER
Chinese Calligraphy
Explore the beauty of Chinese Calligraphy. This well-developed lesson will take your class on a journey through the history of Calligraphy, engage them in technique and style, then challenge them by having them create new strokes to...
VH1
Lesson 3: Marketing of Pop Music
Pop music and marketing are thrown into the mix to make a fun and engaging lesson. Learners listen to several pop songs and discuss the differences in musical style. They then get into groups and work together to decide how they are...
Curated OER
Say Hi to Haibun Fun
What is a haibun? With this interesting lesson, writers will experience the Japanese writing form haibun, identify elements important to Japanese writing styles, analyze a haibun, and compose their own. Different from the typical journal...
Curated OER
Understanding the Sociocultural Perspective
Enhance your understanding of basic principles and best teaching practices as they are viewed through a sociocultural lens.
Curated OER
The Wonders of Ancient Civilizations
Bring excitement and interest to your social studies with a unit on ancient civilizations.
Curated OER
China: Land Beyond the Wall
An excellent series of five lessons on China awaits you and your young geographers. In these lessons, learners engage in hands-on activities, watch streamed video, access websites, and complete activities in cooperative groups in order...
Curated OER
Myths, Folktales, & Fairy Tales
Introduce the concept of myths to your class. Using the link to "Myths Around the World," read a story aloud and have learners list characteristics of a myth. Readers then choose their own myths from the site and work in groups to answer...
Poetry Foundation
Dream in Color — Middle School
Celebrate diversity with a toolkit designed to inspire young poets to develop their own voices. After examining poems by African American poets, individuals craft their own poetic stories. The packet features poems by Gwendolyn Brooks,...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Hamlet Meets Chushingura: Traditions of the Revenge Tragedy
Students read texts, view film and video and conduct research in an analysis and comparison of Shakespeare's "Hamlet" and the Kabuki piece "Chushingura". They focus their analysis on the theme of revenge.