Curated OER
Food and Dialect
The dialect words for types of food from across the British Isles get pupils thinking about native dialects and how they differ from Standard English. Class members create a dialect dictionary and discuss the difference between accent...
Poets.org
Ghosts and Spirits
Connect poetry to a naturally kid-friendly topic: ghosts! Draw on your class's prior knowledge of the paranormal to help them access the classic poem "Haunted House" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. After a fun warm-up activity describing...
Curated OER
Summarizing Key Information
Imagine the surprise when small groups present their Evidence Charts to the class and discover that each group has studied a different version of the Cinderella story. Irish, Ojibwa, Egyptian, Chinese, Korean, Persian, Mexican, and...
Curated OER
Pinhole Photo Narratives
High schoolers create original pieces of poetry and use this as a basis for a photography series using "pin-hole camera" techniques. This high school instructional activity is cross-curricular in scope.
Curated OER
Literary Response and Analysis
Examine a variety of literary responses to Abraham Lincoln's death and the impact of perception. Your class can work in writing groups to analyze either poetry, eulogy, or a newspaper article. They retell the events of Abraham Lincoln's...
Curated OER
The Holocaust
Students comprehension widens on the subject of the Holocaust by focusing on two different, yet related, experiences of Jews in Europe during the Holocaust. Those being death camps and life in major ghettos. They trace both commonalities...
Curated OER
Male Image Building Utilizing the Writing Process
Introduce your class to the techniques of proper writing. In groups, they brainstorm their ideas on family structures and discuss the importance of having a male figure in their lives. After listening to an African-American poem, they...
Curated OER
Rewriting Shakespeare
Have your learners play around with Shakespeare's language. For this plan, small groups examine and rearrange soliloquies from Othello, noting how the language changes and morphs. All groups have a chance to change each soliloquy, making...
Curated OER
Welcome Back to the Computer Lab: Starting a New School Year
Get kids re-oriented to the computer lab for back-to-school. The constructivist approach in this session allows children to exert ownership of their behavior in the computer lab. Read aloud a few books about good and poor manners, as...
Curated OER
Personification Lesson Plans and Resources
This resource on personification provides three different approaches aimed at different levels. The first, appropriate for upper elementary, provides examples of personification, followed by an exercise that requires replacing a word in...
Novelinks
The House of the Scorpion: Multigenre Research Paper
As the culminating project for a unit study of The House of the Scorpion, class members craft a multi-genre research paper to demonstrate not only their depth of knowledge of a topic of interest to them, but also their...
Curated OER
Mmm, Mmm, M&M's
Here is another version of the classic M&M math lesson. In this one, upper graders utilize the ClarisWorks Spreadsheet program in order to document the data they come up with from their bags of M&M's. After making their initial...
Curated OER
I've Just Seen a Face: Portraits
Young scholars examine portraits for different images they project, cite three purposes a portrait can serve, analyze portraits of historical figures, and relate biographical research to portraits.
Curated OER
Measurement
Students explore the concept of measurement. In this measurement lesson, students discuss what specific measurement tools such as an odometer measure. Students recite a measurement poem. Students make a foldable with conversion units...
Curated OER
When a Country Loses Its Songs
Students explore music as a cultural tradition. In this global studies instructional activity, students consider the implications of the loss of childhood songs to a cultural group. Students determine the type of musical "treasures" that...
Curated OER
Edgar Allan Poe Stories Quiz
When given a short summary of one of Edgar Allan Poe's stories, can you choose the correct title? Try your best with this multiple-choice quiz covering nine different stories (one is actually a poem) by Poe.
Curated OER
My Name Is Me!
Young scholars write about themselves. In this personal writing lesson, students write their name vertically down a sheet of paper and think of a self descriptive word that matches each letter of their name. Young scholars write a...
Curated OER
Hearts and Partners
Tenth graders explore, examine and study poetry within a variety of different strategies within this instructional activity. They review and discuss a diagram of the big picture of why it's importance to study, analyze and deconstruct...
Curated OER
Non-Fiction Texts
Third graders examine different types of non-fiction texts. In this non fiction lesson, 3rd graders use different types of texts to gather information. Students work in groups to analyze the texts for author's purpose, common...
Curated OER
Who Has Seen the Wind?
Students investigate the characteristics of wind. In this weather lesson plan, students use poetry and van Gogh's paintings to discuss the movement of wind. Students are introduced to the Beaufort Scale and use the tool to measure the...
Curated OER
A Song By Any Other Name Would Be a Poem
Students examine the poetic elements of a piece of music. They discuss favorite songs, select a song, and write a persuasive essay identifying the poetic qualities of the song lyrics.
Curated OER
Poetry for Kids
Sixth graders be immersed indirect experiences which are opportunities for students to reflect, look back, debrief or abstract from their experiences what they have felt, and thought, and studied.
Curated OER
Poetry: What's on Your Plate (Part 2)
Students write a short paragraph using strong descriptions. In this using modifiers instructional activity, students define modifier, adjective, adverb, metaphor, and simile. Students then write a journal entry in which they...
Illinois Department of Natural Resources
Section Two: Why is Biodiversity Important?
Explore soil, genetic traits, natural resources, and pollution in a series of lessons that focus on biodiversity. Kids complete experiments to learn more about the importance of varied genes and organisms in an ecosystem.