Curated OER
Regarding the Fountain: A KWHL Strategy
A KWHL strategy prepares young readers for the different type of writing found in Kate Klise's story of the Dry Creek Middle School drinking fountain. Step-by-step directions, student and teacher copies of the KWHL template, and...
Curated OER
Twig Construction: Recycled Materials
Construction projects of any kind require learners to use spacial reasoning, creative thinking, and critical analysis skills. They design and make a twig/leaf structure out of natural and recycled materials. This project would be great...
Curated OER
ReQuest Strategy: Reciprocal Questioning
Explore reciprocal questioning with this ReQuest comprehension strategy. After reading a passage, learners first question the teacher, trying to "stump" her. Then it is the teacher's turn to ask the pupils questions. All correct answers...
Curated OER
Pairing Picture Books with Edith Hamilton's Mythology
As a before reading strategy, class members select a tale from mythology, examine several picture book versions of the myth, and fill out part of a Venn diagram with observations about the hero in particular and the myth in...
Curated OER
Fill-In: Dog TV
Should your dog be watching tV? Read the article and then fill in the blanks by memory. Encourage a friendly debate: would you get DogTV for your beloved pet?
Curated OER
Water Wars
High schoolers investigate the water wars taking place in Ethiopia. For this global issues lesson, students research the water shortages in East Africa. High schoolers participate in a discussion that requires them to put themselves in...
Simon & Schuster
Classroom Activities for Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
Three lessons based on "The Wife of Bath's Prologue" from Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales offer scholars an opportunity to examine literary satire, medieval attitudes towards women, and the form and function of a frame story.
Curated OER
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead: Pre-Reading Strategy
Get your class ready to read Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard with an anticipation guide. This document describes exactly how to create and implement an anticipation guide.
American Chemical Society
Energy Foundations
Only 10 percent of an incandescent bulb's energy is used to create light; the remaining 90 percent is heat. In the unit of activities, young chemists examine energy through hands-on activities, videos, discussions, and...
Scholastic
Reading Characters
Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass provides the text for a study of how writers bring characters to life. Using the provided character mapping worksheets, readers respond to questions and then write a short character sketch.
K-State Research and Extensions
Water
How are maps like fish? They both have scales. The chapter includes six different activities at three different levels. Scholars complete activities using natural resources, learn how to read a map, see how to make a compass rosette,...
Fluence Learning
Writing About Informational Text: Music and the Brain
Even if you've never picked up a musical instrument, chances are that music has directly impacted your mental and emotional development. Sixth graders engage in a reading activity in which they read two articles on the impact of music on...
National Endowment for the Humanities
On This Day With Lewis and Clark
Walk in the footsteps of Lewis and Clark as they discover the wonders, beauty, and dangers of the American frontier. After gaining background knowledge about Thomas Jefferson and the Louisiana Purchase, young explorers use primary...
US Holocaust Museum
Deconstrucing the Familiar
Collaboration and complicity. Class members examine a series of photographs and consider how active participation and passive complicity represented in the photos contributed to the Holocaust.
Facing History and Ourselves
Confirmation and Other Biases
As the investigation into the reporting of the events in Ferguson, Missouri, continues, class members consider how bias influences perception, how the tendency is to collect evidence that supports preconceived notions. The big idea...
Ellsworth American
Think About the Newspaper
Investigate the significance of adjectives with a newspaper activity that addresses effective language. Readers probe teacher-provided articles in search of the mighty modifiers, and practice by replacing them with a different word, and...
Curated OER
Across the United States- Home Learning Activity
In this home-school United States map learning exercise, students work with a family partner as they study a map of the United States. They talk about the states they have visited, play a game by giving each other clues about states, and...
Curated OER
The Call of the Wild: 4 Corners Activity
Readers of The Call of the Wild engage in a four- corners activity that fosters discussion and encourages readers to make connections between their lives and the text. Individuals respond to a series of discussion prompts and justify...
Utah Education Network (UEN)
Reflective Listening Skills
Do you ever feel like your conversation partner is just nodding along as you speak? Encourage teenagers to become reflective listeners with a short activity in which they form responses to assertive statements to reflect what the speaker...
Brigham Young University
Silent Discussion: After Reading Strategy for Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy
Complete this after-reading activity for the novel Lizzie Bright and the Buckminster Boy in order to explore the books themes of societal prejudice, peer pressure, authority, and bullying. Write the seven provided questions on...
Curated OER
Great Expectations: After Reading Strategy
Class members are asked to consider how they would respond to situations faced by characters in Great Expectations. After completing one exercise as guided practice, individuals are presented with a second problematic situation and...
Curated OER
Vocabulary Building Activity
Four weeks of vocabulary words are provided here! Each week has between six and seven vocabulary words for your young learners to master. First they hear each word, and then they get a short definition for each word. The second activity...
Curated OER
Setting Goals for the Coming School Year Home Activity
In this setting goals home-school worksheet, students work with at family partner to set three school goals for the coming school year. They decide what they need to do to achieve those goals. They write about their plan to achieve those...
Curated OER
Vocabulary Building Activity
The four worksheets here are provided to introduce your learners to new vocabulary on Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday. Each list contains seven vocabulary words focused on a specfic vowel pair. First the learner hears the word,...