Have Fun Teaching
Story Starters
Starting at the very beginning may be a very good place to start, but it can also be very difficult for emergent writers. Help them get started by providing them with a setting, a main character, and a basic plot.
CPALMS
Analyzing Vonnegut's View of the Future and His Commentary on the Present in Harrison Bergeron
Kurt Vonnegut's short story "Harrison Bergeron" engages adolescents with its theme about the dangers of complete societal equality. Learners complete a graphic organizer to track literary elements in the story, as well as an inference...
Curated OER
Olympic Report Planner
Use this worksheet to research a future or past olympian. There's a space for researchers to brainstorm things they'd like to know, a space for them to record notes, and a KWL chart. There's also an open space to write a cumulative...
Florida Center for Reading Research
Vocabulary: Words in Context, Meaning Maker
Support children with finding meaning in unknown words using this graphic organizer. While reading a piece of writing, learners identify unfamiliar words, using context clues and reference materials to find and record definitions before...
Sean Banville
New Year's Day
Focus on a passage about the new year with your English language learners. You can start with reading the passage aloud to your class, and then launch into the related activities. Pupils match phrases, complete cloze-style activities,...
English With Jennifer
Design Team Challenge: A Pair Activity to Practice Prepositions of Place
Test your pupils' skills with indoor decorating while finding out how well they understand prepositions of place. After practicing living room vocabulary, pairs furnish a room by drawing in items. They then present their room to the...
Handwriting Without Tears
Handwriting Without Tears
Does learning to write leave your kindergartners in tears? Use these easy and memorable strategies to guide their pencils in the right direction. With cute illustrations and simple instructions, your learners will be writing paragraphs...
Curated OER
There's a Monster in My E-Mail!
Don't be scared of these monsters! Middle schoolers make new friends as they practice their drawing, writing, and computer skills. They participate in a collaborative e-mail project in which they draw and describe pictures of monsters...
Curated OER
teaching Geography Using Literature in K-University Classrooms
Young scholars read one of the following books: Minn of the Mississippi, Paddle-to-the-Sea, or Seabird, all by Holling C. Holling, and identify the five themes of geography as well as make a literature journal with chapter field notes....
Curated OER
Ancient Egypt
Pupils complete a series of activities to discover life in ancient Egypt. They create want ads for pyramid workers, design vocabulary flash cards and dictionaries, and research famous Egyptians. They also research the "Curse of the...
Azar Grammar
Song Lessons: Never, My Love
Here's a clever way to introduce language learners to noun clauses. After a brief exercise that provides examples of different types of noun clauses, class members listen to the Association's "Never, My Love" and identify the clauses in...
Curated OER
State of Illinois
In this creating a picture and paragraph about the state of Illinois worksheet, students draw an illustration and write about it. Students complete 2 activities.
Curated OER
The Newspaper Article
Have your class participate in an interview activity using an informational text about the Amazon. After reading a Cultural Connections story about a person from the Amazon, middle schoolers write interview questions based on the text....
Curated OER
Georgia CRCT Online: 8th Language Arts Quiz
Review word choice and grammar skills with this practice test for the Georgia Criterion-Referenced Competency Test (CRCT). Fifteen multiple-choice questions prompt eighth graders to recall writing strategies, grammar skills, and...
Curated OER
Not Just the Facts
Encourage your learners to explore the differences between hard news and news analysis. They outline a complex news analysis about the upcoming presidential election, then endeavor to write an analysis of the same topic, using local...
Curated OER
King Tut On The Move
Students read a story called King Tut On the Move and answer vocabulary and comprehension questions about it. In this current events King Tut lesson plan, students respond to literature by answering questions, recalling details, sharing...
Curated OER
What's In a Name?
Students explore the relationship between names and certain cultures and locations. In this identity lesson, students create family migration or immigration maps. Students read excerpts from When My Name was Keoko and Lost Names: Scenes...
K12 Reader
Evaluating in Math
Help kids understand problem-solving strategies by focusing on academic language in a reading comprehension activity. After reading paragraphs about the words solve and evaluate, learners answer five reading comprehension questions.
Curated OER
Reading Comprehension: Thor and Sif
Expose your readers to the fascinating legends of Norse Gods Thor and Sif. They read a brief introduction about traditional stories and myths then read several paragraphs on these figures, marking unknown words as they go. Learners look...
EngageNY
Synthesizing Information: Living Things in the Rainforest
How is a map a type of informational text? Class members view a world map of major rainforests, discussing its text features with a partner. Next, they take notes on key details from multiple texts about rainforests and write an...
EngageNY
End of Unit Assessment: Using Quotes to Explain Relationships and Support an Opinion
Think big! Scholars complete an end of unit assessment using their notes and graphic organizers along with the texts Big Thinkers: Was Steve Jobs This Generation’s Thomas Edison? and Steve
Jobs. To complete the assessment, they answer...
Curated OER
Persuaded or Informed?
Give each learner a newspaper for this activity! As a group, read select editorials and discuss them with your class. Are these articles informational or persuasive? Cut out select editorials and have learners identify the purpose of...
Curated OER
Just the Facts, Ma'am
Elementary learners identify the main elements of story structure and form questions to summarize their reading. They listen as the teacher reads a story and then write questions to determine (1) main characters, (2) setting, (3)...
Curated OER
Author's Purpose
Find the author's purpose in this review worksheet. Fourth graders read each of the three following paragraphs and decide whether the author's purpose is to persuade, inform, or entertain. You could use this activity as a class...