Curated OER
Persuasive Essay
Next time you assign your young historians to write a persuasive essay, use this document as a starting point and support them with a rubric, tips for writing a successful persuasive piece, and a general essay outline.
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
Reading Study Guide: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Meant for use with Maya Angelou's first autobiographical volume I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, the materials here are designed for a homeschool setting, but they'd suit any classroom or text. Graphic organizers, chapter summary guides,...
Curated OER
The French Revolution and Napoleon, 1789-1815
Here is an interesting and somewhat interactive presentation. Covering the French Revolution, the slide show begins with a timeline of Napoleon's rise to power and ultimate fall. Main ideas for each event are then outlined with critical...
Curated OER
Literature Study Guide: To Kill a Mockingbird
Teaching tools designed to support student-centered literature study. Geared toward homeschoolers reading Harper Lee's book To Kill a Mockingbird, I would use these in my classroom. The materials are applicable to any text: graphic...
Curated OER
Creating a Character Chart for the Secret Garden
The Secret Garden, is a wonderful book to read with your class. After reading, why not employ the lesson plan presented here as a follow up activity? In it, pupils create character charts that portray the tremendous changes that take...
McGraw Hill
Study Guide for Island of the Blue Dolphins
Dive your class into a reading of Island of the Blue Dolphins with this in-depth study guide. Breaking the novel into three parts, the resource begins each section with a focus activity that identifies a specific theme or question to be...
Curated OER
News View
Students read and analyze three different news sources that describe the same event. They compare/contrast the similarities and differences of the news sources, and write an essay describing the main event.
Curated OER
What's the Point?
Students identify the components of a political cartoon and formulate the main ideas.
Curated OER
Plus, Minus and Interesting
Students identify the main ideas or topics of a lesson or unit using the plus, minus and interesting graphic organizer. In this main idea or topic lesson, students examine the use of the PMI graphic organizer. They describe the item they...
Curated OER
Note-Taking and Organizational Strategies
Students explore note taking. For this study skills and nonfiction comprehension lesson, students complete a two column main idea chart while reading a nonfiction passage.
Curated OER
Plan your writing
In this writing worksheet, learners complete a graphic organizer where they write down their notes about night time. Students write 3 main ideas about night time.
Curated OER
Wrapped in Mystery
Sixth graders can identify five basic elements that most mysteries contain. They put the elements of mystery into a graphic organizer they can follow. They construct meaning after reading Poe's short story and identify or infer the...
Ontario
Reading Informational Text
Learning to recognize the importance of the features of information text (i.e., titles, subtitles, endnotes, sidebars, etc.) is the focus of a reading activity designed for middle schoolers. Learners examine how these text features help...
Curated OER
East Asia Country Project
Get your young historians thinking about East Asian culture and history during this partner research project, in which they analyze a variety of East Asian aspects to prepare for a presentation. After an initial "what do we already know"...
Alberta Learning
Great City-states of the Renaissance
Acting as journalists on a team to determine the most influential city-state of Renaissance Italy, your young historians will research, discuss, and compare the rise of Venice, Florence, and Genoa, and their influence in shaping a...
NASA
The Cycle of Matter
An educational lesson focuses on the idea of conservation of matter through a demonstration of the water cycle, a discussion of digesting food, and the path of carbon and oxygen atoms as they change form.
Serendip
Using Models to Understand Photosynthesis
Is your class in the dark about photosynthesis? Shed some sunlight on an important biological process with a thoughtful activity. After answering questions to help determine their level of knowledge, learners work with chemical equations...
Mr. Nussbaum
Abraham Lincoln Reading Comprehension—The Middle Years (Part 2)
Abraham Lincoln's face may only be worth one cent, but the online reading passage and questions about his life are an invaluable resource. Pupils read a passage about Lincoln's experience with the Illinois Legislature, earning his law...
Curated OER
Writing Process
Introduce primary graders to the writing process. After reviewing the steps, they practice using the process by writing a book report. Before writing the draft, they complete a graphic organizer. The completed draft is reviewed by peers....
Curated OER
Autumn Writing
Students review and brainstorm the signs of autumn through a PowerPoint presentation/ lesson plan with embedded video clips. After brainstorming ideas as a group, Students use Kidspiration to develop a graphic organizer and follow the...
Curated OER
Writing Process- Narrative Writing
Graphic organizers are a wonderful tool for young writers to use to help them get their thoughts in order for a piece of writing. Here, learners are coached on what a piece of narrative writing is, and how they must have a distinct...
Curated OER
Help Me Learn About the Holocaust
Young readers select a book from a provided list to use as the basis for an intensive class study of Holocaust novels. After completing their novels, groups create a multimedia presentation highlighting the elements of literature...
Curated OER
Organizing Ideas
Eighth graders investigate varous writing skills as part of larger course of study. The lesson is essentially a rough guide for conducting a class for writing. The main focus of the plan is organizing ideas using various strategies that...