Curated OER
Bill Irwin: All in a Day's Work
Students perform for an audience. In this performing arts instructional activity, students explore the work of actor Bill Irwin in a variety of roles. Students direct and perform a fairy tale in small groups .
Curated OER
Poetry language in "Mother to Son"
Sixth graders respond to poetry. For this poetry lesson, 6th graders read the "Mother to Son" by Langston Hughes and they are split into 3 groups for below, at and above grade level. Each group has a different activity to show...
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"Trails, Rails, and Roads" Lesson 1: "Language and Transportation"
Students, in groups, identify the origins of a number of transportation idioms. They search for current transportation idioms to have a partner explain.
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The Adder and the Ladder: Figurative Language as Persuasion in "Julius Caesar"
High schoolers read and analyze figurative language used in William Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar." They participate in a choral reading of a soliloquy, analyze the soliloquy for figurative language in small groups, and discuss how the...
Curated OER
Language Arts: Before-Reading Organizers
Sixth graders discover how to create graphic organizers using the titles and subtitles of informational texts. Following a teacher demonstration, they work in pairs to create their own organizers based on assigned texts. Upon...
Desert Discoveries
Conservation Cartoons
Third graders read and create cartoons about endangered and threatened species of plants. Pupils are split up into groups. They each consider a conservation cartoon and attempt to decipher its meaning. They must decide if they agree or...
Curated OER
Creating Dramatic Monologues from The Grapes of Wrath
The characters in The Grapes of Wrath come to life through an activity that asks groups to craft a dramatic monologue for a character in John Steinbeck's National Book Award and Pulitzer Prize winning novel. Writers are challenged to...
Curated OER
Understanding language registers as a means to more effective communication
Students become familiar with registers of language through class discussion and exposure to examples of a common fairy tale written in two different registers. Working in small groups, students then translate a story into two different...
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A Thanksgiving Language Lesson!
Sixth graders, in groups, create restaurants, menus, and advertisements to attract Thanksgiving Day customers.
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Art Transitions: Morphs
Learners identify artistic expression by participating in a morph activity. In this art analysis lesson, students identify the work of Keith Haring and examine some of his flip books. Learners practice creating artistic transitions...
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Internalizing Group Norms
Students consider how to internalize group norms. They descirbe a situation where people internalize group norms and a situation where people do not internalize group norms. They brainstorm examples of group norms and define...
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Making Decisions by Group: The Jury System
Students discover how to work cooperatively within a group and communicate their ideas clearly in order to reach an agreement. They summarize their experience in writing and hand down a verdict of guilt or innocence based on the...
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Little Cloud
Young scholars create "little clouds" after reading the story "The Little Cloud" by Eric Carle in this cross-curricular Art and Language Arts lesson plan for the early-elementary classroom. The author suggests using this with a...
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Group Rehearsal
Students study their national and family heritage while working in groups. In this personal history project, students examine the family shield or crest of the teacher while preparing to create and share their own with the class....
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Joaquin Torres Garcia Art
Students analyze the art of Joaquin Torres Garcia in 'Composition.' In this art analysis lesson, students read about the artist's work and the artist. Students answer discussion and follow-up questions.
Curated OER
Working With Young Children
Pupils practice using tips when working with small children. They discuss reactions of children given certain situations. They also research careers that focus on the development of children.
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Helping Ourselves: Why Philanthropy Works
Students discover the concept of philanthropy. In this civics lesson, students investigate the role of philanthropy in our society, and how it makes life better for all.
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Word Art with King's Words
Students investigate equality and racism by creating a word art project. In this civil rights lesson, students discover the life of Martin Luther King Jr. and create a word art project using the Internet site Wordle Web. Students...
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Race, Language and Separation
Sixth graders discuss the idea of separation in today's society. In groups, they examine the laws used in the past with a focus on "separate, but equal". They review the Brown v. Board of Education case and determine if it caused or...
Curated OER
Illuminating Language in Love's Labor's Lost
High schoolers reflect on literature using multiple intelligences. In this literature analysis lesson, students make creative visual representations of vocabulary terms from a speech in the play. They work in small groups to analyze...
Curated OER
Up-to-Date Aesop
Learners translate one of Aesop's fables into a modern setting with modern language. They illustrate a fable using art supplies or illustration software on the computer.
Shmoop
ELA.CCSS.ELA-Literacy.L.11-12.3
Tired of simple sentences? Bored by brief sentences? Plagued by boring sentences? Enrich your life and the writing of your pupils by modeling how to combine sentences to create more varied syntax. Groups then find a number of ways to...
Curated OER
Goldilocks: The Sequel
Students explore their creative-thinking and writing skills while writing a sequel to the classic story, "Goldilocks and the Three Bears". Students work in small groups to complete this activity and share their completed story with the...
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Civil War Slang
Students explore the language of the Civil War time period. In this Civil War lesson, students work in groups to research the meanings of Civil War slang.