Curated OER
Crane, London, and Literary Naturalism
Students read London's "To Build a Fire" and Crane's "The Open Boat" and compare and contrast the authors' style as they explore the genre known as American literary naturalism.
Curated OER
Hurricane Season Blows In
Learners are asked whether they agree or disagree with statements about hurricanes. They then read the words that appear in the News Word box on the Students printable page and one one of the words to complete each sentence. They read...
Baylor College
Resources and the Environment: The Math Link
Take advantage of this interdisciplinary resource and bring together topics in science, language arts, and math. Use characters and events from the story Tillena Lou's Big Adventure as a context for practicing addition and subtraction,...
Curated OER
Shorten the Length
Learn how to summarize by identifying main ideas and supporting details. Readers cross out unimportant information as they read through a text. Is it a random detail? Cross it out! They then draw a concept map, placing the main idea in...
Curated OER
Why Do Authors Write?
Sixth graders use short reading passages to identify, explain, and discuss the author's purpose for writing. After a lecture/demo, they utilize a graphic organizer embedded in this plan to organize their writing ideas.
Curated OER
The Magic School bus Inside A Hurricane
Young scholars investigate the concept of a hurricane by using the cartoon series "The Magic Schoolbus" to simulate the fantasy of traveling through a hurricane. The lesson uses a KWL graphic organizer in order to guide student inquiry...
Curated OER
The Young Basketball Player
Students explore the history of basketball by reading and listening to a book entitled, "The Young Basketball Player." Afterwards, they create a trivia basketball game and write an interview for their favorite player. As a...
Polk Bros Foundation
I Can Sequence Important Events
After reading any short informational or fictional text, ask your class to analyze the important events. They note down three important events on a short timeline, describing the events with either words or drawings. After this, pupils...
Curated OER
Presentations Come Alive!
Partners create oral presentations about a short story or poem incorporating audiovisual aids. Then they make presentations to their classmates. Linked story map will help guide readers' organization of their presentation;...
Curated OER
Properties of Liquids
Students describe properties of liquids and use descriptive language as a springboard to develop precise vocabulary for properties of liquids. They also use vocabulary as practiced with liquid-vocabulary card games. Finally, students...
Curated OER
Fame, Fortune, and Philanthropy
With your middle schoolers, develop concepts such as philanthropy, civic responsibility, community service, and common good. Discuss famous philanthropists and what we can each give of our time, talent and treasure to better our...
Curated OER
In Katrina's Wake
You will need to go to the National Center for Biotechnology Information website to obtain the article, "In Katrina's Wake." Have your class read it and examine maps of where toxic chemicals were located in Louisiana at the time, taking...
Polk Bros Foundation
I Can Identify/Infer Motive
Why do people and characters act as they do? Require your class figure out the motivation of two people or characters they read about in a given text. In the short charts, pupils note down who, what they do, and why they do it. After...
K12 Reader
Christmas Rhymes
What better way for children to celebrate the holiday season than by practicing their phonemic awareness skills? Presenting young readers with a series of eight Christmas-themed words, this worksheet asks them to circle the words that...
Yale University
Discovering Persephone
Here is a resource that introduces learners to how the stories from Greek mythology explain the workings of natural phenomena, movements of the seasons, and how the conflicts of the gods mimic our own daily difficulties. Learners...
Polk Bros Foundation
I Can Infer the Meaning of a Word in Context
Work on developing strategies for determining the meaning of unknown words and phrases with a quick context clues exercise. Class members choose two words from their reading and write down what they think they mean and why. See the...
Polk Bros Foundation
I Can Identify and Infer Character Traits
Use the guiding questions on this page to fill out the two graphic organizers included in the materials tab. All of the materials focus on character or personality traits and ask pupils to find textual evidence of the traits they...
Curated OER
Geo Jammin' By DeSign - Day 1, Lesson 3: Moo-vin
Second graders practice new geometry vocabulary by putting the words to the tune of "Hokey Pokey." students use the lyrics as a guided reading experience.
Curated OER
Jim Thorpe's Bright Path
Learners read about the life of Jim Thorpe and answer focus lessons about the book. In this Jim Thorpe lesson, students celebrate the American Indian culture and learn of the hardships Jim Thorpe overcame. Learners find descriptive...
Curated OER
Immigration Unit
Third graders develop an appreciate for the various cultures that are present in their local community. Through reading and research, they explain how various culture came to live in their area. At the conclusion of the unit, 3rd...
Curated OER
A More Perfect Union: Barack Obama's Race Speech at the National Constitution Center
Eleventh graders explore the process of perfecting the Union through changes made to the Constitution, and through the powers delegated to each branch of government. In this American Government lesson, 11th graders research various...
Curated OER
A Journey to Paradigm Shifts Guided Through the Lives of Gandhi and King
The students read "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens. Through this study the students will learn what paradigms are, and how to distinguish whether the paradigms they have established in their lives are positive or negative. In...
Really Good Stuff
Nonfiction Text Features Poster Set
Identifying nonfiction text features is a skill students can take to any subject. A packet of posters demonstrate different text features that learners would encounter in a textbook or informational article, encouraging pupils to think...
Baylor College
What Makes Water Special?
Get close up and personal with a drop of water to discover how the polarity of its molecules affect its behavior. Elementary hydrologists split and combine water droplets, and also compare them to drops of oil. Much neater than placing a...