Possibilities
Disability Awareness Activity Packet
Bring awareness to disabilities with a packet consisting of a variety of activities designed to inform scholars about disabilities—autism, hearing impairments, physical disabilities, and more! Learners test their communication skills,...
Maryland Department of Education
The Concept of Diversity in World Literature Lesson 3: Igbo Culture
What cultural concepts must readers understand in order to connect to Things Fall Apart? As part of their study of Chinua Achebe’s novel, class members research Nigeria and the Igbo culture to create a collaborative, web-based, annotated...
Chymist
Make a Low Energy Radio Transmitter
How do you demonstrate radio transmissions? Pupils build a low-energy radio transmitter by constructing two coils from magnet wire and connecting them to audio/phone plugs. The resource provides the details on how to build the...
Advocates for Human Rights
The Rights of Migrants in the United States Lesson Plan: Fleeing for Your Life
A role-playing scenario has middle-schoolers imagining that they are refugees forced to flee their community and integrate into a new one. Then, some play the roles of members of the new community and the class brainstorms ideas about...
California Department of Education
Due Dates, Deadlines, and Decisions
Get high schoolers thinking about their post-secondary plans with a lesson plan that teaches them how to navigate the application and financial aid process. They create a junior/senior calendar identifying time-sensitive tasks,...
Smithsonian Institution
War of 1812
Luckily for those who aren't history buffs, anyone can guess that the War of 1812 happened in ... 1812. But how to cover the rest of the story? The resource does just that with effective direct instruction that includes statistics,...
The New York Times
Writing Fiction Based on Real Science - NYTimes.com
Refuse to alienate your scientific-minded young scholars during your creative writing unit. Learners explore how literary writing can reflect observable fact, and be based in actual science. The links include examples of fiction and...
Scholastic
Writing to a Historical Poet
Poetry is a very personal and introspective art form. Give your class the opportunity to understand how a poet's voice can speak to them on a personal level, and that every reader can respond to an author differently. After a poetic...
Curated OER
Fast Food and Daily Nutrition Choices
Students explore food. In this nutrition lesson, students investigate multiple facets of healthy eating and how the fast food industry impacts our society. They will participate in class discussions, read from their text-book, and watch...
The New York Times
Stress Less: Understanding How Your Mind and Body Respond to Anxiety
What could be more relevant to teens and preteens than experiencing stress? Use an article from the New York Times website to practice valuable Common Core skills for informational text reading, and also get a discussion going in your...
Curated OER
Providing Effective Feedback to the Youngest of Writers
Primary grade children can excel as writers when presented with thoughtful and age-appropriate feedback.
Constitutional Rights Foundation
If Men Were Angels: Teaching the Constitution With the Federalist Papers
Much like the methods of group work, the writers of the Federalist Papers worked together to advocate for their viewpoints against the anti-federalists. The resource enables learners to break into small groups and conduct research before...
Alabama Department of Archives and History
Strange Fruit: Lynching in America
To continue their study of the Civil War, Reconstruction, and the beginning of the civil rights movement, class members watch the YouTube video of Billie Holiday singing "Strange Fruit" as an introduction to an examination of lynching in...
National Endowment for the Humanities
“House by the Railroad”: A Painting and a Poem for the Common Core
Introduce your class to ekphrastic poetry with an exercise that asks them to examine Edward Hooper's painting House by the Railroad and Edward Hirsch's poem "Edward Hopper and the House By the Railroad." After a close reading of the two...
Curated OER
Descending to the Challenge: Developing Documentaries About the Deep Ocean
The video clip that comprises the warm up is not available, but the related article from The New York Times and the movie trailer for Aliens of the Deep are, leaving enough material to make this a fascinating lesson on deep-sea...
Tennessee Technical University
Carousel Brainstorm
A variation of the Walkabout Review process, carousel brainstorming directs groups to rotate through a series of stations posting ideas on the topic or question posted at each stop.
iCivics
Do I Have a Right? Bill of Rights Edition
In an online engaging and animated game, pupils role play as lawyers charged with protecting rights found in amendments to the United States Constitution. As they choose appropriate amendments to match the right that has been violated,...
Positively Autism
"When I Feel Angry" Social Skill Story
Here's a presentation that shows kids appropriate ways to behave when they are feeling angry. They learn how to identify when they are feeling angry, calming strategies they can use, and words they can use to express their anger. The...
EngageNY
Grade 9 ELA Module 2, Unit 3, Lesson 5
After rereading the full text of Walter Mosley's essay "True Crime," groups complete an evidence collection tool worksheet, and then class members independently draft a multi-paragraph, evidence-based response that identifies how Mosley...
Curated OER
Socratic Seminar Questions/Observation
Prepare participants for a Socratic seminar by asking them to not only design questions for the discussion, but to also observe an assigned partner during the seminar. A great way to encourage student-led discussions.
Curated OER
Power Writing to Elaborate: Paragraph Writing, Main Idea
Young scholars are walked through an outline (Power Writing) and shown how to elaborate on a main idea in their writing.
Curated OER
Lesson 1: Identifying Information in Nonfiction
If you are in need of a lesson on identifying information in a non-fiction text, look no further. The class learns how to use a KWL chart to identify explicit information in the book, Frogs by Gail Gibbons. They fill out the KWL chart,...
Curated OER
Halloween Literature Unit: Creative Writing Project
Students practice their creative writing skills and build cooperative learning skills. In this creative writing project, students review parts of a story. Students reinforce the concept of sequencing and develop stronger writing skills. ...
Curated OER
Informative Essay Outline Lesson Plan
Students are introduced to how to properly write an informative essay. In groups, they review the steps of prewriting and how to make an outline for their essay. Individually, they practice completing their outlines and share them with...