Curated OER
African Ecology and Art
Explore Samburu culture as students examine art work by many artists and compare and contrast their styles. They view Kenyan images and find Kenya on the map. Students identify conflict in the animal world and draw animals and record in...
Curated OER
Napping House
Read The Napping House and describe the visual characteristics of the illustrations. In this perspective instructional activity, learners identify color elements. They recognize that the text is repetitive and find...
ReadWriteThink
Analyzing Famous Speeches as Arguments
A speaker, a message, an audience. After analyzing these elements in Queen Elizabeth's speech to the troops at Tilbury, groups analyze how other speakers use an awareness of events, and their audience to craft their arguments....
Curated OER
The Family: Louisiana Family Folklore
Every family has a different story to share. Your learning community examines the checklist that applies to the lesson, share some of the teacher's family photos, and look for clues in their own family photos in order to complete a...
Missouri Department of Elementary
Caution: Thin Ice!
Sixth graders listen to a story titled "Thin Ice!" then partake in a whole-class discussion asking and answering questions about what was read. Scholars brainstorm risky behaviors in preparation for a game of RISKO—a game similar to...
Curated OER
Forming Plural Nouns
Everyone knows that a noun is a person, place, thing, or idea - but what happens when you have people, places, things, or ideas? Use this SMART board activity to guide your class through plural nouns. Several activities, including making...
Shmoop
ELA.CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.11-12.3
Identifying an author’s choice, especially choices that concern craft and literary devices, is a difficult skill to teach. Here's an activity that will make your job easier. The resource breaks down how to teach the skill to novice,...
Curated OER
Wynton's Tune
Students examine the serigraph, "Wynton's Tune," by artist Faith Ringgold. They discuss the painting, listen to jazz music, create a drawing that tells a story inspired by their favorite music, and write sentences describing their artwork.
Curated OER
Folktale Writing
Review literary analysis techniques with this reading lesson about folktale writing. Middle schoolers read different folktales from many authors, and write their own folktales to share with the class. They identify the plot, morals and...
Memorial Art Gallery
Art Alive! - Beach at Blue Point
And then what happened? Class members engage in a series of activities that model for them how to read the story in a painting. Participants respond to questions that ask them to closely examine the elements in William Glackens'...
Shakespeare in American Life
Tom Hanks and Caliban: Survivor Superstars
Here’s a clever way to combine language arts and social studies. Shakespeare’s The Tempest is believed to have been inspired by the wreck of the Sea Venture on Bermuda in 1609. The class views a brief scene from Castaway in which Tom...
DeKalb County Schools
Compare/Contrast
A series of reading activities is sure to engage your young readers! Based on comparing and contrasting ideas, the packet provides opportunities to compare characters, themes, texts, and other elements of fiction.
Curated OER
To the North: A Black Family Leaves Arkansas to Find Work in Michigan
Upper elementary and middle school scholars study the economic factors that caused so many Arkansans to migrate to different parts of the country looking for work. Use this history lesson plan to help your charges gain a better...
Vermilionville
Mardi Gras Elementary
You don't have to visit Vermilionville to experience the Cajun traditions of Mardi Gras. After examining pictures and hearing stories about these colorful traditions, learners create their own Courir de Mardi Gras masks.
Prestwick House
Rhyme and Repetition in Poe's "Annabel Lee"
Many and many a year ago Edgar Allan Poe crafted the chilling tale of "Annabel Lee." The poem is the perfect vehicle to introduce Poe's concept of unity of effect, the idea that every element in a poem or story should help to develop a...
Curated OER
Analyzing Literary Devices
Eighth graders identify figurative language and poetry in this literary analysis lesson. Using Through the Looking Glass by Lewis Carroll and a YouTube video for "The Walrus and the Carpenter," young readers complete a literary device...
Curated OER
What Did You Do?
English learners practice using the past tense by participating in a time description activity. They identify the differences between verbs when they are used to describe current events or past events. Learners answer questions using...
San Francisco Symphony
Going West
Now this sounds like a fun lesson! Youngsters learn about pioneer life and the Westward Movement. First, they listen to the Copland's "Appalachian Spring," and then they discuss the elements of music found in the piece. They...
San Francisco Symphony
Washington Portrait
Fifth and second graders pair up to create mini dance scenes based on the image Washington Crossing the Delaware. Second graders create the movements while their fifth grade partners play the musical accompaniment. Leadership...
Perkins School for the Blind
Memory
When you are blind, your hands become your eyes, so learning how to discriminate between various objects through touch is a very important skill. Make a memory game by gluing common items onto cardstock. The kids feel, identify, and...
Edmond Public Schools
SOAPSTone
Break an article down with a SOAPSTone chart. Class members determine the speaker, occasion, audience, purpose, subject, and tone. The chart includes a question for each of these elements, provides some clarifying text for each, and...
CHPCS
The United States in the 1920s: The New Negro Movement and the Harlem Renaissance
Music, writing, and activism all tell the story of history! The resource uses these elements and more in a presentation to discuss the Jazz Age and Harlem Renaissance. Your class views biographies, discusses important events, and...
New York State Education Department
Comprehensive English Examination: January 2014
What better way to prepare learners for academic success than to administer practice tests? With the Comprehensive Examination in English, scholars read informational and literary texts and answer listening and reading comprehension...
Curated OER
Comprehension: Setting
Students discuss what setting represents. In this language arts lesson, students review the three elements of setting: where the story takes place, when does the story take place, and is it past, present, or future? Students create a...