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United We Stand
Students recreate and simulate the secession of the South during the Civil War by having their class secede from the school. They write an essay comparing and contrasting the similarities and differences of everyday life before and after...
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Check My Writing: Diversity of Learners Adaptation
Young scholars explore different spellings of the same words within the English language, as well as different words for the same thing with the international pen pal classroom. They become familiar with units of measure and time. ...
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Out of This World Writing!
Miss Frizzle's class provides the inspiration for your young learners! Read "The Magic School Bus Explores Outer Space," and discuss the solar system. First learners will complete a KWL chart about a planet they're assigned to. Then, as...
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Check it Out...Nonfiction Can Be Fun!
Organizing information gathered for a research topic can be a challenge. Read aloud notes you have collected on a topic and use suggestions offer by the class to categorize and sort this information. Partners then follow this pattern,...
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Revolutionary War Era Research Project
Young historians interpret historical evidence presented in primary and secondary resources in this American Revolution lesson. They select topics from the time era that they are interested in researching. Additionally, they follow the...
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Contemporary Civic-life Issue Research Based Essay
Seventh graders write a five paragraph persuasive essay on a contemporary civic-life issue.
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Can you Follow Me? Conventions
Use the present tense to create written assignments. Critical thinkers take a passage written in past or future tense and rewrite it in present tense. They then write a set of instructions in present tense.
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Using Details from Text to Identify Author's Purpose
Explore writing techniques by analyzing newspapers and magazines with middle schoolers. They will collaborate in small groups to read local news stories and identify the main ideas and author's intent. They also utilize an information...
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Using Details From The Text
Begin this expository writing activity by reading a non-fiction book of your choice and modeling expository writing. The plan suggests The Trip of a Drip by Vicki Cobb but notes that other texts will work. Learners then choose a...
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1900 America: Historical Voices, Poetic Visions
Students examine the United States at the turn of the century. Using primary source documents, they interpret them within a specific historical context. Using this information, they write a poem with metaphors and a specific meter They...
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Aloha From the King
Through this activity pupils learn about King Kamehameha I, and letter writing. It begins with an overview of Hawaiian history, with an emphasis on King Kamehameha I, and then goes on to a letter writing activity. Each person writes a...
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Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices by Paul Fleischman
Do your young readers know that poems can be performed as a team? They listen to a few examples from Paul Fleischman's book Joyful Noise: Poems for Two Voices, paying attention to how the how readers work together. They examine the...
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Those Baffling Bibliographies!
Are you working on a research and citation unit? Have your young writers listen to a lecture on how to cite research sources correctly and how to distinguish new information that requires citing. They compile a list of works cited from...
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It's Happening Where: Graphic Organizer #1 for Newspaper Articles
Planning a newspaper or journalism unit? Use these graphic organizer to help your young reporters organizer their articles. The first page instructs users to plan out the structure of their article, while the second page prompts them to...
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Mind Your Pints and Quarts: Making Sense of Liquid Measurement
Elementary and middle schoolers identify different units of liquid measurement. They use the online Visual Thesaurus to learn about the relationships between units of liquid measurement.
Organization for Educational Technology & Curriculum
Introduction to Variables and Algebraic Expressions
Begin your next algebra unit with this introductory lesson on variables and algebraic expressions. This plan requires a SMART board and includes a SMART notebook file. The file contains a guiding question and two learning activities that...
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Spooky Analysis
Focus on building suspense as well as evaluating web sites through creative writing. After introducing the idea of suspense and holding a discussion, class members complete a WebQuest, during which they find inspiration for their own...
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Central America and the Caribbean
Use the library or Internet to find resources on a chosen topic. The class will comprehend the collected information, structure the information with texts and graphics for a presentation. Each presentation focuses on Hispanic culture and...
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Visible Speech: What is a Sentence?
Use this straightforward presentation as a basic guide to your grammar unit. With explanations of the parts of a simple sentence (subject, verb, direct object), the slideshow is a good way to reinforce students' prior knowledge about...
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Indigenous People Day
Do you know why we celebrate the International Day of the World's Indigenous People? Did you even know we celebrate this day? After reading a short passage about this international celebration, scholars answer true or false questions,...
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My Senator and Me: A Dog's-Eye View of Washington, D.C.
Although this legislative process lesson is designed to accompany a specific text, it is valuable independently. Young learners participate in a picture walk (worksheet included) through My Senator and Me: A Dog's-Eye View of Washington,...
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Label Length and Weight of the Creatures Worksheet
Although the objective to this measurement worksheet isn't entirely clear, it is definitely usable in a few ways. There are six images of different creatures, each with a height and weight listed. Learners label each creature by filling...
Louisiana Department of Education
Fahrenheit 451
In his 2013 introduction to Fahrenheit 451, Neil Gaiman states, “Fiction is a lie that tells us true things, over and over.” In this extraordinary unit plan, readers "explore the power of written language to educate and influence...
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Discovering Saturn, The Real "Lord of the Rings"
Reading, writing, and rings! A lesson from NASA combines space science with authentic reading and writing tasks. Included in this lesson are pre-reading activities, four mini informational booklets on Saturn, a structured note-taking...