Dream of a Nation
Writing Interdisciplinary Essay
The Grapes of Wrath. The Jungle. Native Son. The Things They Carried. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian. To address a current social, political, economic, or environmental issue, class groups pair the reading of a classic...
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Persuasive Writing II
Help your young writers use logic in their persuasive writing. Discuss the characteristics of a persuasive paper, and have pupils work together to explore and solve a syllogism. They will write a short persuasive paper which includes a...
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Little Owl Press Report/Newspaper and Newscast Project
Discover journalistic techniques by having learners prepare and write their own class newspaper. They discuss the five W's of investigative journalism and conduct interviews with school figures. They utilize video technology, podcast...
Southern Poverty Law Center
Evaluating Reliable Sources
A lesson plan instills the importance of locating reliable sources. Scholars are challenged to locate digital sources, analyze their reliability, search for any bias, and identify frequently found problems that make a source unusable.
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Tony Cragg-Evidence
Students demonstrate an understanding of basic elements and principles of art making such as unity, variety, movement, and meaning found in daily experiences. They also describe the meaning of students¿ own artwork in a written statement.
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It's All Greek to Me
Introduce your class to the Greek alphabet and language. Examine how the Greek language influenced the English language. Study the history, timeline of achievements, and the role oral history played in Greece.
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Writing: Narrative, Expository, Persuasive, and Descriptive
If you are interested in having a basic framework for teaching expository, narrative, persuasive, and descriptive writing, this resource may help; however, you will have to find information on the different forms of writing to share with...
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Exploring Contrasting Story Elements Through Tapestry and Poetry
Young thinkers view two narrative art tapestries and study the images included that tell a story about the Roman Emperor Constantine. As they examine the details of the tapestries, pupils use a Venn Diagram to record the similarities and...
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Collaborative Writing
Collaborative writing projects can be a lot of fun for students. They use a Scholastic Story Starter and the class blog to write a creative story containing basic story elements. The web link to Scholastic is included but non of the...
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Tom Sawyer
This lesson kicks off with a PowerPoint presentation on Mark Twain. Learners examine the dialect, slang, viewpoint and setting. Then use e-mail to address three topics utilizing comprehension, synthesis, and evaluation skills.
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Romeo and Juliet Debate
Who is responsible for the deaths of Romeo and Juliet? After generating a list of the six characters most responsible, class members prepare for and engage in a formal debate. Prior knowledge of basic rules for debate would be necessary.
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Native Americans - Searching for Knowledge and Understanding
What do you know about American Indians? Upper graders compose an informational essay based on the research they conduct. They choose a Native American group to study and, using the provided list of web links, gather information and...
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Literary Analysis of Theme
Remember reading "The Lottery" and "The Possibility of Evil" by Shirley Jackson? Learners can experience and analyze the tension, themes, and human experience found in these pieces through reading and class discussion. They use...
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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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A Walk Around the School: Mapping Places Near and Far
After reading Pat Hutchins’ Rosie’s Walk, have your young cartographers create a map of Rosie’s walk. Then lead them on a walk around the school. When you return class members sequence the walk by making a list of how the class got from...
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Sounding Out the Symbols
Using the states as a hook, kindergartners identify beginning sounds. They identify the initial sound in words like Mississippi and Indiana and complete a set of worksheets related to this skill.
K12 Reader
Public Education
Your pupils may not know that school was not always required. Teach them a bit about the history of public education with a reading passage and related questions.
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Explorers’ Experience
Students investigate the Exploration Age. In this research skills lesson, students discover the impact of exploration as they locate information about selected explorers. Students design and create relief maps that feature exploration...
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Vanished Occupations: Life on an Iron Plantation
Learners analyze photographs to understand life on a plantation. For this vanished occupations lesson, learners examine why iron plantations were created and what natural resources were needed to make iron. Learners compare the duties,...
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Basic Food Items
Students explore healthy eating by defining food vocabulary terms. In this food purchasing lesson, students utilize word/picture cards to participate in a food identification activity among their classmates. Students read a list of food...
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Mapping the News
Students explore cartography. In this map skills and map making lesson, Students work in groups to create wall size world maps including legends, compass roses, latitude and longitude, and physical features. Students collect current...
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The Poetry of Chinoiserie
Students study Asian works of art and Japanese haiku. They then take this knowledge and create an original haiku in response to other works of art.
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Writing Poems Worksheet
In this writing poems worksheet, students record 10 nouns, then write 2 or 3 verbs next to each noun, and finally write a simile or metaphor that matches the noun and verbs in that row. Students then organize these lines into stanzas to...
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A Colony is Born : Lesson 3 - Marking Time
Fifth graders refer to text and timeline to fill in a graphic organizer and timeline from 1492-1607. They participate in a class discussion that allows for speedy accumulation of events and fill in their own timelines. They work in small...