Curated OER
Creating a Children's Book
Students create a studenT book following an introduction to the publication process. Through exposure to several sources, students learn the steps involved in publishing a book.
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How To Save a Life
Young scholars examine their own beliefs about the morality of capital punishment through a "where you stand" activity. They explore economic arguments about the costs, benefits and morality of capital punishments by reading and...
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Learning the Alphabet
Students study letters and letter sounds and are to be used throughout the year. They predict the letters and sounds and words that are represented by each letter. Letter and sound recognition can be assessed through one to one...
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Create an Illuminated Alphabet Word Book
Students create a class alphabet book. In this letter recognition lesson, students use line and color to draw an object whose name begins with a specific letter. Students use adjectives to create a sentence describing the object or...
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A South African Storm
Students read a letter titled "A South African Storm" on her experiences of discrimination in the country. Individually or as a class, they answer questions about the author's purpose in writing the piece was and how she made herself...
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Sleuthing a Writer's Skills
Students examine the author's lively text to determine how she achieved her many literary effects. They discover the author's techniques in describing people and events, in setting tone, and in establishing pace. They reflect about the...
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"My Body"
Learners participate in various shared reading and writing activities related to the book "My Body" by Rhonda Jenkins. They identify and list words that could be used to label other body parts in the book, draw a picture of their face...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Edgar Allan Poe, Ambrose Bierce, and the Unreliable Biographers
High schoolers research biographical facts about Edgar Allan Poe and Ambrose Bierce and complete literary analysis activities. In this biographical lesson plan, students research basic biographical facts about Poe and Bierce. High...
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Guild v. Google
Students share opinions about what constitutes fair use of copyright materials and participate in a mock trial arguing the case of The Authors Guild v. Google.
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World War I: War in a Democratic Society
Learners research opposition and support for World War I from a number of perspectives. They analyze a number of primary and secondary sources, while considering what (if anything) makes a war just and write a letter expressing his/her...
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Rebecca Brown's "Forgiveness" and Christine Delea's "CoCo Chanel in the Stairwell"
Students, after reading and analyzing Rebecca Brown's "Forgiveness" and Christine Delea's "CoCo Chanel in the Stairwell," explore and focus on the author's tone and genre analysis. They interpret different rhetorical situations as they...
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Discovering Dickens
Young scholars restate facts and details in text to inform and organize ideas and have a choice of four activities to enhance learning,
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FOREST GRUMP: Examining How Deforestation Affects Plants and Animals of the Canadian Boreal
Learners consider definition of an ecosystem as it relates to the Canadian boreal, discover how deforestation affects this forest and recreate ecosystems. They write persuasive letters urging politicians or business people to help save...
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War Fair
Students gather a general understanding of terms related to international rules of warfare and human rights, then discuss hypothetical applications of those rules. They write letters expressing their opinion on the current application of...
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Trendy T's
Students consider popular trends, such as rock fashion. They create designs for t-shirts that represent current pop culture and write pitch letters selling their ideas to the clothing industry in the year 2030.
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Behind the Cover
Students develop questions they would have liked to ask an author about their written works. They read an article about their forefathers and research a back story to a written work of their choice. They create posters to illustrate the...
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Dr. Suess's ABC
Students complete a variety of activities related to the book "Dr. Seuss's ABC." They discuss the imaginary animals from the book and create a drawing of their own animal for the letter Z, and locate each letter on an alphabet chart...
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The Adjective Alphabet
Students paint alliteration pictures. In this adjectives lesson, students select an adjective and noun that begin with the same letter, for example: hairy heart, to represent in a painting.
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Elvis
In this excellent music and history lesson, 1st graders watch movies and listen to music sung by Elvis Presley, then draw and write as if they were a famous singer. This entertaining and inventive lesson has a terrific assessment...
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A Whale of a Problem
Learners evaluate the possible causes contributing to the decline of the killer whale population from a number of differing perspectives. They present their findings in a talk show format and in letters of advocacy regarding
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The Problem with Prejudice
Third graders read and discuss "The Hangman" by Maurice Ogden and answer questions about the poem. They list things they can do to combat prejudice using each of the letters in the word and create a small poster with a slogan against...
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From America, With Love
Students research the experiences of specific immigrant groups in the United States. Letters are written from imaginary immigrants to relatives in their countries of origin, including historically accurate details.
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American Colonial Life in the Late 1700s: Distant Cousins
Students explore daily life and its influences in the late 1700s for two families in different colonies- Delaware and Massachusetts by becoming historical detectives. After gathering information from artifacts to make inferences about...
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Pardon Me
Young scholars examine the pardon process and the controversy surrounding the Clinton pardons through reading and discussing "Lobbying for Forgiveness." They write a forgiveness letter and create pardon guidelines for President Bush.