Curated OER
New York City Delights: The Taxi Cab
You set the rate! Step into the shoes of a taxi driver in New York City, and also pretend to be a person who uses taxis to get around town. The class will conduct collaborative research to learn about the history of taxis. Then, they...
Curated OER
Political Cartoons: Literacy
Readers decode and deconstruct political cartoons to heighten critical thinking, extra-textual literacy, and making meaning from symbolism and metaphor. A compatible activity to use in English class when your 8th or 11th graders are...
Newseum
Are You a Publisher?: Free Press and You
What kinds of media do your pupils use to read and publish information? After a discussion about what publishing means, and about the freedom of the press, class members interview one or two other people about their publishing habits....
Curated OER
Great Expectations: Group Writing
Examine the differences between totalitarianism and democracy in this writing instructional activity. Using the same format and theme from Great Expectations, young writers work in pairs to compose their own short stories. They follow...
Carolina K-12
Propaganda, Spin and Soundbite Politics
It's all about the spin! In an introduction to propaganda techniques and soundbite politics, scholars first learn about common propaganda techniques before seeing them in action in the context of the 2016 election cycle. Activities...
Curated OER
What's New in the News?
Students explore the news. They research Internet news sites, newspapers, and magazines and select four areas to summarize. They simulate a news announcer by summarizing the news and including supporting details for a particular day.
Curated OER
Meaty Words
Headlines from newspapers launch a discussion of image-rich, meaty words. Just as headline writers choose vivid vocabulary to attract readers, young writers develop headlines that capture the essence of a passage from a book they are...
Curated OER
Teeshirt Printing
Students become responsible and involved citizens. In this t-shirt printing lesson plan students design and create a teeshirt with a message about citizenship and responsibility. Natural objects are used as stamps.
Curated OER
Picture Collage Book Report: Voltaire's Candide
Here's an alternative to a traditional book report for your class to demonstrate that they understand and can articulate the main character's evolution and the social themes presented in Voltaire's satirical novel Candide. Your young...
Curated OER
A Colony is Born : Lesson 4 - What Went Wrong?
Fifth graders compare and contrast two early colonies and make a T chart. They list examples of worked well and what did not, and significant historical events. They use higher order thinking skills by deducing how different scenarios...
American Press Institute
Media Literacy: Where News Comes From
What actually happens at a press conference? Make sense of the mayhem with a mock press conference activity designed to promote media literacy. Individuals participate as either members of the press or the governor's office to examine...
Curated OER
Photojournalism And Creating A Layout
Students gain an idea of how a photographer prepares and shoots a photo story. They explore how to use Pagemaker and lay out a story for the newspaper. They see the powerful effect that photography can have on news stories.
Curated OER
Point of View and Mentor Relationships
Tenth graders analyze the role of mentors, point of view, and prejudice using the texts of To Kill a Mockingbird and Maya Angelou's I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings. In this literature analysis instructional activity, 10th graders...
Curated OER
Exploring Prejudice and Text-to-Text Relationships
Tenth graders use the novel To Kill a Mockingbird to analyze relationships in society. In this literature analysis lesson, 10th graders participate in a shoe activity where they bring in one shoe belonging to someone they know and a...
Curated OER
Roles of the President
Pupils read a document which explains the roles and responsibilities of the President of the United States. In groups, they tour the George Bush Presidential Museum and participate in a Presidential scavenger hunt. Once back in the...
Curated OER
Reading the newspaper
Learners read articles related to local, state, national, and world events using word maps.
Curated OER
Using the News
Learners give oral predictions to news articles. They discuss and revise their interpretations of the content material.
Curated OER
Nursery Rhyme Mania
Young scholars become familiar with many different nursery rhymes. They use nursery rhymes for a variety of creative activities including writing, singing, poetry and acting.
Curated OER
Novel News
Pupils, working in groups create a newspaper based on the events that take place in a novel. Groups complete sections of the newsletter based on criteria and publish it using newsletter publishing software.
Curated OER
Adapting a Fairy Tale
Students read and prepare a new oral version of a selected fairy tale. They read and compare/contrast two fairy tales and identify the main story elements. In small groups they create a new oral version of one they fairy tales and...
Curated OER
Writing a Letter to the Editor
Students identify the main elements/structure of a letter to the editor. They brainstorm for thoughts and opinions on a specific topic and write a first draft of a letter to an editor of a newspaper. They give each other preliminary...
Curated OER
Making Photo Essays Easy
Young scholars generate ideas about what makes a good story and a good photograph then place them together to create a photo essay. In this photo essay lesson plan, learners assemble random photos into a story, select the best photos,...
Utah LessonPlans
Water, Water Everywhere
Murals are used to represent the various ways we rely on water.
Curated OER
The Media and You
Seventh graders discuss the main purposes of media. Using various advertisements, they identify the method used by the advertisers in each example. They use these methods to create and sell their own product to the class. They use the...