Curated OER
Persuasive Writing: Creating Book Reviews
By reading and analyzing examples of persuasive text, students can get a better idea of how to form their own essays.
Annenberg Foundation
Slavery and Freedom
How do nineteenth-century texts by African American and Native American writers contribute to the country's ideals of freedom and individuality? Learners explore the topic by watching and discussing a video, reading biographies, writing...
Curated OER
The Hare and the Water: A Tanzanian Folk Tale
"The Hare and the Water," a Tanzanian folk tale, lends a global perspective to literary analysis. Learners spend the first two days reading and storyboarding. On day three, they examine folk tale elements (worksheet included), and design...
Curated OER
Review with Creative Writing
Connect a wide range of literature concepts where writers demonstrate mastery through creative writing.
Annenberg Foundation
Masculine Heroes
What were the driving forces behind American expansion in the nineteenth century, and what were its effects? Scholars watch a video, read biographies, engage in discussion, write journals and poetry, draw, and create a multimedia...
Annenberg Foundation
Social Realism
Many American writers in the late nineteenth century wanted their writing to reflect real life. Individuals watch and discuss a video, read and explore author biographies, write a journal entry and a poem, and complete a multimedia...
Curated OER
The Soundtrack of One's Life
Students research a historical person and the time in which he/she lived. They write a biography including images and at least four songs from the time period in which the person lived.
Curated OER
The Soundtrack of One's Life
Students gather important information about a historical figure. They write a short biography, including illustrations. Students collect songs from the time period when the person lived. They create a play list in iTunes. Students...
Curated OER
End-of-the-Year Celebration Program
Students sing songs, recite a poem, share what they can now do that they couldn't before and explain how they see their accomplishments. They read "Leo The Late Bloomer" and create graduation hats.
Curated OER
Tech Integration Project Lesson Accelerator: Project Overview
Prepare middle schoolers for life in the tech world with a lesson on entering, storing, sorting, and creating database collections. They use a database tool, such as excel, to record the contents of their CD collections. They then...
Curated OER
Western Medieval European Poetry and Literature
One of the Common Core standards requires learners to make connections between literature or media of the past and the present. Provided here, are key elements found in medieval poetry and literature that are connected to several more...
Curated OER
Teaching the Holocaust through Literature
Centered on the short story "The Tenth Man" by Polish Holocaust survivor Ida Fink, here is a solid one-day resource to support study of World War II or Nazi history, short stories, or to complement any ELA unit on The Diary of Anne Frank...
Curated OER
VH1 200 Greatest Pop Culture Icons Lesson 2
Students discuss pop culture, pop culture icons, and female composers.
Curated OER
Mary J. Blige
In this famous person worksheet, students read a passage about Mary J. Blige and then complete a variety of in-class and homework activities to support comprehension, including partner interviews, spelling, cloze, synonym matches, and...
Curated OER
Basic Waltz Steps
Learn the five basic waltz steps: box step, under arm turn, walt left box or waltz right box, hesitation step, and progressive waltz step. Teach a little about the history of the waltz and the countries from which it came: Germany and...
Curated OER
Puerto Rico: The 51st State?
Young scholars explore Puerto Rico. In this Puerto Rico current events lesson plan, students conduct a Webquest to answer questions about Puerto Rico's culture. Young scholars discuss whether Puerto Rico is a country or a state, and...
Curated OER
Literacy Lesson: Guided Reading
Here is a wonderful instructional activity designed for students with special needs. This well-thought-out instructional activity uses Big Books, familiar stories, and has a lot of review learning built into it. The book, The Keeping...
Curated OER
Personal Narrative Paragraphs: Class Quilt
Begin this activity by asking third graders to bring from home pieces of cloth that represent something important to them. (Have extras for learners who need them.) They reflect on important events in their lives, compose narrative...
Curated OER
How to Write an Essay: Secondary ed.
Whether introducing the structure of expository essays or reviewing the format with your high schoolers, take the time to check out this resource. Examples of seven common forms of introductory paragraphs and six types of conclusions, as...
Curated OER
Being in the Noh: An Introduction to Japanese Noh Plays
Students read a Japanese Noh play and discuss its structure and traditional characters. They choose a short myth and write a Noh play based on it.
Curated OER
William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar: Fate versus Free Will
Tenth graders explore Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. After reading specific scenes, they brainstorm and discuss free will. Students observe a clip from the Dr. Phil television show entitled, "Afraid to Age" and make connections from the...
Curated OER
Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury
Create an online poster, or Glogster, with your class to promote Ray Bradbury's novel Dandelion Wine. This activity can be done at any time in the novel, although the directions suggest waiting until your readers near the end so they...
Curated OER
Compositional Techniques: Are There Similarities Between
Students recognize how chromatic scales create tension and pentatonic scales create relaxation as compositional techniques used to create tonality. Also, students aurally recognize the use of mixed or alternating meter as a means of...
Curated OER
International Jazz Day
In this International Jazz Day worksheet, students complete activities such as reading a passage, phrase matching, fill in the blanks, correct words, multiple choice, spelling, sequencing, scrambled sentences, writing questions, survey,...