Curated OER
Buzz Up My Hive
Students research bees. In this organisms lesson, students participate in various learning centers to find out more about bees. The centers include watching a video and taking notes, reading books about bees, and going on a WebQuest. As...
Pennsylvania Department of Education
Analyzing Literary Elements in Fiction
Students analyze the characters and events in fictional writing. In this literary elements lesson, students study the meaning of the words characterization and fiction. They listen to the story Pigsty by Mark Teague, or any other book...
Curated OER
Football: It's Not Just for Jocks!
Eighth graders complete a variety of football-themed activities. They develop creative writing projects with a football inspiration, research and interpret football statistics and practice football skills in P.E.
Curated OER
I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Students read and analyze the novel "I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings" by Maya Angelou. They discuss the poetry and prose of the book, the importance of role models, complete a worksheet, and write a narrative using figurative language.
Curated OER
Boundaries That Inspire: The Sestina
Young scholars study the poetic term "enjambment". They use one word as more than one part of speech and let words (instead of ideas) inspire lines and non-sequential, dreamlike, compulsive narrative.
Curated OER
Box O' Love
Students create a Valentines Day poem using an empty cereal box as their canvas. In this poetry lesson, students create their poems using rhyming words and create sentences.
Curated OER
Theology…the Use of Silence in the Classroom
Immerse your class in the Middle Ages with a thorough history lesson. After viewing examples of illuminated manuscripts such as the Book of Kells, they discuss how these were the mode of keeping and storing information employed by the...
Curated OER
Stain My Days Blue
Students read several poems related to the life and culture of the Appalachia region. They are introduced to the poetic forms of simile, alliteration and onomatopoeia and respond to the poems through journal entries and poetry of their own.
Curated OER
Personalized Postcards
Students create and send postcards to friends and family members. Using actual photographs, they write a rough draft and final draft of a paragraph and print it out to glue onto a postcard template to mail to their friend or family member.
Curated OER
Am I Really Free?
Fourth graders write about slavery and freedom. In this freed slaves lesson, 4th graders read historical information about free blacks during slavery and explore books, objects and slave narratives to learn more. Students write a...
Curated OER
Creative Writing Inspired by Paintings
Third graders view a PowerPoint presentation of the images by Maxfield Parrish. They wirte a short story based on one image and create drawings of an imagined character.
Curated OER
Comparison Contrast Essay
Students compare and contrast the experience of the migrant worker as depicted in The Grapes of Wrath with the experiences of migrant children as depicted in the narratives and poems provided.
Curated OER
Deciphering Community
Young scholars explore the concept of a community. They identify and group various kinds of communities. Students create a concept map exemplifying their membership in different communities. They write a narrative describing their...
Curated OER
Animal and People Habitats
Students examine how animals create a unique space in which they can live. Students read a poem about animals' habitats discuss the habitats. They draw a space of their own and write a poem that describes their habitat.
Curated OER
Language Arts: Lewin Project
Fourth graders read and respond to the poem, "When I Am Angry." They complete surveys by analyzing the most common feeling and draw a bar graph of their behavior, using different colors to identify the duration of various feelings. ...
Curated OER
Reader's Theater
Students act out and interpret the story for their peers. They study the simplest form of an organized reading to a more elaborate activity involving props, costumes, or a reinterpretation of the narrative into another art form.
Curated OER
Ugly? Says Who?
Students explore biology by writing animal poetry in class. In this animal characteristics lesson, students research the Internet for facts about an "ugly" animal such as a bug or small critter. Students complete worksheets about animal...
Curated OER
We're Environmentally Friendly
Fourth graders examine written works dealing with environmental issues and resolutions during a 5 week unit. They create posters, poems, and rap songs demonstrating authorship and knowledge of the environment.
Curated OER
Re-Presenting Race in the Digital Age: "Who Can Pass"
Eleventh graders examine the relationship between race and class in historical and societal settings. They read and discuss the poem, "Passing," by Langston Hughes, analyze photographs by Yinka Shonibare, answer discussion questions,...
Curated OER
Introducing Tolkien and His Words
Students identify and describe the types of narratives that made Tolkien the writer he was. In groups, they examine different myths and folktale motifs. They discuss what Tolkien meant by "faerie" and "eucatastrophe." As a class, they...
Curated OER
About Life: The Photographs of Dorthea Lange - Images of Children in Dorothea Lange's Photographs
Students examine how visual artists tell stories with their work. In this visual art instructional activity, students study two of Dorothea Lange's photographs to find elements of art and narrative content, use descriptive language when...
Curated OER
Three Coffles Lesson Plan
Students read about the slave trade in primary source documents. They discuss differences and commonalities in experiences. They write prose or poetry from the point of view of one of the figures from the reading and create a triptych.
Curated OER
Exploring the Life of a Slave
Eleventh graders explore importance of abolitionists who worked to advance freedoms of black Americans prior to/during Reconstruction era, read and identify key concepts in Frederick Douglass's narrative, recognize how Douglass's slave...
Curated OER
Let's Make Stew!
Students investigate how to create a vegetable garden and complete related activities. In this vegetable garden lesson, students receive agriculture notebooks to complete vocabulary for the gardening lesson. Students read 'Still-Life...