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The Bill of Rights and the News
Learners examine current news stories and from them develop "BIG" questions related to individual and group rights. They then relate their questions to the U.S. Constitution and supreme court decisions.
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The Evening News - Rainforest Rescue
Fifth graders prepare a television briefing reflecting on their experiences in an earlier lesson in which they simulated surviving a crash into the Amazon and using maps to achieve rescue. They develop and present a summary of their...
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Sensational Summarization!
Students observe and demonstrate a variety of summarization strategies. They silently read an article from National Geographic Kids, and as a class write a summary that includes the main idea and details and the five W's. Students then...
National First Ladies' Library
Building a Federal Town: Washington, DC
Young scholars create a timeline of the history of Washington, D.C. from 1787 to 1879. Using the internet, they read specified articles about the design of the capital and city of Washington DC. Middle schoolers write a newspaper article...
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Death by Particles
Emerging epidemiologists define relative risk and read an article about the effect of particulate pollution on the cardiovascular health of women. They record the relative risk values, graph them, and answer analysis questions. This is a...
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Mothers' Milk-Unleaded, Please
Lead toxicity is a hot topic these days, especially when it was a common component in household paint for many years. In Taiwan, there was concern that babies were being exposed to toxic levels of lead through breast milk. A study was...
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The Front Page: Asking Geographic Questions
Students examine how to ask geographic questions. They read an article with details omitted, list possible geographic questions, and write a summary of the article.
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Fact and Opinion Lesson Plan
How are fact and opinion different? Middle schoolers explore fact and opinion and write articles pertaining to a football match, eliminating all opinion statements in order to focus on the facts. Then they discuss bias in the media....
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The Penny Press, Walt Whitman and the War
Students examine the Penny Press and how it began the era of mass circulated newspapers. They use the internet to research the writing style of the paper and write a short article using that style.
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How to Summarize
Learners review techniques on how to read a passage smoothly making the words connect, and with expression. They then read the instruction to the chapter in their science book and answer questions that are written on the board. They...
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Harry Potter Debate
Students read a short article about the upcoming release of the new Harry Potter novel. They debate the issues surrounding the marketing of students's books and films after internet research to support or oppose the topic.
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Sum It Up
After a review of the steps involved in writing a summary, class members read The Physics of Baseball by Sarah Ives and use a story web to identify the important details to include in their summary. Class members then choose an article...
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Summarization Superstars
How do you read when you know you're going to be summarizing a text? Summarize a nonfiction text with your upper elementary schoolers. Your pupils independently read a nonfiction article and write a summary paragraph using the six-step...
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In the News
Third graders participate in a lesson that helps to improve reading comprehension. They move through several activities that help them understand how to express their opinions, support their statements and communicate these thoughts...
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Coping with Crying/Shaken Baby Syndrome
Students listen as an expert on Shaken Baby syndrome speaks to their class and asks appropriate questions. Using a computerized doll, they discover the meanings behind baby's different crys and demonstrates what happens when a baby has...
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Examine Economic Factors That Influence Human Migration Along the U.S/Mexican Border
Students bring in their own article about immigration and how it is affecting their community. They summarize their article and brainstorm reasons why someone would immigrate to another country. They discuss push and pull factors.
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Wright Brothers Centennial: Impact of Technological Advance
Eighth graders examine the impact of powered flight on the North Carolina coast. After reading news articles, they explain how the first flight affected community pride. They develop a hypothesis about the long-term economic impacts to...
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Multigenre Research Project
Young scholars research influences on African American literature. They research someone who has influenced the development of African American literature and create a multi-genre research project. They create a photograph poem,...
Advocates for Human Rights
Migrants in the Media
Class members examine two documents—The Universal Declaration of Human Rights and The Rights of Migrants in the United States—and then use reports in the media to assess how well the US is doing in ensuring these rights.
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After the Fact
Students investigate summaries of the "9/11 Report" and examine questions relating to its findings in a fishbowl discussion. They reflect in writing on how they wish the outcomes of this report would be resolved and how these outcomes...
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Bringing Facts Into Science Fiction
Students develop a setting, plot and characters for a science fiction story based on current news themes, and then individually write drafts of the story.
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Some Simple Rules to Sum it Up!
Students observe and demonstrate three steps to summarize text. They read and discuss the three steps to summarizing, then silently read an article about dugongs from "National Geographic Kids" magazine. Students demonstrate the three...
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U.S. Constitution Roll Call
First graders simulate the signing of the constitution. In this American history lesson plan, 1st graders take on the roll of newspaper reporters during 1787. Students must pretend to interview signers of the constitution and create a...
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Heroism in Hispanic Countries
Learners investigate foreign newspapers written in Spanish. They pick an article to be read and summarized in English. This lesson develops the skill of word recognition and sentence structure.