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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Woody Guthrie: Life and Art

For Teachers 4th - 8th
Woody Guthrie will capture the imagination of even your most reluctant learners. Using his work, your class will develop their skills in non-fiction reading comprehension, interpreting primary source material, and use of multiple forms...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Seeds We Need

For Teachers K - 3rd
Learners apply word analysis skills to recognize new words, identify genres of fiction and nonfiction, and identify important themes and topics. They explore differences in plants, flowers, and vegetables. A book bag full of activities...
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Activity
Teaching Tolerance

Community Newsletter

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
What does it take to develop and publish a newsletter? Young academics create a newsletter with original artwork for their school or community. They explore social justice themes and spread messages of tolerance and inclusion. Scholars...
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Activity
Curated OER

Question Cards for Reading

For Teachers K Standards
Sometimes a teacher reading to a child doesn't think to stop to ask questions about the text. For those of us who don't engage the learners during reading activities, here is a set of cards that contain the questions all teachers need to...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Comprehension Skills: Evaluate Using Fiction Stories and Aesop's Fables

For Teachers K
Primary readers investigate several comprehension skills in the ten lessons of this unit. Forming opinions about stories, comparing stories to each other, using Venn Diagrams, and applying the ideas from a story to real life situations...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Understanding Library Skills: The Dewey Decimal System

For Teachers 7th
Cyber Dewey? Dewey Made Fun? Do the Dewey Game? After a librarian-led tour of the school library and an explanation of the Dewey Decimal System, class members use the Internet to access MAGNOLIA, a site with resources devoted to library...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Land and the Water

For Teachers 3rd
Third graders read "The Land and the Water," a fictional short story and an article about John F. Kennedy, Jr. and compare and contrast fictional tragedy to a non-fiction tragedy. They fill out a Venn diagram and write an essay using...
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Worksheet
Curated OER

Bank On It! Martin Luther King, Jr.

For Students 4th - 5th
For this language arts worksheet, students read a non-fiction article about Martin Luther King, Jr. They fill in blanks in the story with words from a word bank.
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Worksheet
Curated OER

Reading Non-Fiction: Persuasive Language

For Students 6th - 8th
In this persuasive text learning exercise, students read an excerpt from an advertising leaflet and identify the persuasive words and phrases used in the text. Students then read the text about a Greenpeace campaign to identify emotive...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

"Night": A Study in Compassion and Courage

For Teachers 10th - 12th
Students read the novel, "Night" by Elie Wiesel. Using excerpts from the novel, they complete a performance and literary technique objective. In groups, they finish handouts to give them more information on the Holocaust. They compare...
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Lesson Plan
National First Ladies' Library

Writing (and Rewriting!) History

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Middle schoolers differentiate between fiction and non-fiction, discuss historical fiction, which combines both genres, choose historical novel from list and read independently, and write original short stories that combine elements of...
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Lesson Plan
Santillana USA

Celebra Kwanzaa

For Teachers 3rd - 6th Standards
¡Celebramos Kwanzaa! Celebrate Kwanzaa through the fictional story Celebra Kwanzaa con Botitas y sus gatitos to delightfully explain the seven principles of Kwanzaa. Dual language learners participate in reading and vocabulary activities...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Against the Odds

For Teachers 9th - 12th
What factors help people achieve goals? What factors prevent people from achieving goals? What are the elements that need to be in place to make a team function well? Using Damien Lewis’ Desert Claw and John Francome’s Winner Takes All,...
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Lesson Plan
Schmoop

ELA.CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.9-10.2

For Teachers 9th - 10th Standards
Although the ideas on how to implement the skill RI.9-10.2 are lacking, the assessment would work well for challenging learners to summarize, and identify the main ideas of presidential speeches that are of similar topics. One could use...
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Activity
Shmoop

ELA.CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.11-12.9

For Teachers 11th - 12th Standards
Guided by close-reading questions, groups examine the similarities and differences between the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. In addition, they look at how the principles are presented in these two foundational US...
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Worksheet
Curated OER

New York State Testing Program: English/Language Arts Book 1, Grade 3

For Students 3rd
This 3rd grade English/Language Arts standardized test practice worksheet includes 2 fictional selections and 2 non-fiction pieces, as well as multiple choice and free response questions.
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Activity
Shmoop

ELA.CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.11-12.3

For Teachers 11th - 12th Standards
Make analyzing the sequence of events in an informational text easy. Ask readers to craft a one-sentence summary of each paragraph in a document and create a text map. To demonstrate their understanding of the process, participants read...
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Activity
Shmoop

ELA.CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.9-10.3

For Teachers 9th - 10th Standards
Need something for group work, homework, or a way to assess your learners on your lessons for Common Core skill RI.9-10.3? Then you have come to the right place because this multiple choice quiz challenges learners to analyze the...
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Activity
Shmoop

ELA.CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.11-12.1

For Teachers 11th - 12th Standards
Your students have mastered using textual evidence in literature, but what about using this skill in informational texts.  Uh oh! That is right—they are not the same thing. Darn the Common Core! See options on how to differentiate...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Asian Cinderella Tales

For Teachers 6th
Explore the world of fairy tales using this lesson plan focusing on higher- order thinking skills. Learners compare and contrast an Asian Cinderella story to other versions. It is a great way to review the characteristics of the genre...
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Unit Plan
New York City Department of Education

What Did I Do to Be so Black and Blue: How Did Jazz Influence Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man

For Students 11th - 12th Standards
How did jazz influence Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man? Class members read some of Ellison's non-fiction writings about blues and jazz, listen to records, watch videos, and engage in student-centered discussions. They then produce podcasts...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Fiction vs. Nonfiction

For Teachers 1st
Students find the difference between fiction and nonfiction. For this fiction/nonfiction lesson, 1st graders read the story Johnny Appleseed and discuss what makes this a nonfiction story. They listen to a fiction story and see what...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Pic-A-Fic: Choosing Fiction for Every Taste

For Teachers 6th
Sixth graders examine and categorize a selection of title representing fiction genres. In this fiction genres activity, 6th graders analyze and identify a variety of titles in the fiction genre. Students then find these types of fiction...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Reading Research!

For Teachers K
Students investigate the life of an animal and how it responds to winter. The lesson's focus is on reading and research skills using pictures to assist in the understanding of the information presented.