Curated OER
How to Write a Five Paragraph Essay
What are the necessary components of a five paragraph essay? How does one interest their reader? These questions are answered with this 12-slide PowerPoint which details components of the introduction, body paragraphs, and conclusion....
Western Justice Center
Communication Skills
Good communication skills are key to resolving conflicts. A short video introduces learners to the concept of active listening and provides tips that will help them resolve conflicts. Class members then read articles, analyze scenarios,...
Curated OER
Letters from Rifka
Fourth graders read Letters from Rifka and discuss the feelings of people forced to leave their homes and countries. In this migration lesson plan, 4th graders relate their feelings about moving from their home forever. Students trace...
EngageNY
End of Unit 3 Assessment: Writing a Research Synthesis
Ready, set, write! Scholars work on the end-of-unit assessment by completing a writing prompt. They then look at the model performance task from instructional activity two to create a rubric for scoring the exercise. Using turn and talk,...
Scholastic
Smart Quotes Mini-Lesson
Prepare for an interview project with a set of worksheets about asking questions and quoting people. After completing a grammar exercise about quotation marks, kids write out the questions they want to ask their interviewee, and record...
Curated OER
The Learning Network: More Like Disney
A great source of high-interest reading for the language arts classroom! Meant to be used with an article also available on the New York Times website, this activity provides 10 comprehension questions about the reading as well as one...
Curated OER
The Learning Network: Reactions to Rating Teachers
Meant to be used in connection with the article "In Teacher Ratings, Good Test Scores Are Sometimes Not Good Enough" also available on The New York Times website, this resource provides 12 short-answer writing prompts that ask both basic...
Curated OER
Story Opening One
In this finishing a story, "Story Opening One" worksheet, students read the writing prompt, use the questions to consider before writing a middle and ending for the story, and complete the story. Students write 2 parts of a story.
Curated OER
Graphic Organizer: Research Note Taking Made Easy
What do you wonder about bats? Use an open-ended question like this to engage your class and interest them in an upcoming research project. There's a list of example questions to offer or suggest regarding bats, but see what they can...
Illustrative Mathematics
Tilt of Earth's Axis and the Four Seasons
Geometry meets earth science as high schoolers investigate the cause and features of the four seasons. The effects of Earth's axis tilt features prominently, along with both the rotation of the earth about the axis and its orbit about...
Curated OER
The Big Bad Wolf and the Friendly Letter
A terrific presentation on the teaching of friendly letter writing. Learners engage in a PowerPoint that is part story, part writing exercise. There are lots of great tips on how to construct a letter, and young writers are encouraged to...
Curated OER
Guiding Your Curriculum with the Help of Essential Questions
Teachers can plan a unit of study using essential questions as the driving force behind student learning.
New York State Education Department
Global History and Geography Examination: August 2016
Challenge class members with an architectural resource that asks them to use a variety of skills to answer multiple choice questions as well as several essay prompts about the streets and house fronts of ancient Athens. One question asks...
Illustrative Mathematics
Right Triangles Inscribed in Circles II
So many times the characteristics of triangles are presented as a vocabulary-type of lesson, but in this activity they are key to unraveling a proof. A unique attack on proving that an inscribed angle that subtends a diameter must be a...
Novelinks
The Little Prince: Response to Art Exercise
Depending on your perspective, solitude can be lovely or very, very lonely. Kids take a look at the simple landscape illustrated in Antoine de Saint Éxupery's The Little Prince, and write a short journal entry about their perception of...
Little Stones
How Can Poetry Make People Think and Care?
Can beautiful words change the world? Literary scholars discover how to paint their visions of change using poetry in a series of three workshops. Each independent topic gives participants a chance to examine their feelings about...
K5 Learning
Treasure Hunt
After reading about a book that leads two friends on a treasure hunt, class members respond to four short answer reading comprehension questions. Skills include describing the characters, retelling the story in their own words, writing...
Howard County Schools
Planning for Prom
Make the most of your prom—with math! Pupils write and use a quadratic model to determine the optimal price of prom tickets. After determining the costs associated with the event, learners use a graph to analyze the break even point(s).
Willow Tree
Problem Solving
School subjects connect when your young scholars use math to edit English. Math allows you to convert an entire paragraph into a simple equation or inequality. Examples encourage learners to write expressions, equations, and inequalities...
Curated OER
Boating Safety
Students are introduced to the safety procedures to follow while boating. After taking a quiz, they complete open-ended questions about boating accidents in Illinois. They discuss as a class how those accidents could have been prevented.
Illustrative Mathematics
Equal Area Triangles on the Same Base II
A deceptively simple question setup leads to a number of attack methods and a surprisingly sophisticated solution set in this open-ended problem. Young geometers of different strengths can go about defining the solutions graphically,...
Curated OER
Sentence Starters
Make your learners' stories the best they can be. Use this resource to help them identify and discuss the importance of an engaging opening for their stories. This presentation goes through a series of tips and examples to help make this...
Curated OER
Justice for All
A reading of Roald Dahl’s Lamb to the Slaughter opens a discussion of justice and fairness. Using a Venn diagram and an Idea Wheel graphic organizer, class members consider the similarities and differences in these two terms. They then...
Illustrative Mathematics
The Djinni’s Offer
The djinni in this resource offers gold coins. Learners use the properties of exponents to make their decision as one offer increases exponentially. This makes a great group project. As the commentary suggests, start by having groups...