Curated OER
What's the Purpose Anyway?
Examine author's purpose in newspaper articles, comic books, cookbooks, encyclopedias and other forms of written materials. Working in groups, middle and high schoolers read teacher-selected articles and write an explanation of the...
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Where Are You Coming From?
Pupils examine and discuss author's purpose and the influence of an author's perspective in his or her writing. In groups, they read scenarios and respond to them from the perspective of a designated character. Materials are attached.
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Fighting The Horse Race: Creating Ads Which Explore 2008 Presidential Candidates & Issues
What is advertising? What role does it plan in an election? Middle and high schoolers discuss advertising and its purpose by sifting through different magazines and discussing the products they find. Then they relate advertisements to...
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Author's Purpose
In this assessing the author's purpose worksheet, students determine whether the author wrote to entertain, persuade, or inform by checking yes and no boxes, identifying the purpose, and listing clues that helped determine the purpose....
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Inquiring Minds: News and Philanthropy
Students study newspaper articles and rewrite events from literature into news stories about kindness. In this news article lesson, students read sentences from newspaper articles and identify the purpose of the article. Students...
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Persuasive Writing
Eighth graders study persuasive writing. They analzye an editorial for introductory,body, and concluding sentences. They develop arguments for and against various topics in small groups.
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Cyber Safety
Students explore internet safety. In this cyber safety lesson, students gain information on how to choose safe websites. Students get tips on what types of information is safe to share on the internet and things to be aware of.
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The Origins of Heraldry
Students design a personal coat of arms which depicts themselves and explain their shields to the class in an informal presentation.
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We Thank You, Veteran!
Fifth graders use information from videos, picture books, and relatives' military backgrounds to write a short or extended message of gratitude on a greeting card for local veterans.
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Looking at Letters
In this Language Arts worksheet, students complete a table about letters. Students include information such as what the letter is for and why it was written.
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Dig It!
Second graders complete various activities about dinosaurs and fossils. They conduct Internet research, participate in a sandbox dinosaur fossil dig, and create a computer slideshow presentation using information they found on various...
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Tongue Tied
Fourth graders select topics about Florida Indians to research and give an informative speech to the class about their topics. The main focus' of this activity are the research, and the speech that each student gives to the class.
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Persuasive Vegetables
In groups, write persuasive essays telling people whether or not they should be eating vegetables.
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Creative Inventions
Ninth graders develop ideas for an invention and write a persuasive essay explaining why their invention is best. In this invention essay lesson, 9th graders review persuasive essay writing. Students create a graphic web for an original...
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Hurricane Scavenger Hunt
Fourth graders use Internet and/or library resources to locate and record information about hurricanes on a worksheet..
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Designing Visual Support For "The Greatest American" Speech
Students study several periods in American history, define the term "greatest American," and brainstorm possible criteria for selecting great Americans. They create a three to five minute persuasive speech along with visual aids to...
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Poetry Project
Choosing a poet or a theme, eighth graders conduct research in the world of poetry. They conduct Internet research and select five poems that fit their poet or theme, and create a seven slide PowerPoint presentation on their selected...
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Assignment #4 Time Capsule-Your Future
Class members create a PowerPoint presentation showing artifacts they would include in a time capsule. The artifacts and explanations reflect personal hobbies, grooming choices, school life, etc. A great way for class members to...
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Media Literacy Analyzed
Fourth and fifth graders define the term media literacy, then come up with examples that they share with the class. The types of media studied are auditory, visual, and written. Learners get together in pairs and perform a media...
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Why Do Authors Write?
Sixth graders use short reading passages to identify, explain, and discuss the author's purpose for writing. After a lecture/demo, they utilize a graphic organizer embedded in this plan to organize their writing ideas.
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Adventures in Creating Hypertext Stories
Use hypertext to make a multimedia choose-your-own adventure story! Young writers incorporate knowledge of story writing elements to write their own stories, and rewrite the adventure with various scenarios and endings. Use technology to...
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Creatively Creating Expository Essays
Learners, after reading Fahrenheit 451, brainstorm inventions that could have been in the novel. They present their invention to the class and writing an expository essay about their creation.
Library of Congress
The Emancipation Proclamation and the Thirteenth Amendment
How did the Emancipation Proclamation lead to the Thirteenth Amendment? Middle schoolers analyze primary source documents including the text of the Emancipation Proclamation, political cartoons, photographs, and prints to understand the...
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Poetic Elements
Poetry is all about sound and rhythm. The sound of the words, the rhythm of the lines, and the emotional atmosphere created by these elements and the literary devices poets use, compress whole stories into a few stanzas. The specialized...