Scholastic
Narrative Writing
If you're looking to start a unit based around narrative writing, make sure to consider this resource while you're planning. This book covers five topics: writing personal narratives, writing narratives about others, writing narratives...
MENSA Education & Research Foundation
Media Literacy
Young learners today are bombarded by media manipulation. Help them develop the skills they will need to become savvy 21st century media consumers with a unit on media literacy.
Curated OER
Marketing to Teens: Parody Ads
High schoolers deconstruct advertising messages by analyzing parody ads and exploring the purpose of satire. Then they create their own parodies based on real ads discussed in class. A creative activity to extend any study of media,...
Curated OER
Conducting Research Online
In a day and age when publishing online has never been easier, high schoolers need to know how to identify a credible source. Choose the PowerPoint slides most relevant to your lesson and spend more time on the hands-on activities provided.
Curated OER
Team Up for Sports Marketing
Learners choose a sport and promote a real or imaginary team by creating press releases, business cards, and ads or commercials.
NPR
Suffrage Lesson Plan
Has life changed for American women in the last century, or are there common themes between the lives of 21st century women and the struggle of suffragettes from the 1910s? Explore the ways media reflects the position of women in the...
US National Library of Medicine
Drug Use and Abuse: Past and Present
Pick your poison: tobacco, alcohol, opiates, cocaine, or marijuana. An online exhibition launches a research project that asks groups to select one of the five drugs and gather information on how the use of the drug and the regulations...
Curated OER
The Sinking of the Titanic
Investigate the sinking of the Titanic with young scholars. They will read actual documentation from the Titanic and answer questions. They will then draw conclusions from the pictures they see and information they read.
Curated OER
Our Computers, Ourselves: Imagining the Digital Lives of Authors and Characters
The guiding question for this lesson is "Do computers and their contents shape who we are?" Open with a selection of Apple's commercials to introduce stereotypes and people's relationships with their computers. Then, read the attached...
Middle Tennessee State University
Help Is on the Way: Civil War Women and Relief Work
The role women played in the Civil War, especially in relief efforts, is the focus of this seven-page resource. Groups examine primary source materials to determine how this work reflected and expanded the traditional roles women held in...
Curated OER
Fact V. Opinion
Students distinguish between fact and opinion when reading material. They use statements of objects to determine if they are facts or opinions.
Curated OER
The Art of Persuasion
Students analyze images using several perspectives or entry points. They create images and develop accompanying texts that support a specific purpose or function. Students assess the effectiveness of collected images and those of their...
Curated OER
Alcohol Myths
Learners explore messages about alcohol that are promoted, the consequences of drinking, and the alcohol industry's motivation in promoting drinking.
Curated OER
Packaging Tricks
Students become aware of the ways in which packaging is designed to attract kids. In a series of activites, students compare similar food products, assess nutritional value, and participate in field trip to see how packaging affects...
Curated OER
Help Wanted: President of the United States
Learners consider qualities and United States president should have. In this government lesson, students research the responsibilities of the president and use that information to create an advertisement that describes the job and...
Curated OER
Are You For Real?
Students try to find newspaper and magazine articles that are informative or persuasive. They practice determining the differences between the two types of articles. They identify the devices authors use to persuade the audience.
Curated OER
Going Shopping
Students investigate the value of money. In this money lesson, students simulate going shopping in their classrooms for various objects. Students use play money to pay for the objects.
Curated OER
Jelly Bean's Galore
Students investigate the origins of the Jelly Bean. They complete a Scavenger Hunt using the jellybean website. Pupils create a bar graph using information collected about jelly beans. Students discuss the time of year that Jelly Beans...
Curated OER
Made You Look
Students spend some time in the world of marketing and advertising by analyzing and creating slogans and campaigns geared toward adolescents. Students work with a partner to create their design and share with the class
Curated OER
Using Primary Sources to Discover Reconstruction
Fifth graders discover how reconstruction had an impact on racial issues in the United States. In this Reconstruction lesson, 5th graders are introduced to primary vs. secondary resources and then rotate through stations to view...
Curated OER
Ben Franklin's Inventions
Learners discover the life of Benjamin Franklin by studying his inventions. In this biography instructional activity, students identify the inventions of Benjamin Franklin and their impact on society today. Learners create a commercial...
Curated OER
Self Portrait on Paper
Students are guided into creating their own self-portrait in steps using colored pastels. They also use their self-portraits as a springboard to write a personal narrative. This is a cool lesson!
Curated OER
Design Your Dream Room
Learners determine length, width, perimeter, and surface area, and work with two-dimensional representations of three-dimension objects to design and write descriptions of their dream bedrooms.
Curated OER
Animating a Historic Event
Research a historic event using textbooks, primary source documents, the Internet, and other library and media resources. Young historians will take the research they have gathered and write an attention-grabbing, historically accurate...