Curated OER
Primary Sources and Protagonists: A Native American Literature Unit
Introduce your middle schoolers to the lives of past Native Americans. First, learners work together to put photographs in a sequence. Then, using their sequence, they create stories to share with the whole class. No matter how old your...
Anti-Defamation League
10 Ideas for Teaching Black History Month
Celebrate Black History Month with the help of 10 ideas that delve deep into the history, major events, contributions, famous African Americans, and sheds light on how scholars today can take a proactive stance on current civil rights...
ReadWriteThink
Analyzing Famous Speeches as Arguments
A speaker, a message, an audience. After analyzing these elements in Queen Elizabeth's speech to the troops at Tilbury, groups analyze how other speakers use an awareness of events, and their audience to craft their arguments....
PBS
Primary Source Set: Little Women by Louisa May Alcott
What did Jo write her stories with? How did the March sisters dress? A primary source set designed for Louisa May Alcott's Little Women prompts learners to look over images of household items and clothes from the 1860s before engaging in...
Maryland Department of Education
The Concept of Identity Lesson 4: The Psychological Approach
Readers apply Sigmund Freud's theories of the unconscious mind and the psychological approach to literary criticism to analyze and evaluate the relationship between two characters in A Separate Peace.
Louisiana Department of Education
Essential Elements Cards
Use essential elements cards to help lesson plan! Each card contains an informational text common core standard for grade levels six through eight and suggestions for activities and supports. Cards address skills such as citing textual...
Curated OER
Food and Dialect
The dialect words for types of food from across the British Isles get pupils thinking about native dialects and how they differ from Standard English. Class members create a dialect dictionary and discuss the difference between accent...
Curated OER
Applying SQ3R to Texts
After a review of the SQ3R strategy, readers use the provided prompts to respond to a text. The value of this worksheet is in the additional questions that move the learner into higher levels of reasoning.
Curated OER
Early Industrialization
Eighth graders analyze primary source documents emphasizing young people in factory labor (mill workers during 1840-1860). They study hours of labor, ages of laborers, reasons for working, and working conditions. They write a poem or song.
Curated OER
Exploring the Self
High schoolers examine a variety of songs, poems, and books exploring and analyzing the theme of self reliance and being true to one's self. They write a poem, essay, or letter that captures their true spirit and individuality and then...
Curated OER
Humans and the Natural World Poetically
Students read poetry for gist and find images to create a visual narrative. In this poetry lesson, students read Green Lane and Flies and Nettles to examine the relationship between humanity and the nature. Students reflect on a place...
Curated OER
A Prelude To Beowulf
Students study the literature and literary techniques of the early Middle Ages, thus preparing students to read Beowulf with an appreciation for its artistry and beauty. Students solve online riddles, write riddles and study Anglo-Saxon...
Curated OER
Who Are You?
Students explore the concept of self and analyze the Human Organization Theory. Individually, students write poems about themselves. In small groups, they create a poster related to the 14 categories of the Human Organization Theory....
Curated OER
Investigating Langston Hughes
Third graders read and appreciate the writing of great American Authors. use technology to garner information about famous American authors. They have selected sites to explore. The information they save be used for a future Powerpoint.
National Endowment for the Humanities
A Raisin in the Sun: Whose "American Dream"?
How does Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun factor into a discussion of the American dream? High schoolers define the American dream and recognize the historical setting of the play. Additionally, they identify forms of...
Curated OER
Painting Portraits with Words
Students examine how an exhibition of an author's writings can become a portrait or biography of that author . They work in small groups, analyzing various poems by Yeats.
Curated OER
Money
Students count money using only coins. In this money lesson, students read Bennies Pennies, practice counting the pennies in the story and are then introduces to the different coins, penny, nickel, dime and quarter. Students use...
Curated OER
Ballads and Communication
Learners compare and contrast different forms of communication. In this poetry lesson, students focus on the ballad form and read "Timothy Winters". Learners draw conclusions from the ballad and divide into groups to research the...
Curated OER
The Roadmap to the Jewish Golden Age of Spain
Students discover, through analysis of media and of primary source historical documents, how Jews achieved high levels of assimilation and acceptance under Islamic rule during the Golden Age of Spain, from the tenth to the twelfth century.
Curated OER
Understanding Character
Students are introduced to literary elements and definitions in the worksheet Understanding Character but reading through each of the elements and definitions aloud. They read the story, "La Bamba" and identify examples of the literary...
Curated OER
Work, Lyddie! Work!
Young scholars research links concerning early factory labor, child labor in today's world, and diseases on young laborers. They work on a loom, analyze a mill bell schedule, read a mill girl's diary, and write a poem or song exhibiting...
Curated OER
Freedmen's Bureau
Students examine the African American experience after they received their freedom after the Civil War. They complete a Mind Map, read and analyze a poem, and write a paragraph using key vocabulary words. They analyze the impact of the...
Curated OER
Cyrano de Bergerac Nose His Terms
Students use the play "Cyrano de Bergerac" to identify and analyze drama vocabulary, literary terms and elements of fiction. They write an original version of scenes from the play and develop a character analysis for the lead.
Curated OER
The History of the Holocaust From A Personal Perspective
Young scholars research and identify how Holocaust events affected lives of real people who lived in Europe from 1933 through 1945 and after, and create original artwork, poetry, and essays that reflect understanding of Holocaust, and...