Curated OER
Reading Multicultural Literature
Students read several fictional pieces which examine issues of urbanization and rural cultures. They discuss how the place a person lives affects the kind of person they become.
Curated OER
Reading
Third graders read the book Ghosts Don't Eat Potato Chips. In groups, 3rd graders answer questions about the story. They share their personal responses. Students write answers to some questions.
Curated OER
What Personal Journals Tell Us
Learners read primary source journals from the Nebraska Western Trails Project. They work in groups to analyze the journal entries and complete a worksheet. Students then write an individual essay on the experience and consider what kind...
Curated OER
All Our Relations: A Learning Experience
Students participate in a group activity in which they each represent various components of a story about culture, collective human rights, and indigenous rights. As the story is read they create a life-size story web with yarn. Then...
Curated OER
Experience the Challenge of Being Pete Gray
Students view films, photographs and engage in an empathy-building exercise to become familiar with Pete Gray, the first one-armed major league player. They read an interview and write an essay about Gray's career.
Curated OER
Vocabulary Lesson (Color Words) Using Various Books by Eric Carle and Internet Sites
Students investigate color words. In this vocabulary, high frequency words, and technology instructional activity, students visit various websites to practice reading color words. Students listen to Eric Carle books and observe the...
Curated OER
Map Reading in the 21st Century
Students interact with MapPoint tools to view maps of the past and the present in multiple ways. They participate in mini-lessons aimed at locating certain points of interest or famous routes taken in history.
Novelinks
The View From Saturday: Concept/Vocabulary Analysis
Design your unit on The View From Saturday by E.L. Konigsburg with a concept and vocabulary analysis resource. It outlines the plot, literary elements, vocabulary issues, and any possible considerations for planning a differentiated...
Nemours KidsHealth
Food Labels: Grades 3-5
Bring awareness to the ingredients scholars ingest daily with two lessons that look deeply into food labels. The first activity explores the difference between processed and fresh foods while the second activity focuses on sugar content.
Academy of American Poets
Incredible Bridges: “Cotton Candy” by Edward Hirsch
Read it, hear it, see it, do it! Young poets experience Edward Hirsch's memory poem, "Cotton Candy," by first closely reading the poem silently, then aloud, watching a video of the poet reading it, and crafting their memory poem of an...
Penguin Books
Up Close: Ella Fitzgerald
A reading of Tanya Lee Stones' biography of Ella Fitzgerald lets middle schoolers get up close and personal with the First Lady of Jazz. Stone recounts details of Fitzgerald's life from her early days through her experiences as a teenage...
Simon & Schuster
Curriculum Guide to: Great Expectations by Charles Dickens
Great Expectations can prove to be a challenge for instructors who choose to use Dickens's novel as required reading. Here's a curriculum guide that includes lessons that address some of these challenges. The first lesson in critical...
Curated OER
The Man Who Went to the Far Side of the Moon
Practice comprehension skills using the story, The Man Who Went to the Far Side of the Moon by Bea Uusma Schyffert. Learners answer questions, fill out graphic organizers, and engage in extension activities involving writing and...
Associated Press
AP News
A respected source of local and global news, you can trust this app to provide breaking stories and current events. The interface is highly visual and easy to navigate.
Curated OER
Narrative Writing
A basic lesson on personal narrative writing is here for you. In it, learners are asked to imagine they're going to share an experience of their own with someone who did not participate in that experience. They verbally tell the story to...
Curated OER
Tell Me A Story -- Feelings
Practice using feelings as a way to reflect on past experiences. The poem The End and the text Tell Me a Story Mama are used to identify feeling words. As an extension, pupils participate in a service learning project and reflect upon...
Curated OER
Slavery in Colonial America
Students examine the experience of the middle passage of slaves. They review slave songs and discuss their common themes. They develop a monologue in which they integrate a fragment of an actual slave song into a poem they have written.
Curated OER
Characteristics of Anne Frank
Eighth graders read selected passages from The Diary of Anne Frank. Working in pairs, 8th graders determine what qualities and characteristics they would assign to her from their selected diary entry.
Curated OER
English Literature Circles
Students examine how to develop self-expression, inter-personal skills, and an Student have an appreciation of literature. This is accomplished through small groups, ideally located in a library setting where the teacher and the...
Curated OER
Background for The Outsiders: the 1960s
As background for a reading of S.E. Hinton’s The Outsiders, groups rotate through four stations (video, music, website, information) to gather information on the 1960s. In addition, they interview family members about the 1960s and...
Curated OER
Image as Metaphor
A Dorothea Lange photograph launches this study of metaphors. Using the questions provided, the class examines the image and the title to consider how Lange uses her photo as a metaphor. Class members then select an object they can use...
Curated OER
Writing and Scholarship Planning For College-Bound Students: Overcome Writer's Block
Students examine methods for overcoming writer's block. They complete a worksheet, write personal statements, and participate in a class discussion.
Curated OER
Journey to Topaz, a Literature Based Approach
Students view a video clip of the experiences of Japanese-Americans during World War II. They read parts of a book in which a child tells her story about living in the internment camps. They participate in a simulation activity as well.
Curated OER
Style and Voice
Develop the writing skills of your high school class. Writers consider their personal style and voice, read selections by other authors, and then write pieces that challenge them to experiment with their own style.