Ashoka
A Toolkit for Promoting Empathy in Schools
Instill kindness with a unit all about empathy. Lessons and activities follow a prepare, engage, reflect, and action sequence. Learning experiences include making the classroom a safe environment, peer-invented handshakes, discussions...
Curated OER
Fourth Grade Writing Lesson #1/ Narrative Prompt
Fourth graders produce narrative about a personal experience, with a focus on the trait of organization.
Curated OER
Small Moments
Students select a personal photo for an experience to write about. In this personal experience lesson, students find a photo of themselves that contains a 'small moment.' Students write about the personal experience in the picture.
Curated OER
African Dance: Drumbeat In Our Feet
Second graders read "African Dance: Drumbeat in Our Feet". In groups, they identify the message of the story and discuss a personal experience that relates to a part of the book. They practice reading fluently as a class and making...
University of North Carolina
Should I Use “I”?
Despite the formal nature of academic writing, personal pronouns frequently appear in high school and college papers. While your first instinct may be to cross them out, sometimes it's okay to use them, an idea covered in a handout that...
Curated OER
Read About Science: Toys
Students complete another Read about Science with a focus on toys. Individually, they read a book of their choice about toys and define new vocabulary. To end the science lesson, they complete a KWL chart and share what they gathered...
Curated OER
The Teacher Directs: The Experience of Movement in Literature
Experience movement in literature. High schoolers are introduced to new vocabulary related to drama and theatre. In groups, they use a piece of literature and develop their own skit to act out in front of the class. As a class, they are...
Curated OER
The Civil War: Up Close and Personal
Students take an in depth look at different aspects of the Civil War. Using primary source documents, they discover that people who lived during the war are not so different from them. They read about the experience of a Confederate...
Curated OER
Experience This!
What would you do if you had to go to school all day every day? Tillie tackles this problem in Sharon Creech’s A Fine, Fine School. After a discussion of how Tillie got the principal to change his ways, brainstorm with your class...
K5 Learning
What Is A Spacewalk?
Read about all the jobs astronauts do and all the responsibilities they have while on a spacewalk. After reading the what, the why, and the how about spacewalks, readers respond to six comprehension questions.
Curated OER
The Job Interview: Teacher's Notes
One of the most difficult parts of getting a job, is the interview. Learners are each given a card with personal experience and information on it. They respond to an advertisement for a chef position at a Korean restaurant. Each person...
Curated OER
Using Personal Connections to Build an Understanding of Emotions
Students make happy and sad masks to examine their personal emotions, allowing them to verbally express their feelings and learn abstract concepts. They use their masks also to help them categorize their emotions and later chart them.
Curated OER
Sharing Your Vacation-Send a Postcard!
Students demonstrate how to write about travel experiences. In this narrative writing lesson, students discuss what the purpose of postcards are and any personal experiences they have had with writing a postcard. Students observe the...
Curated OER
A Day in the Life of a Homeless Person
Learners examine the day in the life of a homeless person. In this humanitarian lesson, students examine the life of a homeless person while discovering the importance of social justice in our society.
Curated OER
Create Learning Experiences with The Polar Express
Center content-integrated lessons around the timeless holiday book, The Polar Express.
John F. Kennedy Library Foundation
JFK Challenge
And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you—ask what you can do for your country. And so begins your invigorating, innovative learning experience in the JFK Challenge app! Learners choose from two "missions" and...
Curated OER
Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass an American Slave, Written by Himself
The narrative works of Frederick Douglass engage learners in the topic of slavery. They will experience American history in a new way, a Douglass expresses his thoughts in his own words. Pupils then interpret this literary work.
Curated OER
Personal Adventure Stories
Students examine the characteristics of an adventure story. Students write an adventure story of their own based on a true personal experience. After drafting their story, students use a word processor to write, edit, and revise their work.
Curated OER
The Political is Personal
Learners examine their own political party affiliations and political beliefs. After reading an article, they discuss how students at Duke define their political philosophies. They brainstorm events, people and experiences that have...
Curated OER
The Experience of the Child Laborer
Students make discoveries about the child laborer through a selection of readings. They make connections between the website readings of the child laborers' personal stories and the images that they saw in the previous lesson.
Curated OER
Read On
Students consider the question "Why do we read?" through creating and sharing individual timelines of their own histories as readers. They then choose a book on which to write a personal essay.
Curated OER
Reading Worksheets Can Make Literature Come Alive
The right reading worksheets can enhance the curriculum.
Curated OER
Reading and Responding
Fourth graders read and respond to poetry. They identify the author's purpose and connect the literature to their personal experiences. Students critically analyze the poem and write a poem of their own.
Curated OER
Reading Comprehension
Students review the task sheet and information on SQ3R reading strategy. They choose a text for reading then apply SQ3R to the text to preview and ask questions about the content, organizational structure and author's prupose for writing.