Beacon Learning Center
Challenging the Human Spirit
High schoolers select a theme-related essay topic from Night, by Elie Wiesel, or The Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka, and develop an essay that relates the theme to modern-day personal experiences. The essay follows a preset rubric...
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World War I For the Soldier
Ninth graders examine the main events of World War I and identify the major points of the Treaty of Versailles. They read and discuss a scenario about boys fighting at school and create a treaty, read the poem "The Sentry" by Wilfred...
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Culture Universals Lesson Plan
Students perform research on specific cultures. They write a short paragraph on each of the universals and explain how each universal relates to their home culture.
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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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Picture This
Students examine their life experiences as well as their classmates when they share their heritage or an important event from their past through writing as an extension of an Orientation.
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Life Comparisons Through Letters
Students review the concept of letter writing and investigate the country of South Africa by communicating to another class there. The questions covered in the letters is finding information about the community, environment, schools, and...
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Agriculture Counts
Students discuss ways in which agriculture impacts their lives on a daily basis. In groups, they brainstorm ideas that they could possibly write about. They write a rough draft, participate in peer editing and write a final draft of a...
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Suspense-Around
Middle schoolers participate in round-robin cooperative writing groups to develop a variety of possible stories around a single prompt.
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Water Around Us
Third graders learn the effects of temperature on the states of water. Then students create paper snowflakes. Finally students complete a computer project with software which teaches the different states of water.
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Why I Like ________?
Middle schoolers write a persuasive essay on why they would like to visit a particular place in the United States and why they think others should see that particular place. In their essay, they should use the title I have for this...
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Survival Story
Students discuss the pros and cons of being deserted on an uninhabited island. Then they write their own survival stories and complete a story jacket.
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Birthday Buddy
Learners explore an Internet web site and/or the Groliers Encyclopedia to investigate a famous person who shares their birthday. They write a five paragraph comparison and contrast essay on their findings and utilize ClarisWorks to publish.
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Guess the Author-Using Pseudonyms
Students study about descriptive writing. They write a descriptive paragraph about themselves without revealing their physical description and sign their writing with a pseudonym.
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County Chronicles
Students review and use the information from previous lessons about their county. In groups, they write articles for various sections of a class newspaper. They review and edit each others work and publish their newspaper using a desktop...
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Internet Research tied to Literature for Alternative Jr. High
Ninth graders research a career using different "center" activities and then write a paper.
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Publishing Autobiographies
Students practice using Microsoft word. Individually, each student writes a mini-autobiography in standard typed format. They title each paragraph and discuss the publishing steps of the writing process. Students explore...
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Moon WebQuest
Third graders research basic information about the moon and identify the phases and order of the phases of the moon. They conduct Internet research, complete a moon WebQuest, and write a magazine article about the moon using their...
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Topics and Ideas -- Sort and Seize
Young scholars examine the writing process. They determine the needs of the readers of their story before writing. They use peer-editing to check for errors and read their story to the class.
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Art or Artifact?
High schoolers analyze and discuss illustrations of the New World by John White. They examine the images, answer questions about each one, and write an essay.
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Managing Medical Conditions
Twelfth graders discover more about a medical condition that is of interest to them and write what they have learned about that condition, using the information as a personal resource or to share with others.
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Marching Band Cadence
Students compose an original cadence. They compose a short segment (2 measures) of a cadence on staff paper. Papers are collected and entered into Sibelius program. They compose original cadences using the Sibelius program and...
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Looking Back to 1980
Young scholars use clustering/mind mapping techniques to generate ideas, graphically represent inferences, organize their conclusions and write a report that presents conclusions the writer has reached, and facts substantiating those...
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Christmas Truce
Students research the Christmas truce during World War I. In this social studies instructional activity, students discuss World War I and the Christmas Truce. Students write a response about the truce.
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Three Classes of Levers
Eighth graders research the three classes of levers and create a Power Point presentation showcasing the fulcrum, effort arm, and resistance arm in each class. They then write a paper explaining real life applications of the levers.