PBS
Universal Declaration of Human Rights
What rights are guaranteed to students? Do they align with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which was approved by the United Nations in 1948? Middle and high schoolers present persuasive arguments about the rights they believe...
Curated OER
Louisiana's Tragic Hero - "Evangeline"
"Ye who believe...List to a Tale of Love in Acadie." Longfellow's epic poem, "Evangeline," launches a study of tragic heroines, epic poetry, the expulsion of the Acadians from Canada, and their subsequent migration to Louisiana. The...
Curated OER
What Are the Advantages and Disadvantages of Conforming?
Dive into Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and determine what it means to conform in society, and discuss as a group with the thoughts and plans available in these documents. Included are multiple activities and brain targets that form the...
Scholastic
The First Thanksgiving Feast
Following an online activity, scholars listen to a read-aloud of If You Were at the First Thanksgiving by Anne Kamma. Pupils discuss their family traditions and complete a T-chart comparing the holiday then and now. Collages are made to...
Curated OER
Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close: Fishbowl Discussion Instructional Routine Guide
What exactly does make life worth living? In preparation for a fishbowl discussion of Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close, readers of Jonathan Safran Foer’s novel highlight sections that show a character grieving, coping, or suffering...
Curated OER
Reaching Your Destinations
Individuals will read their chosen instructional text aloud to their classmates. Intended to build reading fluency and confidence, this lesson plan presents a basic presentation project. There are no instructional texts attached or...
Hawaiʻi State Department of Education
Illustrating Text
Ideas like this are highly effective for helping build better reading comprehension. The class listens to an excerpt from a grade-appropriate text, and they discuss what clues or words helped them visualize the scene. They then read a...
Curated OER
Speaker Report
Fifth through eighth graders think of themselves as newspaper reporters as they listen to a presentation by a guest speaker. As reporters, they take notes during the presentation. Using these notes, they create a rough draft and then a...
Curated OER
Speakers in Action
Tune into C-Span and tape politicians delivering testimony before congress. Class members view these tapes, formulate a rubric for rating the effectiveness of such a speech, and then emulate best practices and include them in their own...
Curated OER
What's Shaking? Three-Lesson Unit
Your young architects use the Internet to research tall structures or sky scrapers to help in the design of their scale drawings. This is lesson one of three in which learners design, build, and test model skyscrapers for seismic safety....
Curated OER
What Is the True Story of the Three Little Pigs?
Cozy up and listen to a recording of The True Story of the Three Little Pigs and The Three Little Javelinas. Then, lead your class in a compare and contrast of the two stories by creating a Venn diagram.
Curated OER
Story Retelling
Students explore storytelling by participating in an image analysis activity. In this story structure lesson, students read the book Cookie's Week by Tomie dePaola and retell the story to their teacher in sequential order. Students...
Curated OER
writing mini lessons
Young scholars pair up and talk about a story, plot, or incident they are working on in writing workshop. Ask the listener to note when his interest is piqued and to share those moments with the storyteller. Those points of intrigue are...
Curated OER
The Color of Poetry
Students listen to a story about colors and then write their own color poems.
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...
Curated OER
An Introduction to Light Unit-Third Grade
Third graders are introduced to light in an eight part unit which includes activities, additional resources, and rubrics for each part. Students address topics such as energy, reflection, absorption, and refraction through hands-on...
Curated OER
Walk on the Wild Side
Have your class practice alliteration using this activity. Learners listen to stories with alliterative elements and create their own sentences illustrating this technique. The activity is incomplete, but could be enhanced to provide a...
Curated OER
Musical Moments
Students listen to a song in popular culture. Using the lyrics, they identify the theme and share their conclusions with the class. While listening to the song again, they complete a worksheet along with defining new vocabulary words. ...
Curated OER
Got The Beat
Students listen to song in which they identify the beat. Listening to the song again, they clap and march to the beat after being introduced to the new vocabulary. They complete the same exercises for other songs played in class.
Curated OER
I Am Me and More! Assemblages and Pepon Osorio
Students discuss their role and importance of being a part of a community. After listening to a story, discuss how an artist's memories affected his pieces. Using the internet, they research the different roles of community members.
Curated OER
The Role of Television in Social Justice
Students will discover the direct impact television coverage had on the African American Civil Rights Movement. They will employ listening, information processing, and critical thinking skills while watching the film clips and answering...
California Education Partners
Bud Not Buddy
A two-day assessment challenges scholars to read an excerpt from the story, Bud Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis then complete a series of exercises in preparation for a writing assignment. Day one includes an independent reading...
Media Smarts
The Broadcast Project
As part of a unit on media studies, kids are asked to chart their viewing habits, observe the advertising that sponsors their favorite shows, and then to imagine what they would broadcast if given a block of airtime.
Denver Public Schools
Kung-hsi Fa-ts' ai! – A Chinese New Year Celebration
Looking for ideas for your Lunar New Year celebration? Check out an interdisciplinary unit of study that includes lessons in counting, calligraphy, culture, geography, literature, art, and music. Kung-hsi Fa-ts' ai! (May you become rich!)