Curated OER
Beneath the News: Who's Doing What to Whom, and Who Cares?
Students investigate the differences between various forms of media (print, radio, TV, Internet). They determine the target audience for each and compare exposure around the world. They write a short story and share it with the class.
Curated OER
The Water in Our Lives: Be the Bug
Students examine a local water supply and create a fictional invertebrate specifically adapted to thrive in that environment. They write a short story from the invertebrate's point of view.
Curated OER
Dancing Feathers
Fifth graders read and analyze the novel, 'Dancing Feathers.' They identify the main story elements, develop personal and fictional narratives, retell the story from a different point of view, create a mask, and design a postcard.
Curated OER
Autobiography
Sixth graders read and write autobiographical sketches, determine the author's purpose in writing, and type paragraphs using WP utilities.
Curated OER
Creating Characters
Students examine the methods of effective characterization. For this writing skills lesson, students discuss how emotions, dialogue, actions, and physical descriptions build believable characters. Students then use the methods of...
Curated OER
Science Center Ideas for Students Who Finish Work Early
A science center can be a great way to extend the learning of students who finish their work early.
Curated OER
Graphic Novel Writing Workshop
Khaled Hosseini’s video “Using Real People and Events” motivates learners to reflect on their own experiences and to use those experiences as the basis of a graphic novel that expresses a universal truth. The richly detailed plan...
Annenberg Foundation
Social Realism
Many American writers in the late nineteenth century wanted their writing to reflect real life. Individuals watch and discuss a video, read and explore author biographies, write a journal entry and a poem, and complete a multimedia...
Folger Shakespeare Library
Julius Caesar Curriculum Guide
Julius Caesar need not be Greek to kids. The background information and suggestions for teachers, as well as the activities for learners, make this curriculum guide a must-have for your Shakespeare curriculum library.
Curated OER
A Look Through My Antonia's Eyes
Thoroughly delve into My Antonia by Willa Cather with a plethora of activities. Engage scholars with videos and web sites in this week-long unit that explains the historical context and creates pioneers in the field of research. An...
Curated OER
Greed is Good?
From Mr. Merdle to Mr. Madoff? A viewing of the PBS adaptation of Charles Dickens’ “Little Dorrit” launches an examination of greedy characters in literature and a study of greed, unfairness, and economic hardship today. The richly...
Curated OER
Inside the Mind of the Unreliable Narrator
Create interdisciplinary connections and promote high-level inferences by studying unreliable narrators.
Crafting Freedom
Frances Ellen Watkins Harper: Lover of Literacy
This, the sixth in a series of 10 related resources, examines the life and works of Frances Ellen Watkins Harper, an African American author, born in 1825, who advocated literacy for both free and enslaved African Americans.
Curated OER
Remembering Ray Bradbury
Develop empathetic analysts of human character by exploring Bradbury's literary works.
Curated OER
How to Write a Biography
Looking for a great lesson plan on how to write a biography? Here, middle schoolers draw from magazine articles, novels, historical figures, and current events to choose a person, or character to write about in a biography. They follow a...
Channel Islands Film
Lone Woman of San Nicolas Island: Lesson Plan 2
After watching West of the West's documentary The Lone Woman of San Nicolas Island, class members imagine how Juana Maria/Karana may have felt about living alone on the island for 18 years and craft a blackout poem or a narrative in her...
Curated OER
School Activities
First graders place some specific types of objects (e.g., shoes, favorite food) on concrete graphs and pictographs. They listen and respond to others in a variety of contexts (e.g., pay attention to the speaker; take turns speaking in a...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Kate Chopin's The Awakening: Local Color in the Late 19th Century
Kate Chopin's The Awakening introduces readers not only to the lush Louisiana setting of Grand isle but also to the nuances of Creole culture. the second lesson in a three-part series examines how Chopin's use of literary realism and...
Curated OER
Poetry Project
Choosing a poet or a theme, eighth graders conduct research in the world of poetry. They conduct Internet research and select five poems that fit their poet or theme, and create a seven slide PowerPoint presentation on their selected...
MENSA Education & Research Foundation
Early American Novel: Exploring the Emergence of a Genre
Need an extra challenge for your best readers? Check out a unit that uses Hannah Webster Foster’s epistolary novel, The Coquette, published in 1797, as the anchor text. The resource is packed with project ideas; each with its own...
Curated OER
ABC Wide World of Animals
Fifth graders use the software Wide World of Animals. This lesson is incorporated into a science unit on animals. The unit focuses on classifying animals into kingdoms and identifying the characteristics of animals within the different...
Curated OER
Quiz on Genre and Subgenre
In this quiz on genre and subgenre worksheet, 9th graders match 12 definitions to terms, then answer 3 multiple choice questions identifying genres.
Curated OER
Genre and Subgenre quiz
For this genre and subgenre worksheet, students complete multiple choice and matching problems about genres and subgenres. Students complete 15 questions total.
Curated OER
"Julie of the Wolves"
Fifth graders research life in Alaska and compare life there to their lives in this lesson. They read "Julie of the Wolves." They research through the novel and other reference books facts about the Alaskan climate and geography. They...