Curated OER
An Author Study: Kevin Henkes
Kevin Henkes' books can be a great way to introduce students to an author study in the classroom.
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Under the Sea - Ocean Mammals/Fish
Students explore the similarities and differences between ocean mammals and fish. The characteristics of the life forms observed are placed onto a graph. The classroom becomes the botom of the sea and is explored to gain the required data.
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Tall Tales and Urban Legends
Students identify and interpret what tall tales, urban legends, and cyberlore are and to find them in their own lives. They practice telling and listening to these types of tales and explore why people tell them. Students also identify...
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The Sky is Falling!!
First graders complete a variety of activities about fall. They study a plant's life cycle and what happens to plants in the fall. They make leaf rubbings and discuss seed dispersal. They write a creative story about a seed and visit a...
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Children's Literature Across the Curriculum Ideas-Duke Ellington
Students read Duke Ellington by Andrea Davis Pinkney. They complete a variety of cross-curricular activities surrounding the life of the 20th century composer. Included are reading, art, math, science, writing, social studies, and...
Shmoop
ELA.CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.11-12.2
There is nothing more frustrating than discussing theme in literature, and now the Common Core requires that your learners determine two or more, and discuss the development of it throughout the text. This is crazy, but manageable with...
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Making Inferences While Identifying Similes and Metaphors
Use this lesson to study similes and metaphors and the inferred meaning. In this language arts lesson, 5th graders write their own similes and metaphors. A worksheet is provided for extension work or to check understanding as homework.
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Pencil Talk And Other School Poems
Students engage in a lesson to strengthen reading comprehension, the lesson focuses on the skill of making connections of story details and life experiences. The most important aspect of the lesson is for them to develop confidence while...
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"Leap, plashless": Emily Dickinson & Poetic Imagination
Students examine different poems from Emily Dickinson. They practice listening for meter in the poems and make connections between the texts. They also practice their own creative writing skills.
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Flight of the Painted Ladies
Students explore the life cycle of the Painted Lady Butterfly. They set up cameras near a butterfly culture. They create an iPhoto photo book to document and journal their observations of the metamorphosis. Students produce a narrated...
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Reading the Coyote School News: Lives of Ranchers in Southern Arizona
Fourth graders examine the effects of Mexican-American ranching on life today.
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A Master Production
Students create an "art garment" incoporating personal writings and found quotes with images of life and dreams on a disposable or recycled garment. This lesson includes scoring rubric.
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Presidential Biography: Bicentennial Quarter
A biography is a type of literary genre that everyone needs to be familiar with. Here, the class will read two different biographies of George Washington and discuss how they are similar and different, then decide weather they can glean...
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Comparing Mitosis with Meiosis
Life science learners view an online animated mini textbook comparing two types of cell division. Working in groups, they use a digital microscope to capture images of cells in different stages of mitosis and meiosis. Then they create an...
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Examining Persuasive Literature
Examine persuasive literature and writing. In this persuasive literature lesson, pupils work through a variety of activities over the course of three weeks (each week is planned by day). The unit's purpose is to examine examples of...
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Who is on that Bill? Alexander Hamilton and the Federalist Papers
Students, who are adult learners, participate in an Internet scavenger hunt in order to assimilate information about the biography of Alexander Hamilton and the Federalist Papers. They look at the Federalist and Anti-Federalist Papers...
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Fire and Ice Questions
After reading "Fire and Ice," have your class answer these seven thought-provoking questions. Some questions ask readers to connect with the text while others require the learner to reference the text in order to provide an answer.
Freeology
Strategies for Reading Posters
Clarify, connect, evaluate, predict, question. Laminate and display these colorful posers about the classroom to remind readers of the five basic strategies for comprehending all sorts of text.
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Who's Your Hero/Heroine?
Students use research skills on the Internet and write a biographical report and present it to the class. They utilize a worksheet that's imbedded in this plan to guide them in their research. students come to school dressed up as their...
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The Grapes of Wrath: Scrapbooks and Artifacts
High schoolers complete research to enhance their reading of "The Grapes of Wrath". Using the text, they identify and locate cultural artifacts and discuss their symbolic connotations. As a class, they create a museum exhibit of the...
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1984
In this novel analysis worksheet, students use the various sections with online links to complete activities about the novel 1984. Students explore domestic surveillance, the U.S. Patriot Act, online privacy, advertising, doublespeak,...
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The Great Kapok Tree by Lynne Cherry
With The Great Kapok Tree, by Lynne Cherry as the hook learners discuss the rainforest, the animals that live there, and conservation efforts. Then, students write a letter to the man in the story asking him not to cut down the Kapok...
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Allusions, Slang, and Literary Analogies
Partners identify literary allusions using a provided worksheet and use this knowledge to examine the allusions in Toni Cade Bambara's "Raymond's Run." The class also examines the impact of allusions and slang on the tone of the story.
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Measure for Measure: Act III Scene I
Read this lesser-known play by William Shakespeare. When you get to Act III, provide your class with this two-page learning exercise. First, encourage a self-to-text connection by having individuals record their top 10 priorities. Then,...