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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Egyptian Burial
Middle schoolers research burial tombs of ancient Egypt. Acting as pharaohs of Egypt, students create burial plans to decide what items they would include in their own tombs and why. They find another student to analyze their plan.
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Escape to Freedom
Students read 'They Called Her Moses," create a wanted poster for Tub man, compose a journal entry imagining they are William Still, and in groups, create a newspaper depicting the incident of the runaway slaves and events from the time...
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Toontime
Students examine and discuss how editorial cartoons are made and their role in society. They research and write about Andrew Jackson's presidency, and create an editorial cartoon of a modern presidency.
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What Kind of Student Do You Want to Be?
Third graders write an essay which answers the question, "What kind of student do you want to be?"
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There's a World of Science to Read Today!
Students read a current science article. They write a summary of the article, take notes, write and edit a summary, and print their work.
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Persuasion and Figurative Language
Students study and discuss definitions of metaphor, simile, and personification. In small groups, they read a section of "Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God" and identify those devices. The group presents their examples with the class.
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Novel Analysis
Students read the novel, Lord of the Flies, then write an essay analyzing the novel. They analyze, in small groups, characters, plot, setting, style, symbolism, theme, critical responses, and historical influences
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Multicultural Canterbury Pilgrimage
Pupils create travel brochures that detail various people and places that are encountered on the way to Chaucer's Canterbury.
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First Class Mail
Students read The Witch of Blackbird Pond, and write a friendly letter to Elizabeth George Speare, the author, discussing their points of interest in the novel with her.
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Fable Writing
Students listen to and discuss various fables, and identify the moral and central themes. They write their own personal fables and create illustrations to go with them.
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Connecting Characters and Themes in Julius Caesar
Fourth graders prepare for the literary analysis. They locate, interpret, evaluate and analyze the relationship between a character and the theme. After a lecture/demo, 4th graders write topic and detail sentences, then correctly put...
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Islam or Christianity?
Students design a mosaic depicting the city of Constantinople during determined periods of history. They include historical evidence that shows whether the city was under Muslim or Christian rule.
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The South Wins Gettysburg!
Students explore American Civil War, hypothesize that the Union Army was defeated at Gettysburg by Lee's army, and write an essay describing how different North America would be today if the South had won the Civil War.
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Analyzing a Science Fiction Movie
Fourth graders watch the movie "Contact" and write a review. They discuss in their review how scientists deal with technological problems, the movie's connections to the nature of science and how technology affects science. They share...
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Making a Child's Play of "Antigone"
Fourth graders make studenT books to share with elementary students that teach a universal rule that obeys both conscience and authority.
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Getting to Know You Through Peer Editing
Sixth graders get to know their classmates through 'personalized' sentences that feature one student each day, and offer practice in proofreading and peer-editing related to capitalization, punctuation, spelling, and/or grammar rules.
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Writing Thank You Notes
Sixth graders write to a veteran. In this letter writing lesson, 6th graders identify the five parts of a letter and discuss the importance of sending thank you notes. Students write a thank you note to a veteran.
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Create Flash Cards
In this flash cards instructional activity, students create flash cards with their vocabulary words on them. Students create 10 flashcards total.
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You Mean I Am Part of History?
Fourth graders open the lines of communication between family members and to gain a historical understanding about family history. They research and interview their grandparents and parents and create a research paper.
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To Whom It May Concern
Fourth graders produce and peer edit typed rough drafts of the business letters following the guidelines illustrated in the Eight Essential Parts of a business letter and save to disks. They complete the Where's the Math? scavenger hunt...
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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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Language for Sale
Sixth graders think about writing terminology as they rewrite a catalogue descriptioin of an item for sale.
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The Odyssey Plan
Ninth graders read and analyze The Odyssey. They apply note-taking skills to identify enemy, type of enemy, and traits demonstrated throughout the book. Students create a storyboard that illustrates the selected episode from the book...