Curated OER
The Mystery of Exploration
Students comprehend the history of European exploration of North America. They are introduced to basic reasearch techniques. Students focus on four explorers who visited New York State: Verrazano, Cartier, Champlian, and Hudson. They...
Curated OER
Pieces of Me
Eighth graders explore themselves and their community. For this writing lesson, 8th graders brainstorm ideas about their childhood, middle years, family, and future goals. Students write an autobiographical sketch about themlseves.
Curated OER
Mobius Strips
Students discuss the scientific method and construct their own Mobius Strips. They examine their Mobius Strip, and write observations and a hypothesis on how many strips of paper they have when they cut the strip in half length-wise.
Curated OER
A Day in the Life
Students research questions related to sports medicine. They write an essay from the questions and create professional email accounts to email a professional in their field of interest. In addition, they interview their professional and...
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
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...
Cornell University
Nano What?
The size of a nanoparticle is difficult for pupils to grasp. A hands-on experiment is designed to give your classes perspective. Learners analyze different sports drinks for the content of electrolytes as an introduction to nanoscale....
Curated OER
Storytelling
Show young readers how to put some personality and voice into their storytelling with an in-depth assignment. Kids practice saying the same thing, such as counting from one to ten, in different tones and perspectives, and then work on...
EngageNY
Final Performance Task: Presenting Graphic Novelettes
Let's get graphic. Serving as the final performance task of the unit, scholars complete their graphic novelettes and design covers based on their sketches. Finally, they present their hard work to classmates.
ReadWriteThink
Designing Museum Exhibits for The Grapes of Wrath: A Multigenre Project
Challenge readers of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath to create a museum exhibit that uses artifacts to focus on one issue raised by the award winning story of the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, and the Joads.
Crafting Freedom
Sequencing of Events in the Slave Narrative of Henry "Box" Brown
What steps did Henry "Box" Brown take while planning his own escape from slavery? Learners work in groups to analyze segments of Brown's narrative and identify the sequence of the most important events of his story.
Channel Islands Film
Santa Cruz Island Restoration Narrative
What would you be willing to do to save an animal from extinction? After re-viewing a video about the restoration of the Island Fox on Santa Cruz Island, individuals adopt the point of view of one of the key players in the debate and...
Curated OER
Three Part Dialogue
Eighth graders write a three part dialogue as part of an effective memoir. In this three part dialogue lesson, 8th graders are given two parts of a dialogue and emotions that accompany the words. Students then create the third part of...
Curated OER
Predictions, Predictions, and More Predictions
Third graders pose questions about the subject of a short story based on the title and cover illustration; then read the story and determine if their questions actually pertained to the story line, and, if so, how the story answered the...
Curated OER
I Don't Pay Attention to Advertisements
Sixth graders examine the eight persuasive techniques, identifying them in all avenues of media including magazine, TV, Internet, and billboards, and making them aware of how advertising already influences them. They write an essay using...
Curated OER
Building Trades
Young scholars complete a masonry project. They follow proper procedures to complete
multiple masonry projects, follow written and verbal instructions, apply proper masonry techniques, and correctly calculate materials needed.
Curated OER
Dragonwings
Students engage in a lesson that is concerned with the literature study of Dragonwings. They write about the story from the perspective of a reader that is well informed towards the last chapters. Students also find target vocabulary and...
Curated OER
Become a Detective
Learners participate in a simulation where they act as detectives to locate a missing item using questioning and prediction techniques. Then they read a portion of a story, write a prediciton paragraph, and then finish reading the story.
Curated OER
Sampling Snoops
Students practice formulating a hypothesis and designing an experiment to test the hypothesis. They identify several sampling techniques they can use to test their hypotheses.
Curated OER
Just the Facts, Ma'am
Learners use tables of content, chapter titles, and key words as a strategy for organizing non-fiction information. They write a paragraph with a partner using information from a graphic organizer.
Curated OER
Masks Across Cultures
Students examine various masks from different cultures. In groups, they review vocabulary related to expressing emotions in art. They work together to create a mask using the techniques described to them and representing a season. ...
Curated OER
An Introduction to Poetry Using Color
Students complete a variety of poems that focus on many different literary techniques and styles. As part of this experience, students share their portfolios with adults in the school and at home.
Curated OER
The Miracle Fish: Learning to Design an Experiment
Learners develop procedures to explore the behavior of fish. In this scientific experiment lesson students from a hypothesis, write a question, identify different variables and controls in their experiment.
Curated OER
Where We Live
Students practice the click and drag technique on the computer as they match pictures of activities in the home, school, and community to the correct boxes. Then they will write about the activities.