Illinois State Board of Education
Common Core Teaching and Learning Strategies
Here's a resource that deserves a place in your curriculum library, whether or not your school has adopted the Common Core. Designed for middle and high school language arts classes, the packet is packed with teaching tips, materials,...
Tangle Crafts
Bookmark Weaving Loom
Combine class members' love of crafts and reading with one innovative lesson. Scholars create a one-of-a-kind woven bookmark using cardstock paper, yarn, and a needle.
Curated OER
Collective Poetry: Teaching Tolerance
Help your class create collective poetry following a simple, engaging model from Teaching Tolerance (tolerance.org). Each young poet writes five things on an index card: sayings from others, favorite sound, favorite place, favorite...
Curated OER
Bookmark It!
Students analyze piece of literature for symbolism and create a bookmark containing an illustration of the symbolism in it, a quote that shows the symbolism and an explanation of how this symbolism enhances the work.
Conneticut Department of Education
Instructional Strategies That Facilitate Learning Across Content Areas
Imagine 28 instructional strategies, appropriate for all subject areas and all grade levels. Directed Reading-Thinking Activities (DRTA), Question-Answer Relationship (QAR) activities, KWL charts, comparison matrixes, classification...
Curated OER
Bookmark Strategy: Building Comprehension and Keeping Track of Stories
Learners explore the concept of comprehension. In this comprehension lesson, students use a bookmark to mark a place in a story they want to "stop and think" about what they are reading. Learners practice this skill with a partner...
National Association for the Education of Young Children
Ten Tips for Involving Families through Internet-Based Communication
Communication is key for a successful parent-teacher relationship, but communication can be difficult when there are thirty-plus families involved. Make your life easier with online communication and an article that details 10 tips to...
Scholastic
Study Jams! Arthropods
No need to be crabby! Here is a resource that teaches your class about the characteristics of arthropods and provides stunning photos of several of them. In addition to the superb slides and their informative accompanying captions, the...
Curated OER
Endangered Animals Bookmarks
Students conduct research on various endangered animals. They conduct Internet research, create a bookmark with information about their selected animal, and sell the bookmarks to raise money for an organization dedicated to endangered...
Have Fun Teaching
Compound Word List
Never run out of compound words to teach your pupils by keeping this list nearby! All 16 pages are made up of lists of words organized alphabetically.
Candlewick Press
Where's Waldo?: At the Library
Where's Waldo? In the library, of course, teaching people how to care for, locate, and re-shelve books. Waldo also reviews alphabetizing, familiarizes class members with library vocabulary, and provides them with his own special bookmarks.
PBS
Reading Adventure Pack: Cooking
A Reading Adventure Pack focuses on cooking. Scholars participate in three hands-on activities after reading the fiction book Easy as Pie by Cari Best and the nonfiction book How Did That Get in My Lunchbox? by Chris Butterworth....
Scholastic
It's a Whatchamacallit
Learners formulate new applications for simple machines in an original invention that solves a common problem. They brainstorm ideas for a new product using simple machines and communicate a finished project through an oral, written, and...
Curated OER
Reciprocal Teaching: Eddie Miranda Looks at New York
Third graders use the strategies in Reciprocal Teaching: predicting, clarifying, questioning, summarizing, and visualizing. They utilize these reading strategies when reading "Eddie Miranda Looks at New York."
Curated OER
Reciprocal Teaching: The Migrants
Fourth graders use techniques involved in Reciprocal Teaching: predicting, clarifying, questioning, summarizing, and visualizing. They use these reading strategies while reading "The Migrants."
Scholastic
Abraham Lincoln: A Time Line Research Project
Though Abraham Lincoln's life was tragically cut short, it was filled with accomplishments and inspiring moments that continue to influence American democracy. Explore the ways the 16th president of the United States made his way from a...
Curated OER
Listening to History
Students consider the insight to the past that oral histories can provide. They, in groups, analyze oral histories, prepare to interview a family member on their recollections of a historical event and then write a historical narrative.
EngageNY
Illustrating: Geography Icon
For the final step of the performance task for this unit, class members will create an illustration to go with the paragraph on their bookmark. After looking at models, guide pupils toward recognizing the criteria for an effective...
Curated OER
Introduce: Comprehension Strategy: Comprehension Monitoring
Help readers develop awareness of comprehension issues and employ tools for better understanding. The best way to begin this strategy is to model it through a think aloud. Choose a book scholars will also be reading, preferably one they...
EngageNY
Planning Writing: Making Notes for the Accessing Books Around the World Informative Paragraph
Encourage your young writers to thoughtfully plan and organize their work. First, model how this is done and vocalize your thought process as you work. Next, create a class list of strategies that they can use during independent writing...
Curated OER
An Introduction to the Relationship Between Composition and Content in the Visual Arts
Young scholars investigate how artists create a story that provides a message or provokes emotions in a single image. The ways in which the composition of a painting contributes to telling the story or conveying the message is examined...
Curated OER
In Depth with the Full Spectrum
Students explore the basic color wheel and the ways that artists use color to guide the viewer's attention through a painting's composition. A creation of a sense of depth in a two dimensional space and the effect of color on mood and...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Mark Twain and American Humor
“The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” is famous, in part, because it established a uniquely American form of humor. For this famous story, Mark Twain combines the tall-tale, the dialect story, and satire. Here is a resource...
Curated OER
I Spy Poetry
Explore the components of rhythm and form through a reading of Jean Marzollo's I Spy books. After discussing Marzollo’s format, the class agrees upon a theme for a class book and topics that fit with that theme. Pupils write a poem,...