Facing History and Ourselves
Civil Rights Historical Investigations
The murder of Emmett Till, the Selma to Montgomery march, and the desegregation of Boston schools are the focus of three units that ask class members to investigate why these events were so key in the struggle for civil rights. Groups...
PHET
Forces and Motion
The average American will move 12 times, which results in a lot of moving furniture! Class members consider the forces required to move objects with a creative simulation that opens with the forces required to push a filing cabinet....
Curated OER
The Five Classes of Vertebrates
What a terrific lesson! Learners discuss the animal kingdom, and classify them as vertebrates and invertebrates. They also identify them as fish, amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals. There is even a taxonomic breakdown of popular...
Carolina K-12
An Overview of the Vietnam War
A highly engaging warm-up activity starts this plan for teaching class members about the Vietnam War. After the anticipatory activity, the teacher chooses how to provide an overview of the war (PowerPoint, lecture, textbook, etc.). Next,...
Curated OER
An Overview of the THEA Writing Test
Prepare your class for the Texas Higher Education Assessment (THEA) or any other upcoming writing test (such as the SAT) with this presentation. Complete with instructions on the composition and rubric of the test, as well as sample...
Curated OER
Socratic Seminar on Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Letter From Birmingham Jail
Key in the struggle to gain the rights of democratic citizenship was the April 1963 arrest of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. for civil disobedience. To deepen their knowledge and understanding of events during the civil rights movement,...
Curated OER
F.L.A.S.H. Introduction
F.L.A.S.H stands for Family Life and Sexual Health, it's a program specifically focused on providing special needs learners with vital information regarding personal and sexual health. This is an overview of the program, complete with...
Captain Planet Foundation
Predicting Whether the Weather is Good for the Garden
Can your class predict the weather? Show them how they can come close with a lesson about creating weather instruments, including weather vanes, barometers, wind socks, anemometers, and thermometers. Kids research weather patterns and...
Robert Frost Farm
Socratic Seminar Format Overview
Whether new to the Socratic seminar format or an experienced veteran of the popular discussion technique, you'll find much to like in a five-page, richly detailed packet that not only details the prep necessary, the process, and the...
Alabama Department of Archives and History
Two Different African-American Visions: W.E.B. Du Bois and Booker T. Washington
The strategies civil rights activists Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. Du Bois proposed for blacks to achieve racial progress is the focus of an activity in which class groups identify the strategies as well as the benefits and drawbacks...
Code.org
Functions and Top-Down Design
Let me break it down for you! Introduce your class to a way of breaking up a complicated task into its component pieces. Individuals draw a complex figure using JavaScript and then break it down to help determine the functions needed in...
Alabama Department of Archives and History
Yellow Journalism
What role did yellow journalism play in bringing the United States into war with Spain? As part of their study of the Spanish-American War, class groups examine newspapers of the times and other texts and then produce their own...
Curated OER
The American Wilderness? How 19th Century American Artists Viewed the Separation of Civilization and Nature
The attitudes of European settlers toward the American wilderness, as reflected in art and literature, is the focus of this resource packet designed for teachers. Included in the unit overview you will find lists or paintings and works...
New York City Department of Education
Theater Units for Lower and Upper Elementary Levels
Introduce middle schoolers to playwriting and the elements of drama with a six-session storytelling unit that encourages kids to expand their acting and writing skills. The 12-page packet includes overviews of the lessons, assessment...
Museum of the Moving Image
What Makes an Effective Ad?
As an introduction to a series of related resources that examine political advertising and commercials from 1952-2012, class members use the provided rubric to analyze and rate the effectiveness of the emotion, persuasion, factual...
University of Florida
Language Change
The English language is complex and sometimes counterintuitive. Guide young grammarians through a brief overview of the history of the English language with a presentation that includes lecture notes.
Brown University
Youth Activism and the Dakota Access Pipeline
Do young people have a role in social movements? Should they? The involvement of young people in the Dakota Access Pipeline is the focus of a resource that asks class members to examine letters written by native youths who oppose the...
STEM for Teachers
Temperature and Bounce
Take part in a fun experiment and hold an impromptu bouncing contest with your class. Young scientists heat and cool balls before bouncing them to determine whether temperature changes affect how they bounce. The set of STEM lesson plans...
PBS
Finding Story Ideas
Pitch your best news story to your news team, or the peers in your journalism class, with a activity about finding, reporting, and presenting a story. After watching clips of different examples, as well as strategies for finding the best...
Jamestown-Yorktown Foundation
Why Did Some Colonial Virginians Seek Independence?
To understand the reasonings of those colonials who sought independence from England, young historians are divided into content groups that examine documents related to either the Boston Tea Party, the Yorktown Tea Party, Tea Overboard,...
ReadWriteThink
Webcams in the Classroom: Animal Inquiry and Observation
Boost observational skills with an inquiry-based lesson that takes scholars on a virtual field trip. With help from webcams, learners observe animals in a zoo or aquarium. Observations go into a journal and a discussion is held to review...
J. Paul Getty Trust
O Greek Shape! O Fair Pose!
Everything old is new again. The Los Angeles J. Paul Getty Museum presents a activity on how Greek black-figure painting influenced eighteenth century Neoclassical artists. After looking at a series of examples, class members create...
Curated Video
Online Reputation and Cyber-bullying
Combat cyberbullying with information. During this plan, learners watch a couple of videos, consider online behavior scenarios, brainstorm long- and short-term consequences, and discuss how to react to bullying in order to build up to...
Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment
Health and the Whole Person
The first lesson of the unit introduces class members to the social, physical, emotional, cognitive, and spiritual constituent elements of health and the need for balance among these elements. Class members used the provided assessment...