Curated OER
Teaching Language Arts with Sayings and Phrases
Students complete a unit to learn sayings and phrases that help them understand language art concepts. In this sayings and phrases lesson, students complete 11 lessons that use common sayings and phrases to teach language art concepts...
Curated OER
Teaching Imagery with Gary Paulsen
Learners read excerpts from memoirs written by Gary Paulsen as examples of how to write a narrative piece. They identify figurative language used and then they write a memoir of their own that contains imagery and figurative language.
Curated OER
How to Teach Dolch Words with Kid Pix
Students use KidPix computer program to learn Dolch sight words. In this technology and language lesson, students type their Dolch sight words into KidPix to create a quasi-sentence.
Curated OER
Teaching English: Consumer Society - Consumer Items
Students read an article about consumer society. In this consumer lesson, students read an article for information in order to argue a point. They talk about their opinions, or how they feel about consumer society/consumer items. They...
Fluence Learning
Writing About Literary Text: Pygmalion and Galatea
Is it crazy to fall in love with your own work, or is that the purest love of all? Compare two renditions of the classic Greek myth Pygmalion and Galatea with a literary analysis exercise. After students compare the similarities and...
John F. Kennedy Center
Baila! Latin Dance in the Spanish Classroom
One, two, three. One, two, three. Invite your language learners to practice the steps for researching and presenting information. Each small group has the task of explaining one Latin dance in full detail.
Curated OER
Reliving History through Slave Narratives
Helpful for an American literature or history unit, this lesson prompts middle schoolers to examine slavery in the United States. They read slave narratives that were part of the Federal Writers' Project and then conduct their own...
Curated OER
The Conditional in Spanish
Under what conditions would your Spanish language learners use the conditional? They can find out here, and practice their new knowledge with the linked exercise. There is information about regular and irregular conditional verbs as well...
Student Achievement Partners
Eleven
Turning 11 comes with a range of emotions. Explore those emotions by reading the short story "Eleven" by Sandra Cisneros. Readers analyze the main character's reactions to the events of her day. Then, they write an essay describing what...
Goodwill Community Foundation, Inc.
Manners and Etiquette
Learning how to speak Spanish is incomplete if you're not speaking politely! Teach class members the basics of Spanish manners, including perdón, lo siento, and salud to reinforce their conversational etiquette.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Person to Person: Extra Support Lessons (Theme 4)
Authors use many strategies when writing stories. A series of extra support lessons breaks down those strategies, as well as key grammatical and phonics-based concepts to support struggling learners. The last of three lessons offers...
Dream of a Nation
Big6 Research Project
Do research projects at your school look like a class of eighth graders staring at a blank screen? Use the Big 6 research method to guide middle schoolers through the process of finding a topic, searching for and evaluating sources,...
Curated OER
Exploring Gullah Culture...Through Language and Numbers
First graders examine the culture of the ancient Gullah people. As a class, they practice saying and writing the days of the week and numbers in Gullah. They are read a Gullah folktale and put the events of the story into the correct...
Get Fluent
Get Fluent in French: Going on Holiday
Take a vacation into French with lots of vocabulary and plenty of activities. This collection of worksheets includes instruction as well as practice and invites French language learners to hone their translation skills.
Orlando Shakes
The Best of Enemies
History comes to life with the play The Best of Enemie. Scholars learn literary elements as well explore racial issues in American history. The play is based on a true story and addresses the universal truth that people are capable of...
Curated OER
Vivid Verbs
Spice up your writing! Your amateur writers will benefit from concentrating on understanding and improving verb use in writing. An introductory activity addresses weak verbs. A second exercise helps them see the importance of strong...
EngageNY
Analyzing Text Structure: “Teen Slang: What’s, Like, So Wrong with Like?”
What did you say? Class members read Teen Slang: What’s, Like, So Wrong with Like and make notes in the margin to determine the gist. They then analyze the text to identify claims made and the evidence to support the claims. After ...
EngageNY
Building Background Knowledge: Planning The Two Voice Poem
Scholars build background knowledge to understand the life and work of the union leader and labor organizer César Chávez. As they read teacher-selected resources, they complete a Building Background Knowledge worksheet and engage in...
Curated OER
Express Yourself Lesson Seed 15: Theme
Build understanding of theme with an activity designed for The Cay and the Common Core. Small groups or pairs use graphic organizers to determine themes, find and record related details from the text, and formulate theme statements. In...
Curated OER
Trek Across America
Bring a time machine into your classroom with this writing lesson, in which young writers project themselves back in time and have a variety of choices from that point forward. They either write a conversation with a historical figure,...
Curated OER
From Light to Dark and Back
Experiment with light and dark in a series of interactive activities that lead up to reading and writing poetry. Class members have the opportunity to observe their feelings while sitting in the light and dark and to play with shadow...
Curriculum Corner
Academic Reading Vocabulary
From A to Z, learners define, draw, and find examples of specific reading focus skills in an alphabetized reading vocabulary packet. Words include dialogue, theme, text structure, genre, paraphrase, and many more.
Curated OER
Snowy Similes
The class defines similes after creating a KWL chart about them. Groups rotate through a series of stations in which they creatively complete similes. They create a picture booklet that contains similes. However, the booklet topic and...
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...