MENSA Education & Research Foundation
The Writer’s Toolbox: What You Need to Master the Craft
Strengthen your high schoolers' writing with a series of steps for writing successfully. With sections on organizing an essay, choosing a topic, crafting a thesis statement, and revising a draft, the lesson encourages your class to...
Curated OER
Punctuation (The Comma vs. The Semicolon)
Explore English by participating in a grammar correcting activity. Elementary and middle schoolers distinguish when to use commas from when to use semicolons. Then they correct twelve sentences by placing commas and semicolons in the...
Curated OER
"In God We Trust": The Camden Man Who Put the Missing Motto on the Dollar Bill
Here is a fascintating lesson which relates how the motto "In God We Trust" came to appear on all US currency. It turns out that a man from Arkansas came up with the idea and petioned his congressman and President Eisenhower himself to...
Curated OER
Digital Storytelling
Scholars of all ages can use the various tools of technology to construct and illustrate a story. Utilizing this resource, learners work with a partner to brainstorm and draft a story based on personal experience. They use computer...
Curated OER
We've Gotcha Covered: The Iowa Insurance Story
Analyze the relationship between financial risks and the growth of the insurance industry in Iowa. Learners work in groups to analyze the major catastrophic events that occurred in their community. Several worksheets are included.
Curated OER
The Effects of Slavery
The emotional and spiritual oppression of slavery in the African-American experience is the focus of this instructional activity. Middle schoolers analyze various texts by Frederick Douglass and Maya Angelou related to freedom and...
Curated OER
Pudd'nhead Wilson: Writing Strategy
Assign this narrative essay after finishing Puddn'head Wilson. Learners write about their own experiences with overcoming obstacles. A five-step process is laid out on this assignment page.
Curated OER
The Purpose and Power of Persuasion
Examine the power of persuasion and have learners consider how it influences events in their own lives. After reading and analyzing informational texts to understand the author's purpose, class members take a written test and craft a...
Curated OER
Uniform Design
Students investigate the military by examining their uniforms. For this design lesson, students analyze the military uniforms from different locations and time periods. Students create new ideas for current military uniforms.
Curated OER
Examining Persuasive Literature
Examine persuasive literature and writing. In this persuasive literature lesson, pupils work through a variety of activities over the course of three weeks (each week is planned by day). The unit's purpose is to examine examples of...
Bright Hub Education
How to Outline, Plan & Write a Memoir
Get to know each individual through a memoir project. The lesson outlined here is a bit vague, but has some promising ideas for graphic organizers to help writers prepare their work. In order to succeed with the lesson, you will need to...
Curated OER
The Delicate Balance - Iowa's Natural Resources
Discover the natural resources in Iowa by studying it's history. In this environmental instructional activity, your students will observe a topographical map of Iowa and identify where its most valuable resources are. They complete an...
Curated OER
Types of Journal Writing
Examine with your class the practical uses of journals and discover how journal writing can help academically and personally. Pupils discover the different types of journal writing and decide which style works best for them.
Curated OER
Information Reports
Students practice essay skills. In this essay skills lesson, students select an essay subject and take notes for their topic. Students create a web for their essays. Students organize, write, revise, and publish their essays.
Curated OER
"Knot" the Whole Truth: Writing a Modern-Day Story with a Tall Tale's Voice
Beyond Paul Bunyan and his blue ox, tall tales can be a great way to teach young writers about word choice and voice in their writing. Using Jerry Spinelli's Maniac Magee and the Six-Trait Writing process, they begin to write their own...
Curated OER
Brog-Cube-the Spam
A Middle school special ed class uses the acronym SPAM to learn the 4 parts of writing. They employ 4 different colors to help them visually distinguish each part of writing in a given prompt. This lesson is vague and uses a strong...
Curated OER
Labor Unions and Strikes
Teens explore economics by listening to a labor history lecture and an excerpt from Looking Backward, by Edward Bellamy. A detailed outline is provided for the lecture, along with follow up and assessment questions. In groups, they...
Curated OER
Taking a Closer Look (Critical Viewing)
Students explore persuasive writing in advertisements. In this advertisements lesson, students evaluate tobacco advertisements for persuasion techniques. Students then create a counter advertisement against smoking.
Curated OER
The "Ad" Survey-What Makes a Print Ad Convincing?
Students develop opinions from a variety of materials, recognize and analyze bias, propaganda and stereotypes, and evaluate effectiveness of print advertisements.
Curated OER
Natural Inquirer Ecosystem Article Lesson
Students discover new ways to preserve the ecosystem by completing graphic organizers. In this environmental lesson plan, students read an article from the Natural Inquirer in small groups and fill out a graphic organizer based on the...
Curated OER
Biodegradability
Students study the effects of water, salt water and heat on common household materials. They separate an emulsion and show that the materials are completely recoverable and observe the effect of acetone and water on polystyrene.
Curated OER
Visual Arts: Art in Public Places
Students create 3 dimensional art. In this sculpture lesson, students collect objects that represent their community's values to include in a 3 dimensional sculpture. Students write a paragraph explaining the chosen theme of their...
Curated OER
Literature Response Lesson Plans
Literature responses are a meaningful way to strengthen student comprehension.
Curated OER
National Novel Writing Month - Release the Inner Writer
Your students can write a 50,000 word novel in a month.