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Primary Sources
Materials provided by The Lower East Side Tenement Museum, located in New York City, offer researchers an opportunity to examine primary sources and use these sources to understand the past. Class groups analyze different documents to...
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Things Fall Apart: Research, Writing & Presentation Project
A great resource for your unit on Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart. Small groups conduct research about related topics (list included), write papers, present PowerPoint slide shows, and take a student-created test. Fill in a few gaps to...
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Through Our Eyes
After reading Sandra Cisneros’ novel The House on Mango Street, class members design a canned food drive, create advertisements for the drive, and use digital cameras to document the entire process. In addition, pupils journal their...
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Exploring Geometric Figures
Tenth graders explore mathematics by participating in hands-on daily activities. Learners identify a list of different shapes and classify them by shape, size, sides and vertices. They utilize tangrams and geometric pieces to gain an...
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Writing Short Stories: The Fun Way
Do your young authors suffer from writer's block when they try to write short stories? Access their natural creativity with C-Gor, the writing monster! The instructional activity takes aspiring authors through a new writing process...
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Lesson Plan 6: Introducing the Elements of Plot-Part Two
November is National Novel Writing Month, so if your young authors are embarking on this journey, be sure they understand plot elements. This collaborative lesson fits into the context of the larger NaNoWriMo project; however, the ideas...
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The Complex Sentence: Correcting Fragments
After defining and offering cogent examples of fragments and complex sentences, this worksheet presents pupils with two passages. One they must revise. For the second, an excerpt from an E.B. White essay, they must identify the fragments...
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Ratiocination
Writers use the four steps outlined here to edit their own or a peer’s paper. Using different colors of highlighters, editors note “to be” verbs, examine the length of sentences, box the first word in every sentence, and mark instances...
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Doyle Online Writing Lab: Paper Editing Worksheet
Both the writer and the reviewer contribute to this editing activity. Before handing the paper to a partner, the writer lists specific areas of concern for the reader to address. The editor addresses these concerns and offers detailed...
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Persuasive Journal Prompts
Need a journal topic? Whether you use these prompts as part of a persuasive writing unit, or reproduce the download as a one-page handout for your class members, the suggested topics make a great addition to your curriculum library. In...
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Building a Structure With Legos: Oral Communication and Process Analysis
Illustrate the importance of specific details and clear directions. Sitting back-to-back, partners take turns building a Lego structure and giving directions to their partners to create an identical structure. The subsequent discussion...
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"Three Shots": Ernest Hemingway's Nick Adams
Analyze characterization in literature. Readers use "Three Shots," from The Nick Adams Stories by Ernest Hemingway and complete classroom activities that require them to apply literary analysis techniques. They write their own short...
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Student Opinion: What Small Things Have You Seen and Taken Note of Today?
An interesting and unusual topic for a news article, this resource from the New York Times website asks learners to take a moment and consider all the things they notice during a typical day. Based of the editorial piece "Things I Saw"...
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Student Opinion: What Are You Afraid Of?
A great resource for informational texts as well as writing topics, the New York Times website provides writing prompts about various news articles through The Learning Network. This particular worksheet provides a very short reading...
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Short Story Lesson Plan: "The Californian's Tale"
Middle schoolers read the short story "The Californian's Tale" by Mark Twain and complete related activities. They discuss vocabulary for the story and complete a vocabulary matching definition activity. They complete writing activities...
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Beginning Short Stories w/ Questions - An Adventure
This activity, which could be used in the lower grades for reading comprehension practice or with older students as part of an ESL lesson, has learners read a short story and answer six comprehension and vocabulary questions. As part of...
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Understanding and Using Primary and Secondary Sources in History
Explore primary and secondary sources in this historical analysis instructional activity. Young researchers define the terms primary source and secondary source. They read a primary source document provided by the teacher and answer...
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Political Cartoon Analysis Guide
Political cartoons are very clever, and often have deep meanings. This worksheet has learners consider a political cartoon. Next, they answer four questions regarding the cartoon. A very clever and effective teaching resource.
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Hanal Pixan
Students research the culture of Mexico. In this Mexican culture lesson, students view a PowerPoint presentation about the culture of Mexico and the students take notes. Students write an essay about what they have learned.
Spark Notes
Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder: Study Guide - Mini Essays
Jump online (to Sparknotes), and check out the study questions listed for Jostein Gaarder's Sophie's World. Provide a list of the questions to your high schoolers, and get them in groups to discuss their answers. Potential answers are...
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Causes of America's Great Depression
Students identify principal causes of the Great Depression. They analyze causes including a decline in worldwide trade, the stock market crash, and bank failures and explain the legacy of the Depression in American society.
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Natural Resources and Ancient Cities
Students explain how the availability of natural resources has affected human settlement patterns. They recognize the interactions of human populations on environments and compare the growth of two ancient cities in relation to natural...
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The Civil Rights Movement, Phase II: 1960 - 1990
High schoolers explain the impact of events leading up to the development of federal civil rights. They identify methods used to expand the right to participate in the democratic process and evaluate how governments achieve their stated...
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Color My World Grey and Blue
Can colors help to convey a mood in writing? Explore this question with your class using the songs "Grey Street" by the Dave Matthews Band and "Blu is a Mood" by Blu Cantrell. After analyzing the effect of the color words in these songs...