Curated OER
Kosovo: A Thousand Year Old Border Conflict
Students present proposals and negotiate with other representatives to bring lasting peace to the area through a simulated "Summit Conference."
Curated OER
Short Stories Through Multimedia Presentations
Ninth graders summarize and paraphrase a short story read in class. They identify the six story elements of character, setting, plot, conflict, solution, and tone/mood. Students create a PowePoint presentation that illustrates the...
Curated OER
Problem/solution
Young scholars examine presentations of problems and reaching solutions in literature. In this writing skills lesson, students read "The Three Little Pigs," and respond to several discussion questions about plot, characters, setting,...
Curated OER
The Catcher in the Rye
Ninth graders engage in the reading of literature in order to focus upon some of the basic literary elements while examining "The Catcher In The Rye". They use the experience of reading and literary analysis in order to help develop an...
Curated OER
Student Based Oral Reading & Presentation Study of Shakespeare's 12th Night
Students develop an appreciation for Shakespeare by researching the Elizabethan period and situations in the Twelfth Night. In this Shakespeare play lesson, students complete a 52 page packet to learn about the period of time and...
The New York Times
Writing Fiction Based on Real Science - NYTimes.com
Refuse to alienate your scientific-minded young scholars during your creative writing unit. Learners explore how literary writing can reflect observable fact, and be based in actual science. The links include examples of fiction and...
Learning to Give
Teaching Playwriting in Schools
The world is a stage, and so is your classroom! Hone the skills of the next generation of Tony® award winners with a set of exercises, reference pages, writing prompts, and excerpts from famous plays.
Curated OER
Elements of African Oral Literature
Ninth graders examine the importance of family history. In this Language Arts instructional activity, 9th graders read and discuss African oral literature with a focus on the roles of griots. Students compare /contrast the...
Curated OER
Design a Book Cover
Students use the programs Pics4Learning and ImageBlender 3 to apply their knowledge of characters, plot, setting, symbolism, and conflict to design and create a book cover. Designed as a culminating literature activity.
Curated OER
Reflections About Diversity
Students discuss conflicts that arise from problems with diversity issues, and hypothesize what is needed to bring about successful resolutions to these problems. They write a newspaper editorial about how conflicts can be successfully...
Curated OER
Short Stories: The Puzzle Pieces of Life
Students distinguish the elements of fiction in a short story. In this fiction elements lesson, students complete nine lessons of activities to learn about the elements of fiction in short stories.
Curated OER
The Invasion of Iraq
Learners examine the events leading up to the invasion of Iraq. They define the major events and individuals involved in the conflict by completing the associated crossword puzzle.
Curated OER
A High-Interest Novel Helps Struggling Readers Confront Bullying in Schools
Bully, bullied, or bystander? Paul Langan's The Bully is the anchor text in a unit that examines bullying and violence. After a close reading of the text, readers imagine themselves as the characters and consider how they would react in...
Curated OER
Handout #3-Setting Found Poems
What is a Found Poem? Use excerpts of the setting presented in John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men to inspire Found Poetry. An explanation is given, and the second page houses an example of a Found Poem inspired by Black Boy, but you'll...
Curated OER
Social Studies: Family Ties
Students discuss the qualities needed for a strong family and marriage and identify and compare the strengths of various ethnic families. After viewing a Powerpoint presentation on family and marriage strengths and needs, they take a...
Curated OER
Mapping the Mediasphere
Students compare/contrast the media messages they see in two different communities in their city. They list the elements of art and the principles of design in the photographs they have taken in those two different communities. They...
Beacon Learning Center
Challenging the Human Spirit
High schoolers select a theme-related essay topic from Night, by Elie Wiesel, or The Metamorphosis, by Franz Kafka, and develop an essay that relates the theme to modern-day personal experiences. The essay follows a preset rubric...
Curated OER
Evaluate Problem-Solving in the Context of Culture and Time-frame
Students examine literary elements in non-fiction literature. In this problem solving lesson, students read Rosa Parks, My Story and Beyond the Limits. Students make oral presentations based on the causes and effects, conflicts, and...
Curated OER
African Ecology and Art
Explore Samburu culture as students examine art work by many artists and compare and contrast their styles. They view Kenyan images and find Kenya on the map. Students identify conflict in the animal world and draw animals and record in...
Curated OER
Eloquent Words
Logan’s Lament, a speech delivered by Mingo Chief Logan in 1774, provides pupils with an opportunity to not only study the historical events surrounding the battle between Native Americans and the Europeans for the West Virginia...
Curated OER
Great Expectations: Group Writing
Examine the differences between totalitarianism and democracy in this writing lesson. Using the same format and theme from Great Expectations, young writers work in pairs to compose their own short stories. They follow guidelines for the...
Shakespeare in American Life
Tom Hanks and Caliban: Survivor Superstars
Here’s a clever way to combine language arts and social studies. Shakespeare’s The Tempest is believed to have been inspired by the wreck of the Sea Venture on Bermuda in 1609. The class views a brief scene from Castaway in which Tom...
Curated OER
Shakespearean Comedy on Film
This instructional activity will focus on the aspects of Shakespeare's comedy that become more evident in performance. By viewing clips of the same Shakespeare scene in different film versions, high schoolers have the opportunity to...
Curated OER
Different People/Different Times
Learners read and compare two selections by two different authors with the theme man vs. nature. They complete a literary analysis paper comparing and contrasting the author's treatment of the topic with emphasis on setting, historical...