Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Collision Course

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Students measure the speed of moving marbles and use the results to calculate velocity and momentum. They analyze the events preceding a Japanese train crash.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Predicting the Past

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Students study how archaeologists record the past. They discuss archaeology and artifacts. They view a list of artifacts discovered by Marquette at the Illinois Village and answer questions regarding them. They complete a test about...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Rare, Fat, Flabby, Big-Mouthed Sharks

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Students research Megamouth Sharks and write paragraphs based on their findings.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Vaulting Into Olympic History

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Learners explore history of the Olympics. They research and then create an 'Olympics Hall of Fame' for the classroom.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Lewis and Clark

For Teachers 9th
Ninth graders study the plants and animals Lewis and Clark discovered on their expedition. There is a plant illustrator, a plant recorder, an animal illustrator, and an animal recorder. They research the plants and animals and the ...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Learning the Hard Way

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Students explore instances of segregated education around the world, supporting and refuting the idea through debate and persuasive essay.
Lesson Plan
Lumen Learning

Lumen: Rhetorical Reading: Strategies for Active Reading

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
This lesson focuses on strategies for active reading such as annotating your texts, reading multiple times, and using your prior knowledge.
Professional Doc
AdLit

Ad lit.org: Classroom Strategies: Listen Read Discuss (Lrd)

For Teachers 9th - 10th Standards
Listen-Read-Discuss (LRD) (Manzo & Casale, 1985) is a comprehension strategy that builds students' prior knowledge before they read a text. During the first stage, students listen as you present the content of their reading through a...
Graphic
Other

Ncrel: Reading Strategies: Before, During, and After [Pdf]

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
This page provides a detailed chart to aid students' understanding of texts. It goes through the steps of pre-reading, during reading, and after reading, outlining what students should be thinking about as they interact with a text. This...
Activity
Able Media

Classics Tech Center: Strategies for Reading Latin Texts

For Students 9th - 10th
Site presents strategies for reading long texts in Latin. Discusses the concept of "prior knowledge" and also gives example exercises.
Article
AdLit

Ad lit.org: Cognitive Strategies Toolkit

For Teachers 9th - 10th Standards
This article describes eight cognitive strategies - including monitoring, tapping prior knowledge, and making predictions - to help readers develop their comprehension skills.
Professional Doc
AdLit

Ad lit.org: Classroom Strategies: Inferential Reading

For Teachers 9th - 10th Standards
Teaching students to "read influentially" helps them learn how to read more strategically. This technique is derived from the teaching model that learners develop knowledge via the process of interpreting new information in light of past...
Professional Doc
AdLit

Ad lit.org: Classroom Strategies: Anticipation Guides

For Teachers 9th - 10th Standards
An Anticipation Guide is a strategy that is used before reading to activate students' prior knowledge and build curiosity about a new topic. Before reading a selection, students respond to several statements that challenge or support...
Professional Doc
AdLit

Ad lit.org: Classroom Strategies: List Group Label

For Teachers 9th - 10th Standards
It provides students with a way to recognize the relationships between words and concepts using their prior knowledge about a topic. The list-group-label strategy can be used before and after students read.
Professional Doc
AdLit

Ad lit.org: Classroom Strategies: Mnemonics

For Teachers 9th - 10th Standards
A mnemonic is an instructional strategy designed to help students improve their memory of important information. This technique connects new learning to prior knowledge through the use of visual and/or acoustic cues. The basic types of...
Professional Doc
AdLit

Ad lit.org: Classroom Strategies: Possible Sentences

For Teachers 9th - 10th Standards
Possible Sentences is a pre-reading vocabulary strategy that activates students' prior knowledge about content area vocabulary and concepts.
Lesson Plan
Other

Signet Classics: Scarlet Pimpernel Teachers' Guide [Pdf]

For Teachers 9th - 10th
A teachers' guide to the Signet Classic edition of Baroness Emma Orczy's tale of post-revolutionary France. The guide suggests several ways to build student knowledge prior to reading the novel, and discusses the major themes. It also...
Article
AdLit

Ad lit.org: Content Area Literacy: Literature

For Teachers 9th - 10th Standards
Reading complex literary texts offers unique opportunities for students to wrestle with some of the core ethical dilemmas that we face as human beings. The growth of ethical reasoning is one of the most compelling reasons for schools to...
Professional Doc
AdLit

Ad lit.org: Lunchroom to Classroom: Authentic Assessment & the Brown Bag Exam

For Teachers 9th - 10th
A Brown Bag Exam uses found objects and images to help students activate prior knowledge and creates a framework for students to express their understanding. Students work individually and in collaboration to create concrete connections...