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Using Details from Text to Identify Author's Purpose
Explore writing techniques by analyzing newspapers and magazines with middle schoolers. They will collaborate in small groups to read local news stories and identify the main ideas and author's intent. They also utilize an information...
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"I Believe..." Podcast Style
Use this communication skills lesson to emphasize evaluating a speaker's main point and argument. After reading Martin Luther King's, "I Have a Dream Speech" and John F. Kennedy's speech, "I Believe in an America Where the Separation of...
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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...
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Persuasion as Text: Organizational, Grammatical, and Lexical Moves in Barbara Jordan’s "All Together Now"
A thorough lesson plan on persuasive writing takes middle schoolers through several activities, including group discussion, collaborative posters, and independent writing. They compare historical speeches and analyze the persuasive...
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Expressing Your Views to the Letter
Analyze the motivation, purpose, and value of letters to the editor by examining letters written in response to the violence at Columbine High School. For homework, middle and high schoolers write their own letters to the editor about an...
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Charles Darwin Meets John Paul II
If you teach AP English language and composition and are looking for a way to address the differences between written and spoken arguments, consider this instructional activity. Over the course of three days, class members research...
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Persuasion: Analyzing Persuasive Writing
Young scholars examine and create persuasive essays. In this writing activity students engage in activities that allow them to understand how a persuasive essay is constructed so they may compose their own.
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The WCTU and the Lynching Controversy
Students analyze writings of famous authors and record their positions on lynching and segregation. They research arguments to explore the attitudes of people in the South and the North during the 19th century.
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Exploring Prejudice and Text-to-Text Relationships
Tenth graders use the novel To Kill a Mockingbird to analyze relationships in society. In this literature analysis lesson, 10th graders participate in a shoe activity where they bring in one shoe belonging to someone they know and a...
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Women in United States History
Learners identify and explain the significance of key terms, such as: 19th Amendment, Femisnism, Flappers, Immigration and Jobs in Wisconsin. They identify and analyze viewpoints, events, social classes, and people of various years.
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History Fair
Students create a History Fair. They examine the National History Day Competition and are encouraged to participate.
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Ornithology and Real World Science
Double click that mouse because you just found an amazing lesson plan! This cross-curricular Ornithology lesson plan incorporates literature, writing, reading informational text, data collection, scientific inquiry, Internet research,...
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Cell Game
Make a prototype of a game based on cell biology. Researching game design and working in groups to create a game will activate knowledge of cell biology. The review task will help students learning as they test out the games and their...
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Protective Design
Over 3 or 4 class periods your young designers will create a wearable garment that provides some sort of protection from a danger in everyday life. In this fashion design lesson, young scholars investigate fear in our society and...
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Unit Plan for Mark Twain and American Humor
Students create brochures about the humor of Mark Twain. In this literature-analysis lesson plan, students read "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" and other short stories by Twain. Students write analytical paragraphs and...
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My Brother Sam is Dead: A study of the Revolutionary War
Fifth graders complete an analysis of the Revolutionary War through literature. After "My Brother Sam Is Dead," students create a time capsule containing items that would be relevant during the Revolutionary War. They identify key...
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McONE Hundredth Day
Students explore the components of a calendar and counting through the preparation and celebration of the "One Hundredth Day" of school. Badges are worn and McDonald fries are enjoyed in the celebration.
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The Great Jellybean Hunt
Students explore natural selection and its influence on the populations to fine tune traits and characteristics. The acquisition of traits developed out of need is examined through a game played in class.
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Biological Relationships - Coral Reef Memory Game and Chain Game
Students familiarize themselves with the interconnectedness of species within an ecosystem, and to use this knowledge to evaluate how the removal or decimation of one species can have far reaching effects.
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Modeling Mania
Students describe techniques helpful in solving spatial problems which utilize the notion that a model is a simplified version of something complicated. They utilize methods such as sketching or drawing possible solutions to a problem.
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The Human Jigsaw
Fourth graders, using Thomas Paine's "The Crisis, No. 1" from The American Crisis, form a human jigsaw.
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When Getting There is More Than Half the Battle
Students investigate the 'Design for the Other 90%' exhibition about low-cost solutions to give the "other 90% of the world's population" access to services and amenities many of us take for granted. In this technology design lesson,...