Curated OER
Writing and Autobiography
Are you working on an autobiographical or narrative writing unit? Bring this lesson to your class, as it takes young writers through the process of drafting and sequencing an autobiography. After observing and demonstrating steps of the...
Curated OER
A Year in Review: The Memoir
If you are planning a unit on memoir and autobiographical narrative, you should consider this resource. Using Internet research skills, pupils review works by James Frey and Henry David Thoreau. In response to these works, learners...
Novelinks
The Color of Water: Family History Assignment
To conclude their study of James McBride's The Color of Water, class members create their own memoir, focusing on a family member who help shape their life.
Curated OER
That Was Then - Persuasive Essay
Student explain how geographic and cultural settings influence a person's identity. They compare and contrasting Esmeralda Santiago's Puerto Rican self with her American self by participating in a close reading of the text and writing a...
American Immigration Law Foundation
No Pretty Pictures
Here is a nice set of activities and discussion questions to accompany your class reading of No Pretty Pictures, a memoir of a young girl's experiences and struggle for survival during the Holocaust.
Annenberg Foundation
The Search for Identity
Discover how writers express identity in their writing. Learners explore how issues of identity surface in the literature of minority writers. Scholars watch a video, read and discuss biographies, conduct research, engage in creative...
Curated OER
Genre Lesson: Autobiography
Have your middle schoolers write a short story about themselves with an autobiography unit about Rosa Parks. They learn the difference between biographies and autobiographies, define the different types of autobiographies and determine...
Curated OER
Confronting Two Challenges--One Physical, One Intellectual
Students examine the challenges of a new language and culture. In this cultural lesson, student read Running by Peter Hessler and discuss obstacles faced, including the language barrier. Students write an essay about a time they...
Curated OER
How a Writer Conveys Descriptions With a Wallop Lesson 3 for Running (From River Town)
Students examine strategies an author uses to provide qualitative and quantitative aspects of life in China. They apply the strategies to their own writing.
Curated OER
Shelby County: The Regulator-Moderator War
Seventh graders comprehend the importance of the Regulator-Moderator War through John W. Middleton's memoir. They comprehend how the different motivations held by each faction began the conflict. Students are shown the map of Shelby...
Curated OER
How Cultures Differ - Two Different Perspectives on the Same Even
Learners explore the effects of culture through the story Running by Peter Hessler. In this geography and cultural lesson, students act as newspaper reporters covering the story of the race. Learners write newspaper articles as reporters...
Curated OER
The Armenian Genocide: The American Ambassador in Constantinople
Students analyze America's reaction to the Armenian Genocide. They write a journal response, read and discuss text, compare/contrast reactions around the world to the Armenian Genocide and the genocide in Rwanda, and write an essay.
Curated OER
Preserving History
Learners discuss how writing is an important historical tool. They read writings from individuals and note how they have preserved history. They describe what those stories say about the communites they came from.
Curated OER
Independent Project Selection
Students write research proposals, conduct research and interviews and maintain a log of their work, and draft, revise, and edit final written projects to produce a finished research article.
Curated OER
Teaching Imagery with Gary Paulsen
Students read excerpts from memoirs written by Gary Paulsen as examples of how to write a narrative piece. They identify figurative language used and then they write a memoir of their own that contains imagery and figurative language.
Curated OER
Memior: The Stuff of Our Lives
Fourth graders reflect upon the significance of remembered events and to keep a "notebook" of their thoughts and feelings. They read books that exemplify memior writing. They write their memiors, taking it through the writing process.
Curated OER
Three Part Dialogue
Eighth graders write a three part dialogue as part of an effective memoir. In this three part dialogue lesson plan, 8th graders are given two parts of a dialogue and emotions that accompany the words. Students then create the third...
Curated OER
"Let Me Sing A Carefree Song Once More:" Poetry of Hidden Children
Students read various poems dealing with hidden children during the Holocaust. Using the texts, they discuss the poems meaning with their classmates. They present their information to the class taking turns on who is speaking. They...
Curated OER
Lesson 1: Postwar Disillusionment and the Quest for Peace, 1921-1929
Students examine U.S. foreign policy following World War I. In this foreign policy lesson, students study the Five-Power Treaty and the Kellogg-Briand Pact and their effectiveness in preventing war. Students create political cartoons and...
Curated OER
Japanese American Baseball in the Camps
Learners study Japanese American internment camps. In this American history lesson plan, students compare and contrast the camp internees' experiences with with team sports-related challenges learners have encountered. Students discuss...
Curated OER
Greetings from Maya Angelou
Students investigate the life and works of Maya Angelou. They complete a Webquest, read poems, listen to a reading by Maya Angelou, answer discussion questions, and write a poem, short story, or essay based on a newspaper article.
Curated OER
When Johnny Went Marching Off...
Eighth graders decide whether to join the Union or Confederate army. Then decide under which General you serve and in which battles you fight. Finally students create civilwar documents in assigned roles.
Curated OER
When Johnny Went Marching Off...
Eighth graders explore Civil War campaigns. In this Civil War lesson, 8th graders collaborate and conduct research to create presentations that focus on specific Union or Confederate generals and battles. Students take on the roles of...
Curated OER
The Holocaust: Survival Stories
Students use survival stories as the theme for written assignments and a photography presentation.