iCivics
I Can’t Wear What?
Can schools ban t-shirts picturing musical groups or bands? Your young citizens will find out with this resource, which includes a summary of a United States Supreme Court case from the 1960s about a similar dispute over students wearing...
iCivics
Yeah, But...
Impress upon your young learners the importance of formulating counter arguments based on facts and not opinions. This resource is meant to strengthen arguments designed in a previous lesson, but could also be used as a stand-alone...
Curated OER
Essay Modes: Different Kinds of Essays
Review many different types of essays with this presentation. Each slide gives a short description of an essay such as narrative or persuasive. Makes for a good overview of various formats.
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Using Aphorisms to Help Dealing with People
Here's a formal plan for what many effective teachers already do: Provide a week's worth of aphorisms and have learners choose one to write about in their journals each day. They reflect on the meaning of each aphorism and project how it...
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Analyzing Persuasion
A reading of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech launches a study of rhetorical devices such as hyperbole, allusion, metaphor, simile, personification, connotative language and parallel structure. Class members then...
Curated OER
Author In The Spotlight
Complete an in-depth study of the works or a specific author. Working in pairs, students read at least four works by the same author. After completing the reading, they create an essay comparing and contrasting the works and create an...
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Connotation and Denotation:
Eighth graders investigate the effect that connotations can have on writing. They are shown examples to build background knowledge before attempting the exercise. They finish by writing a paragraph to practice what they have learned.
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The City Life or the country Life: conventions: Comparative and Superlative Forms of Adjectives and Adverbs
Reinforce knowledge of adjectives and adverbs by game playing. To better understand English conventions young writers, use flashcards to identify the base word and its comparative or superlative form.
English Enhanced Scope and Sequence
Identifying Persuasion in Media Literacy
As part of a study of media literacy, groups examine advertisements from Money, Fortune, The New Yorker, or Good Housekeeping and identify the types of rhetorical appeals used in the ads. After groups present their findings, the whole...
National Park Service
Petrified Forest National Park
Poetry Soup, a reading and writing unit constructed by the Petrified Forest National Park, will have scholars hungry to learn about nature. The cross-content unit contains topics related to history, science, and language arts. Content...
Curated OER
Publish Your Daily Dilemma Results
Young scholars fill out an outline and write an expository text on a dilemma that they read about. They brainstorm how they can solve the dilemma, write about it, then submit their suggestions to the Wilderness Classroom Expedition Team.
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Looking and Learning in the Art Museum
Reflect on the art your class can view at a museum. In this art history lesson, young scholars draw six elements of art. They discuss original art versus reproduction artwork and write about their thoughts of a museum. It would be...
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Team Apollo
Seventh graders brainstorm about problems with a school track. They research different possibilities for a solution. They test different track materials with erosion, durability, abrasiveness and resiliency. They determine the area,...
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Change of Perspective
After reading an example of a Cultural Connection about a particular person, class members are asked to think about what this person might experience on a daily basis. They then craft a narrative from the subject’s point of view.
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Tunes for Bears to Dance to: Questioning Strategy, Discussion Web
Readers of Robert Cormier's Tunes for Bears to Dance to are asked to consider the morality of the central character's actions
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Middle East Lesson Plan
Students explain the position of both the Arab and the Jewish populations of the Middle East. They use this information to develop United Nations proposals to end this conflict.
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HOW ABOUT A T-BONE?
Young scholars investigate the events that created the historical context for the Progressive Era in the United States. They evaluate the conflicts of business and common people of the time. The research is done using primary and...
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Time Management
Students record their daily activities and graph the results using the educational software program called Inspiration. This lesson is intended for the upper-elementary classroom and includes resource links and activity extensions.
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Peer Editing Worksheet
The strength of this peer editing activity is that it addresses all the elements that should appear in a well-written essay. In addition, editors are encouraged to avoid one-word responses and instead, to make specific suggestions for...
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Environment: Water & Air
The introduction to the lesson mentions a sailor's limited capacity to store drinking water on his ship. Pupils then set up an overnight experiment to remove freshwater from salt water by distillation. There is a math and map activity to...
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Classroom Lincoln-Douglas Debate
Unfamiliar with the Lincoln-Douglas Debate format? Check out this resource that details the procedures of the debate, the roles and responsibilities of each participant, and the timing of each round.
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The Art of Persuasion
Students write a persuasive letter. In this persuasion lesson, students listen to the story Dear Mrs. LaRue: Letters from Obedience School and discuss the vocabulary and parts of a persuasive letter. They write their own letter to...
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Disease Lesson Plan
Students research the bubonic plague including disease facts, the time frame of outbreaks and the impact it had on society. They examine the work of Edgar Allen Poe and write an essay explaining why the plague was a subject of interest...
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Pictures and Slogans Persuade an Audience!
Middle schoolers understand that writers utilize various techniques to persuade an audience. They develop an awareness of how the media works to persuade them as the consumer. They create a visual representation of various feelings and...