Curated OER
Writing A Thanksgiving Day Story
Students write a Thanksgiving Day Story using some or all of the words included in the worksheet. These stories can be fiction or non-fiction (Personal Essays). They are graded on sentence structure, paragraph structure, grammar,...
Curated OER
A Comparison of Indentured Servants and Slaves
Sixth graders examine and compare the lives of slaves and indentured servants using primary sources and the historical fiction books, "Molly Bannaky and Barefoot." They analyze and compare advertisements for runaway slaves. Students...
Curated OER
100 Day
Students investigate the guided reading of the children's book "100 Day". They identify high frequency sight words. Students answer guided questions to assess reading comprehension. They brainstorm to describe past experiences while...
Curated OER
Short Story Inspiration
Tenth graders write an original story using a picture of a scene inspiration. In this short story lesson, 10th graders write short stories using a picture.
Curated OER
Guided Reading Lesson: Here Comes the Bus
Students discover basic concepts of print. In this early literacy lesson, students discover basic high frequency words. Students make predictions as they read. Cross-curricular activities provided.
Curated OER
Hans Christian Andersen's Fairy Tales
A thorough instructional activity introduces learners to Hans Christian Andersen, the nineteenth-century author who created wonderful tales. They read the original texts of several of his stories, including "The Ugly Duckling," "The...
Curated OER
Jacksonian America and the Indian Removal Act of 1830
Students utilize primary sources to explore the national climate concerning Native American Indians during the Andrew Jackson administration. They are presented with opinions for and against the Indian Removial Act of 1830 as they...
Curated OER
William Apess and the Mashpee "Revolt" of 1833
Prompt your class with the following question: What was the status of American Indians in Massachusetts during Jackson's presidency? To answer this question, class members will read a series of primary source documents (attached),...
Curated OER
The People of Kansas
Learners investigate primary sources to experience first- hand accounts of Kansas pioneers. They write an historical fiction letter or skit based on territorial documents.
Curated OER
Picturing Shakespeare: Creating Illuminated Texts
Students experiment with illuminating important text. For this fictional literature lesson, students research Shakespearean sonnets. Students identify key elements of the sonnets, and examine the relationship between illuminated text...
Curated OER
African-American History and Culture in the English Classroom
Ninth graders identify and recognize characteristics of nonfiction in literary works, explore language and culture of Gullah people, compare and contrast purposes of spirituals and quilts in terms of their relationships to escape from...
Curated OER
A Look Through My Antonia's Eyes
Thoroughly delve into My Antonia by Willa Cather with a plethora of activities. Engage scholars with videos and web sites in this week-long unit that explains the historical context and creates pioneers in the field of research. An...
Curated OER
The Rest Cure: Gender in Medicine and Literature
Read and discuss "The Yellow Wall-Paper" and the gender issues that the story brings up. Use articles from the time period to analyze, complete with specific discussion questions. After two days, scholars write an essay based on topics...
Curated OER
Graphic Novel Writing Workshop
Khaled Hosseini’s video “Using Real People and Events” motivates learners to reflect on their own experiences and to use those experiences as the basis of a graphic novel that expresses a universal truth. The richly detailed plan...
Curated OER
Unknown Frost Poem Discovered
What? A long-lost poem from Robert Frost? Introduce your class to a poem recently found and published from Robert Frost's personal collection. The lesson includes background information on the author, the poem itself, and a list of...
Rockefeller Archive Center
Understanding Mass Media News
In an age of fake news and photoshopped images, it is vital that 21st century learners development the skills they need to evaluate mass media and assess its validity. A great way to launch such a study is with a carefully crafted lesson...
Curated OER
Oregon Trail Diary
Students write a diary. In this writing and creativity lesson, students pretend they are moving west and keep a diary about their adventures. Students study real-life scenarios about families who made the trip out west before writing...
Curated OER
Going Graph-y
Second graders listen to and dicuss the story Where the Wild Things Are. They play a pantomime game and act out various feelings so their classmates can guess. They listen for the frequency of certain words, and record their findings on...
Mississippi Bar
The 2018 Mock Trial Case
All rise! Scholars put their skills to the test in a mock trial. Using evidence, photographs, and testimony, they role play the trial in the classroom. Rules of law—and the court room—come to life as the class becomes a place of law!
Curated OER
Constructing Narrative from the Migrant Experience in Literature
Excerpts from John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath and from John Fante's Ask the Dust, as well as a variety of primary source documents provide the background for an examination of the migrant experience from 1920-1945.
Virginia English Bulletin
Book Trailer Projects From Classroom to Community
Invite your pupils to express their understanding of a novel through a collaborative video project. Groups choose a novel from those you have studied in class, select four scenes, storyboard the scenes, film the scenes, edit the film,...
Penguin Books
A Teacher's Guide to the Signet Classics Edition of Jack London's The Call of the Wild
The Yukon provides plenty of opportunity for adventure. A study guide for The Call of the Wild by Jack London, also the author of White Fang, helps readers navigate the novel which is set in Yukon, Canada. Chapter summaries give a quick...
Curated OER
Critical Ways of Seeing The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn in Context
Young scholars complete a unit of lessons examining the cultural context of the novel, 'The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn.' They write a critique of the novel, compare/contrast two published critiques, and explore various websites.
Curated OER
Run Your Own Boarding House
Learners become familiar with the historical and sociological aspects of the boarding house phenomenon in America. As students work in groups, they read and analyze documents that will help them gain a deeper understanding. To...