Curated OER
The Kite Runner: Immigration Appreciation
Readers of Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner engage in a simulation designed to give them an appreciation of the immigrant experience. Kids must finished the assigned task or face deportation.
Maryland Department of Education
The Concept of Diversity in World Literature Lesson 6: Culture Clash
To prepare for a Quickwrite on the question, "How do different points of view create cultural conflicts?" class groups draw examples of religious, cultural, and political conflicts from Things Fall Apart and The Poisonwood Bible to use...
Curated OER
Good For Me!
Learning how to do things, and realizing that one has capability to do things is how children begin to build their self-esteem. A simple lesson plan beginning with a class discussion about student accomplishments. Next, kids create...
Curated OER
Shizuko’s Daughter: Discussion Web
Is Yuki a selfish character? Analyze her motivation and behavior during a unit on Shizuko's Daughter by Kyoko Mori. Readers fill out two sides of a graphic organizer with reasons why or why not she is selfish, and then come up with...
Curated OER
If I Were President
Children discuss voting and the presidency. They make a picture of what they would do as president and dictate a caption. The class then votes on the snack they would like to eat that day. This presents many wonderful learning...
Poetry Society
Imaginary Words
Oh, what fun! Young logophiles and neologists create a dictionary-sounding definition for imaginary words and try to fool their classmates.
Curated OER
Lyddie: An Instructional Unit Resource Guide
Katherine Paterson’s young adult novel Lyddie is the foundation of a differentiated instruction unit that not only explores the rise of industrialization and labor but women’s rights issues as well. After learners read the novel, they...
Roald Dahl
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
You can't read Roald Dahl's Charlie and the Chocolate Factory without craving the rich treats described in Dahl's vivid prose. Young writers try their hands at sensory language with a lesson plan that prompts them to write about...
Curated OER
Hey Teachers! Get to Know Me!
Foster community in your classroom and encourage learners to get up and get to know each other. Individuals each receive the classmate inventory handout included and use it to fill in information about their fellow scholars. Once they...
Agriculture’s Lasting Heritage
Apples Around Us
Apple tasting launches an investigation of the story and travels of John Chapman, also known as Johnny Appleseed. After listening to his story, class members craft a summary of the tale, chart his journeys on a map, and sample different...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Dramatic and Theatrical Aspects in Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town”: A Common Core Exemplar
“So I’m going to have a copy of this play put in the cornerstone and the people a thousand years from now’ll know a few simple facts about us.” Our Town is used as the text in a Common Core exemplar that examines the dramatic and...
Curated OER
Parrot in the Oven: Word Tree - Bonsai or Banyan
What fun! As part of a vocabulary exercise designed for Victor Martinez's Parrot in the Oven: Mi Vida readers create word trees with the trunk representing the root word and the branches representing prefixes that can be added to the...
Dream of a Nation
Creating Awareness through Action Oriented Writing and Research
Middle schoolers aren't too young to feel strongly about politics, social issues, consumer rights, or environmental problems. Demonstrate the first steps toward social change with a project about action-oriented writing. Eighth...
Roald Dahl
The Twits - The Monkeys Escape
Houses come in all shapes and sizes, but not all houses are safe from Mr. and Mrs. Twit. The 10th instructional activity in a unit designed to accompany The Twits by Roald Dahl turns learners into architects. While designing houses for...
Novelinks
The Hobbit: Biopoem
As part of their reading of The Hobbit, readers create a biopoem for one of Tolkien's characters.
Scholastic
Reading Characters
Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass provides the text for a study of how writers bring characters to life. Using the provided character mapping worksheets, readers respond to questions and then write a short character sketch.