Curated OER
Morality "Tails" East and West: European Fables and Buddhist Jataka Tales
Have your class explore Buddhist Jataka Tales to compare and contrast them to European fables. After defining fables, Jataka tales, and the elements of each, learners identify themes and patterns for both types of narratives and the...
Curated OER
Comparing Poems
Young literary analysts compare two poems by the same author. Readers look for slant rhyme, observe the beat and rhythm of each, and search for repeated vowel sounds. After re-reading, they observe the lack of punctuation and the stanza...
Curriculum Corner
Fiction Graphic Organizers
Analyze a fictional text with a four-page packet that explores a story's main character and moral, challenges scholars to ask and answer questions about the text, and to create a story map.
Great Books Foundation
I Shall Not Beg for My Rights
An excerpt from Henry MacNeal Turner's address to the Georgia legislature provides class members with an opportunity to develop their literary analysis skills. Prompted by the provided factual, evaluative, and interpretive questions,...
DocsTeach
Analyzing a Photograph of a Treaty Council
A photo catches a moment in time that provides a glimpse into the past. An interesting resource focuses on historical analysis using an image from a treaty council with Native Americans. Budding historians complete an online worksheet...
DocsTeach
Excerpts from the Declaration of Independence
What exactly did the Founding Fathers declare? Elementary historians delve into the Declaration of Independence in a fast-paced activity. The resource provides text experts and guided questions to help academics analyze the intent of the...
National Woman's History Museum
Women, Education, Sports, and Title IX
Title IX did more than change the face of sports in the United States. This landmark legislation also impacted women in education and politics. High schoolers examine the text of the legislation and the 2016 Senate resolution and watch...
EngageNY
Grade 9 ELA Module 1, Unit 1, Lesson 4
Connect with the text using helpful annotation strategies. As your class reads the first section of Karen Russell's short story, "St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves," they note important passages that establish character...
EngageNY
Grade 10 ELA Module 1: Unit 3, Lesson 12
Relationships between characters generate energy that propels the plot and connects events with a central idea. Track character development and meaningful relationships with a literary analysis instructional activity focused on H.G....
National Park Service
Making Choices
What factors go into a decision to enter a war? Use a collection of primary source documents and images to prompt a discussion about the American Revolution and the reasons for entering a war against Britain.
EngageNY
Grade 9 ELA Module 1: Unit 3, Lesson 7
How does Shakespeare use dialogue to develop the idea that the star-crossed lovers are more concerned with their relationship as individuals than they are with their roles as children of warring families? That is the question facing...
EngageNY
Grade 9 ELA Module 2, Unit 2, Lesson 10
The slow curse of realization begins to sink in during the tenth lesson in a literary analysis unit on Sophocles' Oedipus the King. Ninth graders carefully read the selected lines for evidence of Oedipus' feelings during a turning point...
EngageNY
Grade 9 ELA Module 4, Unit 1, Lesson 2
The second instructional activity in a unit about how writers develop their central ideas and use evidence to support their arguments focuses on the role that scholars at Jundi Shapur, "The World's First True University," played in the...
EngageNY
Grade 10 ELA Module 2: Unit 1, Lesson 10
Scholars review the previous nine lessons of analysis of King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail" and use their work to create a formal essay responding to a writing prompt about the purpose of the work. This mid-unit assessment is a quick...
EngageNY
Grade 10 ELA Module 2: Unit 1, Lesson 14
Let's see how the story unfolds. Scholars examine paragraphs of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail" to determine how King unfolds his analysis of the church. Before arriving at an answer, learners work in pairs and...
EngageNY
Taking a Stand: Equal Rights for Women
Equality for all? Scholars talk with partners to predict Shirley Chisholm's stand in her speech "Equal Rights for Women." They then read the speech and circle unfamiliar words to understand the meaning better. Readers go on to answer...
EngageNY
Analyzing Character: Understanding Atticus (Chapter 1, cont.)
Scholars use a Note-catcher to gather text evidence to reveal the character of Atticus Finch in To Kill a Mockingbird. After collecting evidence, they work with a partner to make an inference about the character and then share their...
EngageNY
Mid-Unit Assessment: Evidence and Inference in Pygmalion
Scholars complete the Pygmalion mid-unit assessment to show their progress toward the unit's stated goals. The assessment requires learners to read text and successfully answer multiple choice and extended response questions.
EngageNY
Final Performance Task: Sharing Visual Representations of Position Papers
Let's take a stroll! Scholars go on a gallery walk to view the visual representations for the performance task created by the class. They then view a variety of books about environment and sustainability and conduct book talks on the...
EngageNY
Inferring about Character: Getting to Know Percy (Chapters 1 and 2)
What a character! Scholars look at two chapters in The Lightning Thief to make inferences about the character Percy. They record both the character's challenges and responses. Learners then work in their triads to discuss the gist...
EngageNY
Reading for Fluency: Readers Theater about the Rainforest (Page 33)
Lights, camera, action. Scholars use page 33 of The Most Beautiful
Roof in the World to create a readers theater. They work in triads and use sticky notes to mark and create their own speaking parts from sections of the text. They...
EngageNY
Grade 12 ELA Module 2
The second module in a series for high school seniors focuses on tracking the central idea of a text across genres and from multiple author and character perspectives. Twelfth graders read a speech by Benazir Bhutto entitled "Ideas Live...
Civil War Trust
Civil War Animal Mascots
A pet can offer comfort, friendship, and loyalty in the most stressful of situations. Here is a lesson plan that explores the important role animals played during the Civil War. Class members read informative texts, complete a...
iCivics
Lesson 3: Bias
How do journalists balance bias and ethical reporting? The final lesson plan in a series of five from iCivics examines the different types of bias and how they affect the news we read. Young reporters take to the Internet to find...