Missouri Department of Elementary
If It’s to Be, It’s Up to Me
Here's a clever switch on the tale of Pandora's Box. Rather than lifting the lid and having problems escape, class members write a problem on a strip of paper and place it in Pandora's Problem Box. A student then pulls a problem...
Museum of Tolerance
Music Evokes Memories and Emotions
Dim the lights, take a deep breath, and press play to explore the emotions and memories that music elicits. Class members begin using relaxation techniques designed to create a positive listening experience. As music plays, learners...
Missouri Department of Elementary
Using Negotiation to Settle Difficulties
Negotiating can be a win/win experience if the involved parties apply the skills and techniques offered in a lesson about negotiating to settle differences.
Poetry4kids
Simile and Metaphor Lesson Plan
Similes and metaphors are the focus of a poetry instructional activity complete with two exercises. Scholars read poetry excerpts, underline comparative phrases, then identify whether it contains a simile or metaphor. They...
Missouri Department of Elementary
The Clique
Mean girls and bully packs are favorite topic for films and TV shows that focus on the destructive power of cliques. High school freshmen are asked to reflect on both the positive and negative aspects of cliques by reading a short...
Curated OER
Lesson: A Collage of Cultures
The blanket being analyzed here seems simple and plain, but it reflects the culture and geography of the people who made it. Learners critically examine the influence geography and culture had on the creation of the blanket and on...
Mathematics Assessment Project
Middle School Mathematics Test 3
Real-life mathematics is not as simple as repeating a set of steps; pupils must mentally go through a process to come to their conclusions. Teach learners to read, analyze, and create a plan for solving a problem situation. The...
Missouri Department of Elementary
To Give In or Not to Give In—That Is the Question!
No! A very simple word that can be very hard to say. Seventh graders have an opportunity to practice this difficult skill as they engage in a series of role-playing scenarios. As an exit ticket, 7th graders write a reflection on the...
Missouri Department of Elementary
Opportunity Knocks, But It Costs, Too!
Sixth graders practice six steps to effective problem solving. Working with the school counselor, class members are presented with a scenario that requires them to make a decision. Individuals then write a reflection in which they...
Missouri Department of Elementary
R-E-S-P-E-C-T: A Basic Skill
Imagine seventh graders developing a school wide plan to promote respect in their school. That's the vision behind the second lesson in the R-E-S-P-E-C-T series. In preparation for designing a school-wide media campaign, class members...
Curated OER
Border Poetry/Writing Workshop
Young scholars analyze a poem set in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands and defend their own interpretations of the work. They demonstrate understanding of poetic technique by writing their own poems of living on the border.
Curated OER
Martin Luther King and Writing as a Tool for Social Change
Students explore writing as an agent for social change. In this Social Studies lesson, students examine the power of writing using Dr. King's Letter from a Birmingham Jail. Students will practice the technique of persuasive writing...
Curated OER
Using Effective, Evocative Writing as a Model
Students analyze the author's style to learn techniques for strengthening their own writing. They re-read "Music in the Fields" and highlight images that create vivid pictures in their minds-places where Young "shows, not tells" and...
Pennsylvania Department of Education
Analyzing Literary Elements in Fiction
Students analyze the characters and events in fictional writing. In this literary elements lesson, students study the meaning of the words characterization and fiction. They listen to the story Pigsty by Mark Teague, or any other book...
Curated OER
Panther Exam: Writing a Play
Students demonstrate their knowledge of panthers by writing a play on the subject. In this animal life lesson, students view a slide-show on school computers of a veterinary exam of a panther. Students utilize this...
Curated OER
Eloquent Words
Logan’s Lament, a speech delivered by Mingo Chief Logan in 1774, provides pupils with an opportunity to not only study the historical events surrounding the battle between Native Americans and the Europeans for the West Virginia...
Jen London
Julius Caesar Funeral Speech Essay Assignment
"Romans, countrymen, and lovers! Hear me for my cause." "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears!" As part of a study of William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, individuals as asked to compare the funeral speeches of Brutus and...
College Board
2011 AP® English Literature and Composition Free-Response Questions Form B
It's all in the technique. Authors use many techniques to express themselves using writing. Two of the three essay questions require scholars to analyze the literary devices used by the authors and write essays about how these...
Southern Nevada Regional Professional Development Program
Reading Literature - The Ruin
Cross-comparison, the technique of focusing on two different texts with the same themes, motifs, events, etc., is employed in an exercise that asks groups to examine two different translations of “The Ruin,” a poem, written in Old...
Curated OER
Chinese Landscape Painting
Third graders learn about Chinese poetry and landscape paintings, then create their own. They view several examples and discuss the elements of each, then paint their own landscape inspired by what they saw. They then listen to, read,...
Crafting Freedom
Sequencing of Events in the Slave Narrative of Henry "Box" Brown
What steps did Henry "Box" Brown take while planning his own escape from slavery? Learners work in groups to analyze segments of Brown's narrative and identify the sequence of the most important events of his story.
Kenan Fellows
Multivariate Least Squares Regression Model with Variable Selection
The risk of contracting an infection in the hospital is low, but it does happen. Learn what risk factors have the highest correlation with hospital-acquired infections in the final lesson of a three-part series. Using the open source R...
University of North Carolina
Poetry Explications
Explication may sound like a fancy word, but it's just a fancy way to say analysis. Using a handout on poetry explications, part of a larger series on specific writing assignments, writers learn how to break down and analyze a poem. The...
PBS
Document This
Being a historian requires serious sleuthing. They examine primary source documents and look for evidence, for clues that reveal who wrote the document, when, and why. After watching two historians model the process, young history...