National Endowment for the Humanities
Animal Farm: Allegory and the Art of Persuasion
Introduce your class members to allegory and propaganda with a series of activities designed to accompany a study of George Orwell's Animal Farm. Readers examine the text as an allegory, consider the parallels to collective farms and the...
Curated OER
Animal Farm: Propaganda
Eighth graders study the concept of propaganda and its major techniques. they define propaganda; analyze use of techniques in AF; create own propaganda using common techniques on a current topic.
Curated OER
Favorite Farm Animals
Students perform a study of farm animals and their babies. They compile a graph of their favorite farm animals. They utilize a spreadsheet worksheet which is imbedded in this plan.
Curated OER
Farm Products Help Me Grow
Students view a display of empty food containers (or illustrations). They select a food and decide as a class if it has an animal or plant origin. Students view a display of common farm animals that are commonly eaten (cow, pig, chicken,...
Curated OER
Underwater Research
Students make transect and quadrat surveys using a provided worksheet in order to understand the techniques used to study coral reefs. Each type of survey is used to identify the species, diversity, and number of corals.
Curated OER
"Shooting An Elephant": George Orwell's Essay on His Life in Burma
High school readers examine George Orwell's essay "Shooting an Elephant" for examples of symbolism, metaphor, connotation, and irony. They analyze how these literary tools convey the writer's main point and contribute to the persuasive...
Curated OER
Farming in Space
Learners research, design, and run plant growth experiments online. They explore websites, design an experiment using an animation-based building block program, construct a soda bottle hydroponic production unit and a cardboard plant...
Curated OER
Rice Consumption
Fourth graders discover facts about rice and how it is farmed. In this rice research lesson, 4th graders investigate how much rice is eaten in the United States compared to other countries. Students research countries and graph the...
Curated OER
Scientists Breed See-Through Frogs
Students participate in a pre-reading activity, then read a news article about the breeding of transparent frogs. For this biology and current events lesson, the teacher introduces the article with a question and a vocabulary activity,...
Curated OER
Visit Burma, the Safe Way
Students virtually travel to Burma. In this Burma lesson, students research Burma's history, religion, and current events as they visit selected websites and share their findings.
Curated OER
Allegory in Painting
Students define allegory and discuss its use in visual arts. They identify and explain allegorical themes in a number of images.
Curated OER
Allegory in Painting
High schoolers define allegory and discuss its use in the visual arts, examine paintings from various time periods and identify allegorical themes in them, and explain what makes an image allegorical.