Curated OER
Aesop and Ananse: Animal Fables and Trickster Tales
Learners complete compare and contrast activities dealing with fables and trickster tales to determine how each uses animals to portray human characteristics, specifically strengths and weaknesses, as well as pass wisdom from one...
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The New England Fishing Industry:Sea Changes in a Community
Explore New England's economic and cultural past and possible issues New Englanders will face in the future. Middle and high schoolers research the fishing industry and the need for regulation. They analyze the topography of New England...
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Don't Stop the Weaving
The importance of oral tradition is evident throughout time and across space. Introduce your learners to some interesting stories and then test their knowledge with these questions. Ten multiple-choice questions focus on characters and...
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The Grapes of Wrath: Scrapbooks and Artifacts
High schoolers complete research to enhance their reading of "The Grapes of Wrath". Using the text, they identify and locate cultural artifacts and discuss their symbolic connotations. As a class, they create a museum exhibit of the...
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Early Jazz
Students gain an understanding of early jazz. They study Dixieland and the Roaring Twenties. They examine the American historical significance and cultural implications of early jazz.
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India: Where Remarkable Differences Are Ordinary
Young scholars research India and Indian culture. In this Indian research lesson plan, students research and report on the lives of Indian children. The report will be in the form of a mock interview between a journalist and an Indian...
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Writing Lyrics
Students examine the themes and structure of a bluegrass song and identify the common themes in bluegrass music. They practice songwriting by rewriting the lyrics of "Oh! Susanna" as a bluegrass tune.
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Rockin’ the World: Rock and Roll and Social Protest in 20th Century America
Young scholars explore protest songs. In this interdisciplinary lesson plan, students examine issues-based music by summarizing lyrics and revealing inferences, generalizations, conclusions, and points of view found in the songs.
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The Turn of the Nineteenth Century: Lifestyles and Cultures
Student reflect on the differences between the life of children in the early
nineteenth century and their lives in the present. They demonstrate these differences by creating a drawing of "then and now." In addition, they create a...
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Langston Hughes and the Blues
Students explore the connections between Langson Hughes and blues music. For this African American culture lesson, students compare and contrast blues music with poetry and short stories by Langston Hughes.
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Gaining Ground
Students explore African-American art by researching, preparing and presenting reports on particular artists. They analyze what they have learned through the lens of modernism.
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Turtle Legends
Learners listen to the legend, Thirteen Moons on Turtle's Back. They create a new moon for the calendar based on this natural part of everyday life in the seasons. They illustrate it under the story using water color paints.
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Legends
Students are introduced to the topic of legends. Using the text of Irving's novels, they gather information on different cultures. They practice using new vocabulary and their listening skills. They retell the stories in chronlogical order.
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Vocab-u-lous! Build a Fabulous Vocab
For this vocabulary worksheet, students select the best word choice to complete the sentence. All words correspond to the theme of Labor Day.
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A South African Storm
Students explore racial prejudice in South Africa through the reading of "A South African Storm" by Allison Howard. In this cultural and geography lesson, students discuss ethnicity and prejudices and cite examples from the letter....
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Cinco De Mayo: ELD Reading and Language-Building
A brief passage about the Mexican holiday Cinco de Mayo is accompanied by an array of language activities for ELD: cloze exercise, phrase matching, word jumble, multiple choice, sequencing, interview, group presentation, fluency writing,...
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Business and Advertising
Historical and humorous examples pepper this through presentation, which addresses logical infelicities and humor in business, advertising, and even politics. Though designed for a business and advertising class, this lecture could also...
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Folklore in Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God
Students read Zora Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God and explore her life history as well as novel analysis activities. In this novel analysis lesson, students identify elements in the novel and its overall literary impact. Students...
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"Families and Schools of the Past"
First graders listen to and discuss historical fiction and bigraphies from the early American time period. They role-play, draw, write stories and dress up to re-create events from these historical characters.
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The Sting
In this music worksheet, students read an excerpt from the movie The Sting and identify the American composer, Scott Joplin, who found ragtime jazz music heard in the movie. They also respond to eight questions related to the excepts read.
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Protest Songs
Students analyze and perform an American social protest song. They describe its historical setting, consider the effectiveness of the music and recognize that popular music is a reflection of American culture.
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Moving and Grooving with Tempo: Diversity of Learners Adaptation
Students with logical/mathematical intelligence keep count of the tempo of each song and of the number of different movements that they can create to go with the folk songs heard.
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Huguenot Street
Fifth graders read about and discuss American Colonial Folk styles of the 18th century. They research architecture and design found Huguenot Street and use their research and observations to design an original home.
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The Stars and Stripes
Students design their own flag as a symbol of community. In this flag lesson plan, students study the importance of the American flag, and then make their own.