Odyssey of the Mind
Odyssey of the Mind Curriculum Activity: Performing Arts
The classical arts have made a lasting impact on our society and your advanced learners get to find out why. The activity starts as the children create a list of the arts found in society, they discuss how these art forms impact their...
EngageNY
Peer Critique: Use of Evidence in the Two-Voice Poem
Peer editors review critique expectations before offering feedback on each other's two-voice poems. They record their feedback on peer critique recording forms, and then begin revising their poems.
EngageNY
Peer Critique: Historical Accuracy of Ideas and Vocabulary
Promote collaboration in the classroom with a historical fiction instructional activity. Fourth graders partner up and read the other's narrative to give feedback on vocabulary choice and the accuracy of historical information. After...
EngageNY
Presenting a Research-Based Claim: Visual Aid and Peer Critique
Back to the drawing board. Scholars work on the visual to complement their claim presentations using the Criteria for the Cascading Consequences Chart Visual as a guide. They then practice their presentations with partners.
EngageNY
Peer Critique for Organization and Style
Put another set of eyes on your class's historical fiction narratives with one of the final lessons in the unit. Fourth graders use feedback from their peers to annotate their drafts for revision, particularly their bold beginnings and...
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Core Analysis Frame: Poetry
Dig deep into any piece of poetry with a set of analysis questions. Ponder the content, form, and language of poetry and provide some question for critique. The first two pages include general questions, and the remainder of the document...
Curated OER
Persuasive Writing and Speaking
Rhetorical appeals (pathos, logos, and ethos) are the focus of a series of exercises that asks class members to brainstorm topics for persuasive speeches, groups to craft a persuasive speech about one of the topics, and individuals to...
Infobased Learning
Bloom's Literature: How to Write about Nineteen Eighty Four
A good prompt is hard to find, especially ones that encourage application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation of a text. Help is here in the form of a prompt list for George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty Four that offers essay topics that...
Curated OER
Critiquing A Speech Contestant
What makes a speech effective? Middle schoolers critique a speech for content and presentation. They view a video of a middle school student presenting an informational speech, They outline the content of the speech and critique the...
Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian In Your Classroom: The Music in Poetry
Take poetry off the page and put it into terms of movement, physical space and, finally, music with this series of three lessons from the Smithsonian Institution. This resource introduces students to two poetic forms that originated as...
Curated OER
Narrative Writing Lesson
Sixth graders experience the stages of process writing, work cooperatively, to critique and to incorporate software tools to enhance writing and problem solving skills.
Curated OER
Children's Media and Censorship
High schoolers form opinions about children and television censorship after analyzing literature. They complete a journal writing activity to identify the topic and make a list of inappropriate television shows for children. Next, they...
Curated OER
Lesson: Allison Smith: What Are You Fighting For?
Trench art is a nontraditional art form created by soldiers in trenches during wartime. Artist Allison Smith connects her art to the American Revolution and the question: "What are you fighting for?" Kids examine her art, how it connects...
Curated OER
You Are What You Eat!
Young scholars create believable self-portraits incorporating selected food items as details, forms, and texturesThe compositional focus is a head-and-shoulders portrait appropriate to the food theme resulting in a humorous illustration....
Curated OER
Original Children's Books
Bring the fun and creativity of children's stories to your language arts class. Middle schoolers write, revise, and publish an original student book which incorporates the elements of a short story. They put their story in the form of a...
Curated OER
Passive Voice: English Project
Here’s a great idea: Have your class members create presentations about a grammar issue! “English Project” is a colorful, student-produced PowerPoint focused on passive voice. The presentation could be used as a lesson and as a model for...
Curated OER
Activity 3: Composing Personal Narratives
What was your most (exciting, maddening, nervous, thrilling, etc.) experience in school? A part of a unit on narrative writing, in this activity class members review the elements of the form and then choose an event when they learned a...
Curated OER
The World of Work: Job Applications
Students use online resources and activities to examine the vocabulary of a job application. In this job application lesson, students review and take sample online job readiness exams. Students read a publication about completing a job...
Prestwick House
A Separate Peace
John Knowles' A Separate Peace is the subject of a literary crossword puzzle that asks readers to identify key events and characters in this coming-of-age story.
Curated OER
Art History and Technique
Students conduct research, using a variety of resources, about their favorite painter and painting. They critique the famous painters work and write a multimedia presentation that showcases his/her work. They paint an original work of...
Curated OER
Mask Form - Mixed Media Collage Relief
Learners create a work of around around a theme of natures - or identity (using personal items). They create a relief sculpted face or mask, and write about works of art.
Curated OER
"I Have a Dream" Presentation Speeches
Learners write their own speech about their hopes and dreams and deliver it to the class. In this "I Have a Dream" lesson, students create a speech using the Martin Luther King, Jr. speech as a model and for inspiration. Learners...
Curated OER
The Surreal World
High schoolers explore the concept of Surrealism and how it can be expressed in various art forms. They next create a Surrealist collage, and engage in a Surrealist process to invent a title for their work. They critique a class...
Curated OER
Satire in Fiction
Twelfth graders identify satire in various fictional texts. In this language arts lesson, 12th graders will learn to define satire, parody, and caricature. Students will identify different forms of satire in historical and modern-day...