Virginia Department of Education
Writing Counterarguments
This activity is better utilized as a peer-editing exercise and not as an activity on how to write counterarguments. Writers take their argumentative rough drafts, peer edit in groups of four, and review the author on common essay...
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Review of Literary Devices
Sixth graders review literary devices. They use both fiction and nonfiction texts to review metaphor, simile, alliteration, imagery, symbolism and personification. This instructional activity has a scripted guide for the teacher to follow.
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Food Labels in the Classroom
Students study the nutritional information on food labels and become familiar with the basic dietary needs of the human body. They write letters to food companies.
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Geomnemonics: Facilitating the Teaching of Social Studies Content with Geography Skills
Students explore how to draw a world map by hand and how to locate countries.
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Give Credit Where Credit is Due
Middle schoolers explain what plagiarism is, why it is a problem, and how to avoid it. They articulate why it is unacceptable in a research document, and they show how to avoid it by using proper citation tools. They demonstrate correct...
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History of Political Parties in the U. S.
Twelfth graders name some of the parties in the political system of the United States. They identify the two main parties along with key information, issues, events, elections and/or people for each system. They then break into groups...
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A Document-Based Essay on Korean Social Change
Learners interpret historical evidence presented in primary resources. In this Korean history lesson, students examine the provided information on life in Korea. Learners respond to the questions that accompany each source. Students then...
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Individuality: India Arie Music Video
Students examine individuality. In this music video lesson, students listen to music by India Arie to determine how music shapes our ideas of what normal is as well as how music is a form of poetry. Activities are related to...
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Video Boxes
Young scholars create a video box about a Central American country. In this world history lesson, student research Central America and pick a country they want to investigate. They work in groups to create a video box that shows images...
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Flight Formation: The V's Have It!
Read, revisit, and reflect. Older elementary learners summarize main idea 6using key details. They consider the V formation that birds fly in, summarize an informational text, and write critical thinking questions.
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Enemy Pie
Third graders pair up with a partner via an online classroom. They analyze half of the story "Enemy Pie" and communicate with their online peer to predict the outcome of the story.
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Animals
Students become familiar with the need for categorizing scientific information, in this case, animals. They categorize the 5 groups of animals in a collage and answer questions about each.
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Decision Making
Students, in groups, explore different ways to solve problems. They identify positive and negative consequences and make a group decision.
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Developing Relationships with Older People
Young scholars read books and view movies about older people. They write a questionnaire to interview older people at a retirement center, interview the people, record their information on graphs, and write follow-up letters.
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The Importance of Imports
Students explore world trade by examining items they find at home and listing countries those items came from. Data is displayed on a map and charted according to continent. They discuss how products are transported.
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Some Houses Are Made of Straw, Wood, or Brick: But... This House is Made of Mud...
First graders read and discuss several stories. They share information about different types of shelter around the world. They explain that lifestyles and shelter depend very much on where people live and how they use the resources...
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Our Environment
Students examine the world's environmental dilemmas and create project depicting how to improve the environment. They study ten endangered species.
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Tango Stories
Students listen to tango music and research the country it came from. In this music instructional activity, students find that tango music comes from Argentina. They listen and dance to the music and then write stories.
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Mariachi Mania
Students play the beats of mariachi music. In this mariachi lesson plan, students listen to mariachi music and discuss why music is important.
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As the Kids Come and Go: Mapping a Classroom
Map the classroom with your kids to help them understand how maps work and how to read them. The lesson starts off with a story about animals living and moving around the globe, and then kids create maps of their classroom to show how...
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Express Yourself Lesson Seed 10: Character Development
Make a study of Timothy and his development as a character over the course of the first half or so of The Cay. This idea focuses in particular on chapters 10 through 12. Learners start out by working on double-entry journals created in...
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Do You Really Know What Wealth Is?
Students explore what it means to have wealth in Mali and in the United States. In this economics lesson plan, students read "Music in the Fields." Student groups answer discussion questions. Students reflect on the purpose music...
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Hunt the Fact Monster
In this Fact Monster search engine worksheet, students access the Internet to a specific search engine to find the answers to five questions with multiple choice answers.
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Hunt the Fact Monster
In this Fact Monster search engine activity, students access the Internet to a specific website to find the answers to five questions with multiple choice answers.