NPR
Can You Beat Cognitive Bias?
In a time of fake news, media manipulation, and Internet trolls, a resource equips learners with the tools they need to recognize and combat resources that are designed to appeal to our cognitive biases. Introduce learners to five...
K20 LEARN
It’s Raining Whats and Whats? Colloquial Language
"Yuns betta outten the lights!" Colloquial language is the focus of a lesson that asks middle schoolers to consider the pros and cons of using idioms. They read articles, match expressions with their meaning and place of origin, and...
Curated OER
Creating Civic Awareness Through Artistic and Literary Forms
Interpret current events using editorial cartoons and other print media. Middle schoolers explore the meanings of literary and artistic terms such as satire, irony, and caricature. They visit internet sites to develop an understanding of...
Curated OER
Language Arts: Scavenger Word Hunt
Participate in a scavenger hunt to find objects beginning with a particular letter sound and take digital photos of them with your scholars. Using software, they find word pictures beginning with particular letters and locate picture...
Curated OER
Meta-Cognitive Reading
Students define the term "meta-cognitive" and explain its significance to reading strategy. They speak aloud the thoughts that pass through their minds as they are reading and write down thoughts that come to their minds while reading.
Curated OER
The Language of Deception
Students examine how to distinguish between different uses of language. They explore the difference between the cognitive meaning and the emotional meanings of a word. Each student evaluates the effects of euphemism in altering the...
Curated OER
Center Stage—Focus on Poverty
Students explore the concept of philanthropy. In this service learning lesson, students examine stereotypes and discrimination based on socio-economic status. Students prepare to work with people of diverse backgrounds in service...
Curated OER
Understanding and Supporting Our Peers with Cognitive Challenges
Students explore different federal laws promoting the education for the handicapped. In this literacy lesson, students brainstorm how they can help individual with Down syndrome. They read a fiction book related to the topic and discuss...
Perkins School for the Blind
What Would You Do If...?
What would you do if...? That's a great question, and, when posed to learners with visual impairments, a question that can foster concept development and speaking and problem-solving skills that relate to real-life situations. The...
Perkins School for the Blind
Which One is the Square?
Children who are blind need to constantly be engaged in building conceptual understandings of the world around them. This activity will help them grasp the concept of shape, identify shapes, and consider shapes as they are used to...
Curated OER
On The Day You Were Born
Students engage in a study about the holiday of a birthday with the help of using children's literature. They make cognitive connections of using the characters of the book and relating them to the personal celebration of a birthday.
Curated OER
The Language of Deception
Learners explore informative, expressive, directive and performative languages and discuss examples of each. In groups, students research the types of languages, their effectiveness in communicating truth, needs and desires. Learners...
Perkins School for the Blind
Learning Names of Articles of Clothing
What to wear today; such a vexing question. Spend some time introducing the names, fabrics, types, colors, and functions of various articles of clothing to your class. Each child will take turns asking each other what they are wearing....
MENSA Education & Research Foundation
Quotation Station: Using Quotes in the Classroom
An informative list compiled with quotes, authors, and discussion questions, along with 20 out-of-the-box application ideas, make up the collection of lessons geared to spark dialogue and creative thinking about quotations.
Perkins School for the Blind
Learning to Identify Sounds Made by the Body
Sneeze, snap, tap, and whistle; Did I do that? Explore the parts and sounds of the human body with your learners with visual impairments. First you'll name the parts of the body, make a sound with each part, and then have the class guess...
Curated OER
An Exciting New Year
Students look back on last year, so that they are able to plan ahead for a new year. In this early childhood language arts lesson, students use verbal and cognitive skills to discuss what they did the previous year and what their...
Curated OER
The Physiological and Psychological Development of the Adolescent
Students examine the life of a teenager from their own perspective and an adult's. In groups, they focus on the biological changes and how they are different in a girl and a boy. Individually, they write a paper about these changes and...
Curated OER
Taking Care of a Baby
Caring for a newborn is harder than it looks! Elementary pupils learn more about taking care of babies with an age-appropriate lesson that addresses how babies grow inside their mothers, what they need to grow, and how members of the...
Curated OER
Oral Language
Students explore rhyming words. In this rhyming lesson, students discuss rhyming words, brainstorm words that end with 'at,' read poems with rhyming words and create their own rhyming books.
Curated OER
Leadership: Communicating With Your Peers
Young scholars explore communication by using non-verbal cues. In this body language lesson, students utilize blindfolds to communicate with classmates through words only, then use only physical actions to communicate and compare the...
Curated OER
Parrot in the Oven: Word Tree - Bonsai or Banyan
What fun! As part of a vocabulary exercise designed for Victor Martinez's Parrot in the Oven: Mi Vida readers create word trees with the trunk representing the root word and the branches representing prefixes that can be added to the...
Curated OER
Lesson Plan: Before and After a Moment in Time
Think about a moment, frozen in time. Now take a critical look at the painting, Better, Homes, Better Gardens. This painting works to provide learners the opportunity to analyze art, critique artist's choices, and write a story inspired...
Down Syndrome Possibilities
Down Syndrome: Lesson Plan
You don't usually find lessons written just for learners with Down syndrome, so this is a true jewel. Kindergartners will explore farm animal sounds and identification as they sing the song, "Down on Grandpa's Farm." They sing the song,...
Curated OER
Dance: Water Dancing
Examine the way water moves, drips, and splashes with an expressive dance. Learners discuss the ways in which water moves, then create dance sequences that show or describe water. There are several suggestions to adapt this lesson to...