Curated Video
Creating an Introduction for an Informational Text
In this video, the teacher explains how to create an effective introduction for an informational text. They emphasize the importance of hooking the reader with a compelling question, providing a brief answer, and then giving a preview of...
Curated Video
Creating a Strong Opening for an Informational Text
In this video, the teacher explains how to create a strong opening for an informational text. The key is to hook the reader with an interesting question and then provide a clear answer that tells them what they will learn.
Curated Video
Engaging with the opening chapter of 'The Iron Man'
Pupil outcome: I can engage with the opening chapter of ‘The Iron Man’. Key learning points: - ‘The Iron Man’ is a contemporary science fiction novel written by the author Ted Hughes. - Science fiction is a genre of fiction that involves...
Curated Video
Creating an Engaging Opening and Thesis for Your Opinion or Persuasive Essay
In this video, the teacher explains how to make the reader interested in reading an opinion or persuasive essay by writing a strong opening and thesis. They discuss the importance of combining a hook with a thesis statement to make the...
Curated Video
Concluding an Informational Text: Creating Memorable Endings
In this video, the teacher guides students on how to effectively conclude an informational text by asking themselves what they want readers to remember. They emphasize the importance of avoiding a dull conclusion and instead ending with...
Curated Video
Creating Strong Endings: How to Leave the Audience with Strong Feelings
In this video lesson, the teacher guides students on how to create strong endings for their narratives by effectively conveying their emotions. The teacher explains the five steps of the writing process and provides a specific example of...
Curated Video
How to Conclude an Informational Text: Ensuring Lasting Impact
In this video, the teacher guides students on how to effectively conclude an informational text. They emphasize the importance of leaving readers with interesting information and tying the conclusion back to the introduction. The teacher...
Lisa's Study Guides
Burial Rites | Essay topics with Lisa Tran
Time for Burial Rites essay question, brainstorm and breakdown! Written by Hannah Kent, Burial Rites allows readers to join Agnes in her final moments before her life sentence. This essay topic focuses on the patriarchy, so in my story...
Brainwaves Video Anthology
Molefi Kete Asante - Teachers Make a Difference
Dr. Molefi Kete Asante is Professor and Chair, Department of African American Studies at Temple University. Considered by his peers to be one of the most distinguished contemporary scholars, Asante has published 77 books, among the most...
Brainwaves Video Anthology
Jane Chikapa - Teaching in the Global Pandemic - Malawi
Jane Chikapa is a top fifty Global Teacher Prize finalist. Jane teaches English in a secondary school located on the edge of Lake Malawi – an area where many people value working in the fishing business over the pursuit of education....
Wonderscape
Magnetic Storage: How Computers Use Magnets
Dive into the fascinating world of magnetic data storage! Learn how computers and phones use tiny magnets to store vast amounts of information. Discover through simple experiments why strong magnets can disrupt electronic devices and...
TED-Ed
Why Should You Read Tolstoy's "War and Peace"?
The famous length of Leo Tolstoy's War and Peace — 15 books and 365 chapters — presents a real challenge for many readers and their teachers. So why bother? Use a short video that argues for a reading of an unabridged...
TED-Ed
Why Should You Read "Don Quixote"?
What value could there possibly be in a story about a man who sets out to fight windmills? Turns out, quite a bit! A video and interactive lesson about the novel Don Quixote sets out to explain the answer to the question. Viewers track...
TED-Ed
Why Should You Read Edgar Allan Poe?
Edgar Allen Poe's writing goes far beyond the familiarity of "The Raven" and "The Tell-Tale Heart." An intriguing video lesson explores the work, history, and style of the famous Gothic writer. Animations engage viewers in the video, and...
PBS
American Masters Gatsby Chases the American Dream
What's so great about Gatsby? A teaching guide asks readers to consider whether Gatsby's quest represents the embodiment of the American Dream or a reflection of the American nightmare, a green light, or a valley of ashes.
TED-Ed
Why Should You Read Flannery O’Connor?
There is more to literature of the American South than Civil War battles and Scarlett O'Hara. A short video introduces viewers to the works of Flannery O'Connor and her world of unique characters that causes readers to consider the dark...
TED-Ed
The Myth of Cupid and Psyche
What does it mean to love? Is true love possible? Transformative? The myth of Cupid and Psyche asks readers to ponder these questions as does a short video that retells the classic tale.
Curated OER
Mining Literature for Deeper Meanings
Literature teachers often ask their classes to find the big ideas in a text, but how does a writer do this successfully? Show the video to give your pupils some steps to keep in mind while they read and analyze. The narrator encourages...
PBS
The Importance of Chicano Representation in Bless Me, Ultima
The best books either enable readers to see themselves, their culture, and their way of life reflected in the story or to gain an understanding of a way of life different from their own. Rudolfo Anaya's Bless Me, Ultima is such a book....
PBS
Louisa May Alcott | Transcendentalism
Readers may not immediately think of transcendentalism when they consider Little Women, but its tenets of self-reliance, civil disobedience, and progressivism were major influences on Louisa May Alcott and her body of work. Learn more...
PBS
One Hundred Years of Solitude | The Great American Read
One Hundred Years of Solitude introduces readers to magic realism. Told in a series of flashbacks and flash-forwards, Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Nobel Prize-winning novel is a candidate for The Great American Read program and aficionados...
TED-Ed
How Misused Modifiers Can Hurt Your Writing
Misplaced modifiers are a common grammar error, but can your learners identify when a modifier can interfere with a reader's understanding? Watch a short and entertaining video from Ted Ed that illustrates misplaced modifiers, as well as...
TED-Ed
When to Use "Me", "Myself" and "I"
Clarify your kids' writing with a video about pronouns, specifically me, myself, and I. As kids watch the short video, they see cute robots demonstrate the proper use of each pronoun, as well as the definitions of...
TED-Ed
Why Should You Read "Macbeth"?
All is fair in motivating readers. And something wickedly wonderful comes from using a short introductory video to double readers' enjoyment of Shakespeare's tragedy about the ambitious Thane of Glamis. It is a tale told by a genius.