The New York Times
Anatomy of a Scene
Casting, setting, context, frame, camera angle, lighting, soundtrack. Every choice a writer or director makes is conscious. Here's a worksheet that asks readers/viewers to examine these choices and consider how they are used to to...
Curated OER
Campaign Trailblazers
Explore the backgrounds, qualifications, and platforms of the presidential candidates for the 2000 election. Though the lesson is outdated, the activities within the informational text could be good practice for your young learners as...
Curated OER
Second Sun
Explore the elements of newspaper from the view of the front page. Young analysts create a front page of a newspaper geared toward teen readers. They use their inference skills to determine why some front pages are more eye-catching than...
Curated OER
Rockefeller's Revenge: Exxon and Mobil Unite
Study the impact and possible outcomes of the Exxon-Mobil merger in your language arts, social studies, or economics class. Secondary learners evaluate a series of graphs, write a paragraph interpreting the data, and engage in class...
Curated OER
"Golden" Years?
The Golden Years? Upper graders may think retirement is a long way off, but in life everything is just around the corner. They consider what it means to retire and the current trend of parents working for their Students. They research...
Curated OER
Where Were Your Ancestors in 1871?
Here is a nicely designed lesson plan on ancestry and family history. In it, learners read an article entitled, "Where Were Your Ancestors in 1871?" Then, they make up a series of questions to profile their family and their community 100...
Curated OER
Hot, Hot, Hot, Cold
Learners dance the image of falling snow. They move, swing, fall, and rise to music working to depict snow falling, the sun, and high/low movements. This is a well-thought out lesson that aids them in seeing movement as a form of...
Curated OER
Writing Classroom Agreements using Inspiration & Word to Go
How can you foster a thoughtful learning community for your class? First, the class brainstorms a list of behaviors that will help make the classroom a great place to learn. Then learners group similar ideas together and come up with...
Curated OER
Teaching Appositives
Explore appositives, phrases that immediately follow the noun they modify, using sentence strips, examples, and collaborative learning. The class works together to identify appositives and use commas to properly punctuate them. Partners...
Curated OER
It's a Matter of Opinion
Dissect the parts of an advertisement with your class. Middle schoolers discuss advertisements and locate the hook in them. Then, they create an advertisement for a business, in which they include the name of the business, an...
Curated OER
Mapmaker, Make Me a Map!
Here is a well-designed, very thorough lesson plan on mapping for very young children. Within the six-page plan, you will find everything you need to implement the lesson plan. They will identify various landforms found in Colorado on a...
Curated OER
Lesson Plan 17: Novel, Take 2
It's all about using peer resources in this writing process lesson, which includes a fantastic novel revision worksheet packet. Learners have read a partner's story draft the night before, and groups have a "lightning round of...
Curated OER
Equipment Ad
Students create a one-minute advertisement for a piece of sports safety equipment. They define the terms ad, advertisement, and commercial and demonstrate creative-thinking and creative-writing skills.
Curated OER
The Tell-Tale Hearts of Writers
Knock, knock, knock...Creep out your class with a critical thinking lesson focused on word relationships in Edgar Allen Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart." They investigate the relationship between word choice, mood, and interpretation of...
Curated OER
Navajo Pottery: Beautiful Objects
Young potters make their very own version of the classic Navajo Pottery. With helpful worksheets and applicable cross-curricular activities, the lesson is an enriching way to mold both your clay and the multicultural...
Curated OER
Mystery Lessons
Learn about mysteries with your readers. They will investigate plot, basic elements of mystery, famous characters, and become familiar with genre vocabulary. Bring in props and mystery books to begin and then have learners create story...
Curated OER
The Cowboy Life
Travel back in time to the 1800s and research the Old West! Elementary and middle schoolers work with a partner to complete at least four activities from a list provided by the teacher. They use these activities to present their...
Education Outside
Divine Dumplings
In a lesson that combines cooking, language arts, and social studies, learners create a delicious plate of dumplings for everyone to enjoy. After an initial discussion in the opening circle, pupils go to the cooking station and work...
EngageNY
Synthesizing Research: How Colonists Were Interdependent
Following the formative assessment of this unit, young scholars present the information they gathered on their specific colonial trade to the rest of the class. Working in groups, learners create posters describing the particular job...
TED-Ed
From Aaliyah to Jay-Z: Captured Moments in Hip-hop History
To take "the definitive portrait of that person in that moment" is the quest of photographer and hip-hop historian Jonathan Mannion. In this short video, Mannion details his dedication to his art and the process he goes through to catch...
Curated OER
Important Arkansas People
Famous people in the history of Arkansas are the focus of a history instructional activity for kindergartners. Pupils identify important Arkansas citizens, such as President Bill Clinton. They create an illustrated poem that features...
Curated OER
Write with Writers
Write and work with authors on the Scholastic Website to promote the recognition of various genres. Young writers will participate in activities based on the type of writing such as biography, descriptive, folktales, mystery, news,...
Curated OER
The Little Red Hen
Young readers access prior knowledge of how wheat becomes bread. Using "The Little Red Hen" story, learners make predictions of the events. Extension activities include singing a song about the story and making a list of...
Curated OER
Characterization
A 46-slide presentation focuses on ways to describe characters in stories, how to create story characters, and how to show a character's personality in a student-created story. The colorful and engaging slides provide lots of great ideas...