Curated OER
Writing Myths I
Explain a natural phenomenon in an original myth. After researching the phenomenon they have chosen, young readers use factual information to include in their myth. They find synonyms and new phrases to create vivid images as they...
Curated OER
Character in a Box
Partners choose, research, and analyze fictional or historical characters and design character life boxes to represent them. They also compose a rhyme royal, which they understand inductively by deconstructing examples. Based largely on...
Curated OER
Be "Sun-sible" about Heating Water
Learners create a solar water heater. In this solar energy lesson, students conduct an experiment to determine which colors absorb more radiant heat. Learners investigate the relationship of heat loss to insulation. Students then create...
Curated OER
Snack Smart!
Students discover healthy snacks. In this healthy snacks instructional activity, students create a healthy snack. Students sample a simple healthy snack.
Curated OER
Editing Marks, Part 1
Dander from the show Twisted Whiskers and characters from My Little Pony are featured in this three part lesson that explores using story pyramids to scaffold ideas, adding sensory details to enrich writing, and editing using common...
Curated OER
ELD Lesson Plan: Courage
What is true courage? Your class can explore the answer with these three Houghton-Mifflin stories ("Hatchet," "Passage to Freedom," "Climb or Die," and "The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle"), which feature courageous characters and...
Brigham Young University
Flipped: Problematic Situations
An activity based on the young adult novel Flipped, groups work to make the same difficult decision a character in the novel faces. Each group is given the same scenario about caring for a mentally disabled brother personally...
Curated OER
Letter Fans (Can Customize)
Create a set of letter fans for your learners based on the letters or blended sounds that you're working on in your class. The printable allows you to customize the particular letters on the fan, making the activity applicable to any...
Museum of Disability
Taking Down Syndrome to School
Teach your class about the ways they can befriend and understand people who are different from them with a reading comprehension instructional activity. As youngsters read Taking Down Syndrome to School by Jenna Glatzer,...
California Education Partners
Glass Menagerie
As a reading comprehension assessment, ninth graders are asked to use evidence drawn from The Glass Menagerie to support an analysis of how Tennessee Williams uses specific lines to develop Amanda's character as well as her...
Boston University
South African Short Stories: Apartheid, Civil Rights, and You
How are short stories from South Africa connected to issues of civil rights in the United States? A unit plan uses South African short stories to discuss issues such as apartheid, colonization, and civil rights. Questions and activities...
Curated OER
Storytelling of the Four Tribes of Nevada
Learners work in groups to identify the major characters and events found in a Nevada Native American folklore story. Each of the groups takes on the role of a different tribe, and they are given a story from that tribe's oral history....
Curated OER
"Spelldown" by Becky Mushko
Learners read Spelldown, by Becky Mushko and consider how it portrays the Appalachian community. They define and discuss vocabulary presented in the story and write a comparison/contrast paper analyzing two of the story's characters. The...
Curated OER
Counting Up/Down Stories
Mirroring Jerry Spinelli's style in Wringer, chapter 5, pupils use the "counting up/down technique" to recall an important moment in their lives. In the book, the character is being punched, and between blows he remembers details...
Curated OER
Pre-AP Strategies for French Language and Culture
Build vocabulary, fluency and confidence in your French speakers by having them participate in some of these engaging activities. Several suggestions are given, but you will have to design the actual lesson yourself.
Curated OER
Candide: Problematic Situation
"Would a rational and well-regulated world include human suffering?" "If the plight of human suffering is the 'best of all possible worlds' do humans have freewill?" Class members develop their position on an issue raised by Candide,...
Curated OER
Paradise Lost: Problem Situation
Let your class voice their opinions with a group debate activity. Before reading John Milton's Paradise Lost, they work in small groups in assigned roles to form a position about authority and rebellion, comparing a...
EngageNY
Summarizing Notes: Planning a Graphic Novelette Part 1: The Invention of Television
What's the story? Learners create the first of four storyboards about the invention of the television, incorporating narrative techniques and descriptive details. Next, they offer and receive feedback by participating in a peer critique...
Penguin Books
A Teacher's Guide to the Signet Classic Edition of William Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing
With all due respect to Beatrice, Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing speaks with both mirth and matter. With the help of this guide, readers will fall in love with the "skirmish of wit" between Beatrice and Benedick, the hysterical...
Curated OER
Reading Stories in Art
Learners study how artists tell stories using visual images by identifying and comparing elements of narrative (setting, characters, and plot) in a painting and a Greek vase.
Curated OER
Soap Opera Unit of Work: KS4
Students view an episode of "Eastenders." They look at how the programme is structured in terms of individual scenes. Students view the opening of the soap and the significane of the theme music. They look at the characters and trace the...
Curated OER
Mapping Shakespeare
Twelfth graders read a Shakespearean play focusing on a character. They create "Mind Maps" of their characters and act out a selection of the play.
Curated OER
Animation
Students explore the field of animation to describe characters and express opinions. They view pictures of cartoon characters, clips of British animation, and read about the making of Valiant. They design their own cartoon character...
Curated OER
The Sorcerers Shown
Young scholars consider the different genres of literary and movie characters. For this character types lesson, students brainstorm character genres from books and movies. Young scholars read the article 'Which Wizard Beats 'Em All?' and...