Writing Educators Symposium
Asking the Right Questions
It can be difficult to find the theme of a book or story if you don't know the questions to ask. Teach your kids to discern the universal theme in works of literature with a set of activities that promote critical thinking and...
NASA
Introduction to Astronomy
Welcome to your new job as an astrophysicist, astrobiologist, engineer, or research scientist at NASA. Your job is to search for alien life in our solar system! Throughout a unit of activities, learners search the galaxy through...
Media Smarts
Violence on Film: The Ratings Game
Learn about film and TV ratings systems in Canada (includes a comparison to the MPAA system) and how they influence appropriate viewing for youths. A detailed commentary about the film Seven pointed at revealing flaws in ratings systems...
PBS
Voting Rights History
Why is voting so important, anyway? Learn more about the importance of exercising a right for which many men and women marched, fought, and legislated with an interactive timeline activity.
Constitutional Rights Foundation
Understanding Fake News
Fake or fact? Learners must decide while looking at two published "news" stories. A reading about why fake news exists and a checklist on how to evaluate sources rounds out the activity.
Penguin Books
The Omnivore’s Dilemma, Young Readers Edition
As the saying goes, you are what you eat. A useful set of lesson plans encourage young readers to take a second look at their eating habits. Pre- and post-reading questions bring in reflective writing and discussion while extension...
US House of Representatives
Recent Trends Among Women in Congress, 1977–2006
After reading the contextual essay, "Assembling, Amplifying, and Ascending: Recent Trends Among Women in Congress 1977–2006," groups select a female senator or representative and research her background and contributions.
All About Explorers
How Could They Be so Wrong?
If it's on the Internet, it must be true ... right? Introduce young Internet explorers to the importance of fact-checking through a fun web-based activity. Pairs work together to read and analyze biographies about world explorers, then...
Common Core Sheets
Placing Events on a Timeline
Put important events in chronological order with a lesson about timelines. With a variety of topics stemming from world history, the packet of worksheets provides analytical activity for learners to decide where certain events fall...
Simon & Schuster
Classroom Activities for Ethan Frome by Edith Wharton
Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome is the focus of an 11-page packet that includes three lesson plans, three worksheets, and a homework assignment. The first lesson introduces readers to the historical context of the novel. At the same time,...
Simon & Schuster
Classroom Activities for Canterbury Tales by Geoffrey Chaucer
Three lessons based on "The Wife of Bath's Prologue" from Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales offer scholars an opportunity to examine literary satire, medieval attitudes towards women, and the form and function of a frame story.
University of Kansas
Newspaper in the Classroom
Newspapers aren't only for reading—they're for learning skills, too! A journalism unit provides three lessons each for primary, intermediate, and secondary grades. Lessons include objectives, materials, vocabulary, and procedure, and...
Conneticut Department of Education
Instructional Strategies That Facilitate Learning Across Content Areas
Imagine 28 instructional strategies, appropriate for all subject areas and all grade levels. Directed Reading-Thinking Activities (DRTA), Question-Answer Relationship (QAR) activities, KWL charts, comparison matrixes, classification...
Curated OER
My First Biography: Christopher Columbus Storia Teaching Guide | Scholastic.com
Sail with Christopher Columbus on a biographical reading adventure. Young explorers learn about the life of Sir Columbus as they hone their comprehension skills through guiding questions, shared reading, and fluency practice. Included in...
Odell Education
Making Evidence-Based Claims: Grade 6
In order to make evidence-based claims, one must be able to draw explicit information from text. From here, learners take that information, analyze the text to develop a deeper understanding, and connect with the information in order to...
Curated OER
Cloze Word Story
Fifth graders complete a cloze word story test. In this listening skills instructional activity, 5th graders listen to a story and follow along with their own copy. Students listen to the story a second time and fill in the missing words...
Curated OER
The Kite Runner: Four Corners
To generate interest in some of the major issues in Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner, class members engage in a four corners activity that asks them or agree or disagree with a series of statements and provide reasons for their...
Council for Economic Education
Morality in Markets: The Two Faces of Adam Smith
Economist Adam Smith supported free enterprise, he but critiqued mercantilism. These two ideas—seemingly contradictory—may be difficult for some young historians to grasp. A reading that explores these ideas guides scholars in unraveling...
Curated OER
Paradise Lost: Anticipation Guide
To set the stage for reading Paradise Lost, class members compete an anticipation guide containing statements that connect to themes in Milton's epic poem.
Curated OER
A Critical Role
Students read a New York Times review of the Museum of the African Diaspora in San Francisco. They discuss the roles and responsibilities of a cultural critic, and prepare for a visit to a local museum in order to write their own reviews.
Curated OER
To Fight Or Not To Fight: a Debate About Violence Encourages Critical Thinking Skills
Students read article about student violence, discuss why it happens, and explore non-violent options.
Curated OER
Reading and Thinking About Evolution
Students are given a science reading assignment outside the text followed by a discussion on the content. The reading is augmented with a series of thought questions for students to consider prior to class discussion. They direst the...
Curated OER
Let's Get Critical!
Young scholars write a letter to a classmate recommending a favorite book and brainstorm ways in which a person would encourage others to read a book, focusing on specific elements of novels.
Curated OER
Reading the newspaper
Students read articles related to local, state, national, and world events using word maps.