Curated OER
Dictionary Detective
Build your class's dictionary skills with this fun game. The activity allows learners to better understand dictionary usage, spelling, and vocabulary. By the end of this activity, they should be skilled word finders.
Curated OER
Finding Captain Hook's Treasure
Students use their map-reading skills to find Captain Hook's treasure. They see how the directions on a map correspond with "real-life" directions, and that symbols on a map represent real things.
Curated OER
How to Refine, Narrow, or Broaden a Topic Worksheet
Guide your writers in the pre-writing stage of a research project. Print this sheet to help each writer select an appropriate research topic. They practice narrowing and broadening two different options provided. A natural follow-up...
Curated OER
Putting It Together in Writer's Workshop
This instructional activity about writing can be taught in small groups or large group settings. They examine basic writing techniques and practice using them to improve their writing.
Curated OER
Photographic Memories
Explore how photographs can represent a whole story to a viewer. Middle schoolers work on narrative writing techniques in this lesson, focusing on photographs from the New York Times to write first-person descriptive narratives....
Film English
If At First You Don't Succeed
When faced with a challenge, how do your pupils respond? Starting with character analyses, learners participate in a lesson about appearances and perseverance. They watch a short film, talk about common English expressions, and write a...
Curated OER
Past Simple
Hop on the computers for this fun past simple practice! First, users match eight pictures to their written descriptions. Then, they study some irregular verb rules, and finally, they use two models to describe six pictures. A great...
Curated OER
The Man Who Went to the Far Side of the Moon
Practice comprehension skills using the story, The Man Who Went to the Far Side of the Moon by Bea Uusma Schyffert. Learners answer questions, fill out graphic organizers, and engage in extension activities involving writing and...
Museum of Tolerance
Creating an Ideal World
To conclude a study of social justice and tolerance designed to prepare classes for a visit to the Museum of Tolerance, class members brainstorm a safe and peaceful world. They then write about their own vision of this world.
Visa
A Perfect Fit: Finding the Right Career for You
Class members explore possible career paths and consider their own passions and interests by researching job openings, career descriptions, and skills, as well as reading the success stories of experienced entrepreneurs.
Perkins School for the Blind
I'm Thinking Of...
Learning how to describe an object or a person is a great way to develop verbal and written expression. Learners with special needs improve their verbal expressive skills and concept development skills while playing a guessing game. The...
Curated OER
“THE LORAX” by Dr. Seuss
Few children's books convey the message of conservation as well as Dr. Seuss' The Lorax. Read the story aloud, emphasizing the interconnectedness of plants and animals in an ecosystem and discussing different ways people can help...
Curated OER
Amos and Boris: Text Study
Twenty insightful questions follow a read aloud of the story, Amos and Boris by William Steig. Scholars then show what they know through completion of a cause and effect chart, reading fluency assessment, and a written...
Balanced Assessment
Time Line
Use a graph to tell a story! Given a graph, young scientists create a story to match. They must provide their own axes labels and description of the scenario. The graph has increasing, decreasing, and constant sections.
C-SPAN
Presidential Debate Analysis
The modern presidency is defined by the development of television—including the use of televised debates in the campaign. Using debates going back to the first one between John F. Kennedy and Richard Nixon, young scholars evaluate...
C-SPAN
Should States Shift to Mail-In Voting during the Coronavirus Pandemic?
With the coronavirus pausing many norms in American society, officials are trying to decide how to safely hold voting in the 2020 presidential election. Using curated video clips, including speeches from Congress, journalists, and...
Star Wars in the Classroom
"Shakespeare and Star Wars": Lesson Plan Day 6
How can a screenplay create meaning and drama in ways that other forms of writing cannot? That is the question class members must answer as they compare the cantina scene of the screenplay for George Lucas's Star Wars: A New Hope...
Reed Novel Studies
Fourth Grade Rats: Novel Study
Things sure change in year's time. Suds, from Fourth Grade Rats, went from a third grade angel to a fourth grade rat! Although he is not necessarily happy with his new self, he worries he will lose his popularity. Learners complete...
Curated OER
Native American Literature
Introduce your class to the writing of the indigenous Americans and, even more well known, their story telling. An engaging presentation describes what kinds of texts would be included in the oral stories performed and some common...
University of Chicago
Comparing Modern and Ancient Ideas of Ethnicity and Identity
Explore ethnicity and identity with a research and writing assignment. Class members conduct online research, looking in particular at images and carefully noting down their sources on notecards. They read about identity and compose...
Childnet International
Self Esteem
To middle schoolers, there's nothing worse than being excluded from a peer group. Developing important self-esteem skills can not only get them through awkward adolescent times, it can carry them through the rest of their lives as...
Reed Novel Studies
Lion: A Long Way Home: Novel Study
Home is where the heart is. Saroo, a main character in Lion: A Long Way Home, desperately wants to be home. However, he is lost in a train station and has no way to contact family or get back to his home. Scholars learn new vocabulary,...
EngageNY
Grade 12 ELA Module 1, Unit 3, Lesson 3
Working in pairs, class members use the provided narrative writing rubric to assess the effectiveness of dialogue, pacing, and description in two model paragraphs with similar content. Writers then use the insights they have gained from...
Alabama Wildlife Federation
Water Words
Water is an interesting substance that all living things need to survive. Learners focus on the characteristics of water as they create a list of words related to water and then incorporate them into descriptive paragraphs. They then use...