Mississippi Whole School Initiative
Dream Big...With Your Eyes Wide Open
For many people, Barack Obama's presidency was the next step in Martin Luther King, Jr's dream of America's future. Explore the dreams of Americans past and present, as well as the young Americans in your class, with a set of activities...
Curated OER
Analyzing Atmosphere: Macbeth Murder Scene and Dagger Speech
Shakespeare's Macbeth (Act II, Scenes I and II) lacks explicit details of the murder of King Duncan, yet the author creates an atmosphere that allows us to visualize the event. Readers interpret the "Dagger Speech" by writing stage...
Carnegie Library
Creative Writing: Middle School Lesson Plan
Enhance a unit on historical fiction with an engaging writing lesson. Learners bring the Industrial Era to life as they compose their own historical fiction pieces based on primary source images of Pittsburgh steel workers.
ReadWriteThink
Designing Museum Exhibits for The Grapes of Wrath: A Multigenre Project
Challenge readers of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath to create a museum exhibit that uses artifacts to focus on one issue raised by the award winning story of the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, and the Joads.
Curated OER
Fairy Tales Unit Ideas
Students listen to children's fairy tales and watch them on a video. Afterward, they list the heroes from each story. Students write a short paragraph about a typical day for the hero. Students dress up like their character and give a...
Curated OER
Introducing Literary Elements in Fiction
Identify literary elements in fiction. In this reading comprehension lesson, learners read the book Pigsty and record literary elements onto a graphic organizer. They specifically discuss the main characters and events in the text.
Curated OER
Respect for Animals
Students discuss importance of acting responsibly when caring for pets, reflect upon quote, "All Living Beings Have the Right to Respect and Kindness," read story Anastasia Wants a Rabbit and answer comprehension questions, role play...
Curated OER
It's All Part of the Story
Students explore storytelling through pantomime, improvisation, and dramatization. They watch an online video, discuss Native American earth stories, role-play various situations, explore websites, and present an oral story to the class.
Curated OER
Poetic Analysis
Young scholars write a poetic analysis on a poem by Carl Sandburg. They take their previous knowledge of poetic devices and apply them to a piece of writing that displays their knowledge on a specific poem. They explain what they know...
Curated OER
Poetry Writing
Students compose a piece of poetry modeled after the poetry of Carl Sandburg and share their poem(s) with their colleagues. They use a cluster diagram to organize their thoughts and brainstorm their ideas.
Pennsylvania Department of Education
Analyzing Literary Elements in Fiction
Students analyze the characters and events in fictional writing. In this literary elements lesson, students study the meaning of the words characterization and fiction. They listen to the story Pigsty by Mark Teague, or any other book...
Curated OER
Ben Franklin's Inventions
Learners discover the life of Benjamin Franklin by studying his inventions. In this biography lesson, students identify the inventions of Benjamin Franklin and their impact on society today. Learners create a commercial in an attempt...
Curated OER
Reality Check
Students evaluate different types of reality television programming in "focus groups" and then submit their opinions on this type of programming to a television network.
Curated OER
"War of the Worlds": A Broadcast Re-Creation
Why did Orson Welles' 1938 Broadcast of a adaptation of H.G. Wells' The War of the Worlds cause such a panic? To answer this question, class members listen to the original broadcast and research the panic that resulted. They then engage...
Curated OER
First Grade, First Grade, What Do You See?
First graders read the book "Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What do you see?" by Bill Martin, Jr. and work cooperatively to create an online book about their geographic region. Books can be posted on the internet with other books from around...
Curated OER
Rosie's Walk
Students explore the prepositions across, around, over, past, through, and under using the book "Rosie's Walk." They listen to the book, role-play the different actions of Rosie the hen, create a class book, generate a list of words...
Curated OER
Universal Love
Students discuss the importance of various cultures getting along with one another. Individually, they think of a time in which they helped someone who was worse off then them and share it with the class. To end the lesson, they...
Curated OER
Honesty
Students brainstorm what it means to be honest and responsible. In groups, they share experiences from their own lives when they knew something was happening that was wrong. To end the lesson, they participate in a variety of role...
Curated OER
Fearlessness and Confidence
Students develop confidence to face up to problems and fears in order to deal with them safely. They recognize that family and friends should care for each other. Students go through a series of activities that they interact with,...
Curated OER
Respect
Students brainstorm what they believe having respect for someone else means. Individually, they share their own experiences about a time they felt respected and a time they did not. To end the instructional activity, they participate...
Curated OER
Making the Movie Antigone
Students create a movie prospectus for Antigone being faithful to the major themes and conflict. They include the plot, setting, characters, and conflict while making them relevant to contemporary audiences.
Curated OER
Patience and Self Discipline
Students think about the importance of patience and self discipline in obtaining the things in life that will make us happy. Students complete various activities that get them thinking to themself, working in small groups about keeping...
Curated OER
Honesty
Students listen to the story, "The Mangoes." They answer and discuss a given set of questions then volunteer to share an experience of when they told the truth and what it felt like. Students perform a skit to reinact the story, "The...
Curated OER
Sharing, caring
Students hear the story, "The Sand Castle" and answer a given set of questions. They discuss their answers and then perform a skit of the story, "The Sand Castle." Students practice and sing a new song about sharing and caring.