Meadows Center for Preventing Educational Risk, University of Texas at Austin
Lesson 7 - Letter Combinations
Individually, letters have their own sounds, but when combined with other letters, those sounds completely change. Introduce letter combinations with a lesson that asks learners to search for combinations in familiar words and use oral...
Library Sparks
Reference Tools Vocabulary Challenge
Learners love the opportunity of going to the library to jump into that one comfy chair in the whole room with a book, or be a lucky one to get to the computers before anyone else. But knowing how to locate books and other reference...
Curated OER
Ben Franklin's Game
A reading of What's The Big Idea, Ben Franklin? provides an opportunity for class members to practice paraphrasing, quoting, and citing sources. An exercise on how to avoid plagiarizing is also included.
Arts Midwest
The Joy Luck Club: Culture and History
Explore San Francisco's Chinatown in a lesson about the first few chapters of The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan. Kids research Chinatown on the Internet and create a virtual tour of the neighborhood, including the foods, cultural events,...
Curated OER
Writing Prompts for High School
Here’s a great teacher resource - thirty-five writing prompts designed for high school writers. Categories include cause and effect, definition, expository/informative, persuasive, how to, descriptive, narrative, biographical narrative,...
Curated OER
Rave Reviews
A fun lesson that utilizes toys and persuasion! After reading the article, which was written in 2005, pull some advertisements for toys currently being sold. These will be more relevant to your middle and high schoolers. What toy is a...
Curated OER
We of the Sea: Tribal Native American Stories
A video featuring members of Oregon’s Astoria Native American fishing community launches a study of the oral tradition of poetry, and how traditions are passed down within different cultures. Activities, assessments, extensions and...
National Education Association
Read Across America Classroom Activity Guide
Celebrate the legendary Dr. Seuss on Read Across America Day with a plethora of activities set to five stories—The Cat in the Hat, The Lorax, Horton Hears a Who, Oh, the Places You'll Go!, and Green Eggs and Ham. Activities...
Curated OER
Painter of the Caves
What a great lesson! Learners read a story called Painters of the Caves by Patricia Lauber which discusses Stone Age wall paintings in Avignon, France. There is a series of discussion questions, comprehension questions, and a graphic...
Curated OER
Roberto Clemente
Have your class explore the life of Roberto Clemente using this lesson. After reading the story Roberto Clemente by Jonah Winter, learners answer cause and effect questions, classify ideas, make comparisons, and write a news article.
Curated OER
Pens, Paper and ... Cellphones?
Students consider the benefits that so-called disruptive technology can have in the classroom, then design class activities that feature such technology prominently. They write essays responding (as students) to their classmates'...
Curated OER
"Take my Advice": Poems with a Voice
Discuss the meaning of the phrase tone of voice with the class. They respond to a variety of scenarios where a particular tone would be prevalent. They then read "Mother to Son" without knowing the title and answer some questions about...
Curated OER
Wisdom of the Ages
Students reflect on the different stages of life that humans pass through. They challenge common sense assumptions and critically engage media representations of people at different ages. They determine that media have embedded values...
Curated OER
The Olympic Games
Young scholars research the history of the Olympics and the various countries that have hosted the games. They obtain information about some of the sports featured in the Olympics. Students then create a brochure using Microsoft Publisher.
Curated OER
Game Plans
Students consider the online game Neopets as a springboard to developing the characters, settings and plots for online fantasy games. They draft technical plans that describe how their games be presented and played on the We
Curated OER
Make a Harry Potter Board Game
Learners, in groups, make a Harry Potter Board Game. They explore how to write inference and recall questions.
Curated OER
Storybuilding Games
Learners are encouraged to use their powers of observatios to create a tale. They play the storytelling Circle Game. Students allow the youngest player to pick out four things they can see outside the window. They start the game once...
Curated OER
American Sign Language Poster
In this American sign language worksheet, students learn the alphabet by analyzing this poster that has each letter with a picture of the hand in the correct position. There are no questions to answer.
Curated OER
Verbal Cues
Help young learners practice drawing conclusions and using reasoning through this simple game idea. The teacher places a mystery object in a bag and learners must ask yes/no questions until they guess what it is correctly. As...
Curated OER
Fishing for Friends
Students design a creative fishing game in which they measure pieces, sculpt a pond scene and write details about themselves. They seek out new friends by playing a game to discover other students with similar interests and hobbies to...
Curated OER
Making More Words With "at"
Learners explore phonetics by identifying words with one specific sound. In this rhyming words lesson, students discuss the sound "at" and the many words that contain the same sound. Learners utilize index cards to participate in a word...
Curated OER
Reintroduce /a/
What does the letter a sound like? Scholars practice with letter sound correspondence by honing their pronunciation of the /aaa/ sound. Use these helpful tips to explain how to make this sound if needed. Then, they brainstorm...
Curated OER
Good Sport
Playing a simple game of catch, and empathizing with someone who drops the bean bag, is the basis for a game on being a good sport. In it, learners engage in a class discussion about winning and losing. It's always easy to win, but not...