Curated OER
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas: Graphic Organizer: Venn Diagram
Compare and contrast the characters in John Boyne's The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Using a Venn diagram, kids write in different traits to describe each person, and note their shared characteristics in the middle section.
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Lesson Plan 7: The Elements of Story
Budding novelists work on character development by relating to the characters in their stories. They imagine their own hopes and dreams and recall those of characters from books they've read. Learners also consider struggles the...
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Washington Irving in Context
Students examine the various roles Washington Irving had in his lifetime. Examining the situation in Europe and the United States, they are encouraged to relate Irving's experiences to different events. They examine themselves in many...
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Author's Influence Project
Eleventh graders use technology as a tool to research authors of literature being studied. Then students use a presentation program to make final presentations. This lesson allows them to create an understanding of the context related to...
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Sleuthing A Writer's Skills
Students read The Train Ride Home by Robin Solomon. For this literature response lesson, students will inspect the writing of Solomon to determine how she established a certain tone through her word choice and...
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The Interactive Read-Aloud
Youngsters participate in interactive read alouds about immigration.As they listen to teacher-chosen books that highlight the concept of immigration, they will be provided with opportunities to interact. They can respond to the...
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Vocabulary Development
Learners utilize various vocabulary strategies. They use vocabulary logs to record strategies they have been taught, such as the Frayer Model (definition, picture, examples, non-examples), writing their own definitions, and using...
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America in Film and Fiction
High schoolers begin the lesson by reading a book on film study. After watching the movie "Citizen Kane", they work together to identify the issues concerning the United States before World War II. As a class, they discuss how the...
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Discovering American Identity through Writings and Paintings, 1800-1845
Tenth graders view paintings to determine the identity of the United States in a specific time period. As a class, they listen to their teacher give the title of the painting and they write a prediction about what the painting might be....
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Academy Awards for Books
Students are exposed to literature and create an Academy award for their piece of literature. They play an author or a character and present themselves, a category, and each of the nominees in that category to gain awareness of...
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Writing Traits Instruction
Students assess and critique a wide variety of writing samples for each of the traits of writing strands from literature, composition writing, reading and assessment tools. They create and design a descriptive definition piece of writing...
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Book Illustrations and Their Illustrators as Artists-4-6
Students construct relationships between written narratives and book illustrations, and between the narratives in formal visual art and the subject of the visual art. The use of picture book literature provide a context for the lesson.
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Pigs: Facts And Fun
Students complete a unit on pigs. They take a field trip to the fair and zoo, watch the video of "Charlotte's Web," create a poster, read and analyze "The Three Little Pigs," write a storybook, participate in a reader's theater, and make...
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Honoring the Past
Students explore the beginnings of the United States and the freedoms we enjoy. They discover important events, people, monuments in Washington, D.C., and its history. Students investigate ways to honor and remember important people and...
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Speaking for the Trees
Students present a play based on The Lorax.In this environmental issues lesson, students read and discuss literature and complete activities pertaining to environmental stewardship.
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Just-Us and Kindness: A Voice for Children: King Day
Eighth graders investigate philanthropy. In this service learning lesson plan, 8th graders read human rights literature and use information gleaned to discuss children's rights around the world. Students discuss scenarios meant to prompt...
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The People and Philosophy Behind Our National Parks: A Biographical Curriculum Unit
Students discover the interaction of American Literature, politics and the environmental movement. They explore the changing concept and philosophy of wilderness, and explain the development of The National Park System. They read...
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Teaching Responsibility to Children in Different Cultures through Film and Literature Stories
Students review the notes they took for "The Little Prince". After identifying the instances of responsibility in the text, they discuss them with others in English. As a class, they watch parts of "Children of Heaven" and write down...
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Abuela's Weave Teacher's Guide
Students read and response to the book, Abuela's Weave. In this African-American literature lesson, students discuss pre-reading questions, that focus on family traditions and make predictions about the text. Students read the text and...
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Arthur: The Once And Future King
Middle and high schoolers work in groups to research tales of King Arthur, using primary sources. They present the major themes and symbols from these stories, and discuss how they still relevant in today's world. Use this lesson to...
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Constructing Narrative from the Migrant Experience in Literature
Excerpts from John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath and from John Fante's Ask the Dust, as well as a variety of primary source documents provide the background for an examination of the migrant experience from 1920-1945.
Star Wars in the Classroom
"Shakespeare and Star Wars": Lesson Plan Day 4
Class members have an opportunity to compare how a film and a play handle the same source material by viewing the opening chapters of George Lucas's Star Wars: A New Hope and acts I and II of Ian Doescher's play, William...
Newspaper in Education
The Iliad: A Young Reader Adventure
Is The Iliad part of your curriculum? Check out a resource that offers something for those new to teaching the classic and those with lots of experience using Homer's epic. Plot summaries, discussion questions, activities abound in...
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Slide-Tape Dramatization as a Way of Teaching Literature
Learners select one song and write the lyrics on the blackboard. They segment the lyrics into meaningful phrases or sentences and visualize each unit of meaning to convey the message of the song. They select a different song and act out...