Curated OER
Ban That Book!
Take advantage of Banned Book Week to pique students' interest and get them reading! Create a classroom display of previously banned books and allow each member of your class to choose one to read. After they have read their book, get...
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Springfield Wiki Lesson - Literature Circles
Using a variety of novels about survival, such as Julie of the Wolves by Jean Craighead George, pupils create author's studies using wikis. First, learners are placed in groups to study a particular novel. Then, they create a page...
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Letters from Emily Dickinson: Letters and Poems
High schoolers analyze how Emily Dickinson perceived herself as a poet. Students read correspondence between Dickinson and her preceptor, Mr. Higginson to determine the depths of their relationship. High schoolers interpret several of...
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The Oedipus Plays Quiz
After reading Oedipus and Antigone, quiz your readers with these online, interactive questions. All questions are multiple choice, and they simply ask for information recall (as opposed to further analysis). Twenty-five questions are...
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A Fairy Tale By Any Other Name
Many classic tales, like "Cinderella," can be found worldwide. Bacis events are similar, but each retelling is molded by the culture in which it exists. Present your class with several version of tale (links provided) and have them...
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Rubrics for Assessing Student Writing, Listening, and Speaking Middle School
This is a fantastic collection of a wide variety of rubrics for writing, listening, and speaking! The resource contains over 14 rubrics for assessing such items as a summary, autobiographical sketch and narrative, speech, oral...
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???The Hell of Mirrors??? by Edogawa Rampo
Learners read and analyze the story "The Hell of Mirrors," by Edogawa Rampo. They watch a video excerpt, answer discussion questions, construct a periscope, complete handouts, define key vocabulary terms, take a quiz, and write a book...
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The Red Badge of Courage: A New Kind of Courage
Pupils examine how Stephen Crane treats the process by which a youth matures in his novel the Red Badge of Courage. They study how he exemplifies manly virtues associated with soldiers in war and examine the three endings that were...
Core Knowledge Foundation
Gulliver's Travels
Students read and analyze the book, Gulliver's Travels. They develop a reading folder, identify the main story elements, compare/contrast Gulliver's adventures in Lilliput and Brobdingnag, and write a paragraph about the main characters.
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LEAGUE: Learning to Give
Students explore the effects of human actions. In this respect and discrimination lesson, students read Thank You, Mr. Falker and identify the consequences of bullying and teasing. Students then relate personal experiences of hurt...
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Language Arts: Awesome Authors Website
Students examine the writing techniques of professional authors and apply them to their own work. In pairs, they email authors to discover the tricks of the trade. Students create their own Website for their work.
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More Songs from Shakespeare's Plays
If you teach a Shakespeare class, this online interactive quiz on songs from his plays may be fun for your class, though it has little educational merit. It requires familiarity with many of his works.
Echoes & Reflections
Contemporary Antisemitism
Despite the recognized atrocities of the Holocaust, anti-semitism continues. The 11th and final installment of the Teaching the Holocaust series explores the long-term effects of the Holocaust on modern anti-semitism, asking pupils to...
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Speech in the Virginia Convention
“. . .different men often see the same subject in different lights. . .” but the great orator Patrick Henry used all the skills at his command to craft a speech to convince listeners to see things as he did--that liberty was worth dying...
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Literary Analysis of Theme
Remember reading "The Lottery" and "The Possibility of Evil" by Shirley Jackson? Learners can experience and analyze the tension, themes, and human experience found in these pieces through reading and class discussion. They use...
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A Good Man is Hard to Find
Students, in groups, read and analyze the short story, A Good Man is Hard to Find, by Flannery O'Connor. They present their findings tot he rest of the class and then connect the various themes discussed to outside material, events...
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Word Roots NAT, TRACT, and SEQ Advanced Crossword Puzzle
A challenging activity that builds vocabulary as it tests knowledge of the word roots NAT, TRACT, and SEQ. This 12-clue crossword puzzle requires pupils to generate words that appropriately match the clues provided as well as contain the...
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Express Yourself Lesson Seed 10: Character Development
Make a study of Timothy and his development as a character over the course of the first half or so of The Cay. This idea focuses in particular on chapters 10 through 12. Learners start out by working on double-entry journals created in...
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Reporting on the 1920s
Use this roaring 1920s history lesson to have young writers research primary and secondary sources. They use their research to examine the events or famous public figures of the time period. Next, they imagine they're in the 1920s and...
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Heroic Vocabulary: Using Decoding Strategies and Thesaurus
Develop the decoding skills of your middle and high schoolers. Scholars participate in a classroom activity that requires them to decode a word with a prefix and suffix. They apply the skill of breaking the word into parts of meaning as...
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Genealogy Research
Learners explore history is not as a listing of dates, wars, and leaders but as the story of real people whose lives were impacted by the events of their time. They complete a pedigree chart and tape record a family member.
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For the Fun of It
Students view pictures of Amelia Earhart and discuss the social and historical context of her life. They read excerpts of Earhart's autobiography "The Fun of It" and analyze her purpose in writing it.
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Exploring the Continents Through the Arts
Students examine the continents and explore geographic components in the fifteen lessons of this unit. The location of the continents, the equator, the four major oceans, and the music, food, literature, dance, and drama from each of the...
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Shakespear Scavenger Hunt
Pupils use the internet to study basic biographical facts about Shakespeare in the form of an internet scavenger hunt. This activity is a great introduction to a Shakespearean unit of study.