Achievement Strategies
ACT College Readiness Standards
Here is a template offering a comprehensive outline of ACT skill categories, what standards are expected to be mastered, and blank spaces for you to include how you plan to address those standards within your curriculum.
Museum of Tolerance
Making Lemonade: Responding to Oppression in Empowering Ways
An activity focused on tolerance encourages class members to consider how they might respond when they or someone else is the target of oppression and discrimination. After researching how some key figures responded to the...
Curated OER
The Metamorphosis: Problematic Situation
Are you enjoying the use of all five senses? Imagine that you have to lose one of them; you can choose which one, but it's gone forever. Work through a lesson based on Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis that asks class...
Scholastic
Final Project: The Earth, Inside Earth
Follow in Jules Verne's footsteps and take a journey to the center of the earth! Middle schoolers work together to design a trip inside the earth using their knowledge from the previous lessons in the unit.
Core Knowledge Foundation
Genetics and the Master Race
How did the beginnings of genetic research influence the Nazi party? A thorough, engaging unit incorporates the work of Gregor Mendel, the study of inherited traits, and the use of racism and discrimination during the Holocaust.
Baruch College Writing Center
Summarizing, Paraphrasing, and Quoting Workshop
What's the difference between summarizing and paraphrasing? Show class members how to find the main ideas from informational text and condense it, restate it, or quote it directly with a series of educational activities based...
Curated OER
Peer Editing
Students write a well-organized persuasive essay which contains a thesis, supporting evidence, and uses at least one of the three persuasive appeals. They evaluate a peer's essay for correct use of the above elements.
Curated OER
Defining Character Traits
Students read and analyze an extended definition in preparation for writing an extended definition of a CHARACTER TRAIT. They use analogy as a definition strategy to tailor writing to a particular audience. Finally, students SHARE...
Curated OER
WH AT' S Y O U R A M B I T I O N?
Students read and analyze an excerpt from Life on the Mississippi by Mark Twain. Students use the Six Traits of Writing to compose an essay on a personal life ambition that each students may have. Students use prewriting strategies and...
Curated OER
Conventions and Proofreading
Students explore and apply their proofreading skills in order to prepare their project essays for peer editing and final drafting. They refine their final project essays by identifying and correcting spelling and grammatical errors.
Curated OER
Thesis Statements
High schoolers explain the purpose of a thesis statement in an academic essay. They identify the two components of a basic thesis statement. Students identify, create and correct thesis statements.
Curated OER
My Spanish Christmas
Tenth graders research Spanish Christmas customs on the interent and role play in their writing their findings in an essay. They teacher provides a list of web addresses for the students to locate information on and from that their...
Curated OER
Up Close and Personal with Black Bayou Lake
Students get up close and personal with Black Bayou Lake. Visiting web sites and taking virtual tours, they write multi-paragraph essays using descriptive words and literary devices.
Curated OER
From Graphic Organizer to Comparison
Fifth graders brainstorm a variety of topics for writing. As a class, learners create four types of graphic organizers on selected topics. They discuss how to use graphic organizer in constructing a written paragraph.
Curated OER
Shifting Gears
In this activity, students will write a personal narrative that is designed to help them reflect on the nature and meaning of change in their lives.
Curated OER
Exploring Color Vocabulary
Students explore color terms and related meanings and metaphors in cultural and literary contexts. They use the main colors to explore synonymous color terms and related metaphorical meanings of color words. Students recognize the...
Curated OER
States Research Project
Eighth graders create an in-depth research report on a state. They conduct Internet research, write a comparison essay about New York State and their assigned state, create a 3-dimensional map, and develop a Powerpoint presentation.
Curated OER
Inventors
Learners brainstorm a list of inventions that have affected their lives. In groups, they use the internet to research a specific inventor and their invention. They use the information to write two paragraphs and share their information...
Curated OER
Bunnicula
Students create a dictionary of vocabulary after reading a story. Individually, they create a story web making sure to include all of the basic story elements. They also create a timeline and write a book report of all important events.
Curated OER
An Exploration of Automotive Design
students research varied aspects of car design, and create a new design for the exterior body of a car. Students conduct Internet research, respond to writing prompts, and analyze, evaluate and synthesize information from multiple...
Curated OER
Truth, Trash and Treasure
Students examine how people can make a difference in the world. They read and analyze excerpts from a novel, discuss song lyrics, clean up a local park, and write an essay.
Curated OER
What is reconciliation?
Tenth graders practice using empathy with an enemy. In this Current Events lesson, 10th graders prepare possible peace plans for Bosnia after the war. Students write a report on Nelson Mandela's use of reconciliation in South...
Curated OER
The Memory Play in American Drama
Learners take a closer look at a memory play. In this American drama lesson, students read Tennessee Williams's The Glass Menagerie and analyze it as a memory play. Learners discuss the linear and non-linear aspects of the play prior to...
Curated OER
Breaking Free From Conformity: A study in modern day Transcendentalism
Students begin with a journal entry on the topic "Why does Ralph Waldo Emerson advocate self-reliance?" They listen to Gavin Degraw's "I Want to Be." Students write their interpretation of the song. Students write an essay about Liars...