Curated OER
To the Beat of a Different Drum
Students describe the sounds, moods and styles of two different types of music. After reading an article, they discover how a journalist uses language to describe and give feelings to the music. They review a type of music of interest...
Curated OER
Birds of a Feather Flock to the Web
Students define the term "evolution" and relate it to species adaptation, supporting their ideas with examples. They locate, correctly cite, and briefly review two Web sites with information on finches commonly found in their state or count
Curated OER
Costs of Living
Students consider the effects of rising oil and natural gas prices on family spending and saving habits. They design a board game intended to help people save.
Curated OER
Separation of Church and Class?
Students examine the changing socioeconomic status of the evangelical Christian population in the United States. They discuss the relationship between class and religion in American society.
Curated OER
Counting on the Havoc of Hurricanes
Students define and classify all the different ways in which numbers are used in forecasting and coping with the effects of a hurricane. They conduct research to compare and contrast these numbers as they apply to Hurricane Floyd and
Curated OER
Carnival of Carnivores
Students research different species of meat-eating animals in their natural environments to create a Carnival of Carnivores exhibit for their classroom.
Curated OER
The Spirits of Toys Past, Present and Future
Students explore the evolution of toys and explore how the toy industry has adapted their products in response to advances in technology and changing customer expectations.
Curated OER
The Art of Adaptation
Students examine and discuss animal adaptation. They read an article about snakes, conduct research on ways animals adapt, develop a diagram, and write a short story written from the perspective of the animal they researched.
Curated OER
Ghosts of Holidays Past
Students write in their journals to analyze the use of nostalgia. After reading an article, they identify aspects that are universal for holidays. They describe and examine their own memories of a specific holiday and interview someone...
Curated OER
Fan(tom) of the Opera
Students explore the ways in which the worlds of popular music and opera can work together to complement the other. They work in small groups to analyze plot, characters, setting and themes of a popular opera using a summary of that...
Curated OER
Stellar Discoveries That Are Out of This World
Learners hear of the recent discovery of a group of planets orbiting the star Upsilon Andromedae. Each student create a page about an element of the universe,
Curated OER
Answering the Call of the Wild
Students explore wildlife conservation by investigating the reintroduction of species into their natural habitats and species near extinction. They create a poster and a position paper that explains the importance of preserving this...
Really Good Stuff
Really Good Bulletin Boards
It can be difficult to have the creative energy to think up bulletin board displays after a full day of teaching. Every teacher will want to take a look at this document, which outlines tips for creating fabulous classroom...
Poetry4kids
Forced Rhymes and How to Avoid Them
Ready to take your poetry writing to the next level? Use an independent lesson to iron out all those forced rhymes, wrenched rhymes, and near rhymes from first-draft poems.
American Press Institute
Media Literacy: Where News Comes From
What actually happens at a press conference? Make sense of the mayhem with a mock press conference activity designed to promote media literacy. Individuals participate as either members of the press or the governor's office to examine...
Curated OER
The Ugly Truth about Hate
Students investigate examples of hate crimes and their causes by participating in a round-table discussion. They also write a personal essay describing their personal views on the subject and describing a plan for putting their views...
Curated OER
E-tiquette
Students develop appropriate ways to communicate via e-mail. They evaluate examples of inappropriate e-mails and create preferable alternatives.
Curated OER
Political Puzzles
Students investigate how different liberal democracies around the world organize their governments and decide major policies. They compare their findings to the American political system, using examples of current political issues.
Curated OER
Gotta Dance
Students share dance moves that reflect their personalities or depict how they are feeling, explore popularity of recreational and competitive social dancing by reading and discussing the article "Follow the Flying Feet,"
present...
Curated OER
Current Contexts
Young scholars examine how they are affected by world affairs. After reading an article, they examine Otto Frank's attempts to immigrate to America. Using the New York Times, they identify examples of news, advertisements and...
Curated OER
It's in the Cards
Young scholars discover how art auctions have become competitive after reading an article from The New York Times. Students voice their opinions about specific examples of modern art and create trading cards based on their research of...
Curated OER
Curious Crossbreeds
Students discover the diverse roles of hybridization among animals. They research certain examples of animal hybrids as a springboard to analyzing a zoo's potential exhibit of animal hybrids.
Curated OER
The Cutting Edge
Young writers examine the writings of Raymond Carver to investigate editing skills. They will develop original sentences. Then read the work of Raymond Carver to edit and analyze the ending. They revise and ending of their original...
Curated OER
Sense, Sensibility and Sentences: Examining and Writing Memorable Lines
Involve your readers in finding works of literary genius. Have each individual write down compelling sentences that they read or hear, whether in a newspaper, advertisement, book, movie, song, or any other place! Once each person has a...