Curated OER
The Catcher in the Rye: Chapters 21-23
After answering comprehension questions (good for a homework reading check), class members analyze "Comin' Thro the Rye," and using the included guidance questions, discuss Holden's misreading of Robert Burns' poem. The URL to text of...
Curated OER
My Antonia: Anticipation Guide
Making predictions is an important skill that experienced readers tap into when tackling a difficult text. Prepare your pupils to read My Antonia by Willa Cather with an initial prediction activity and this anticipation guide, which...
Curated OER
Bud, Not Buddy: Anticipation Guide
Hoover flags? Hoover blankets? Hoovervilles? Drawing upon prior knowledge of the Great Depression class members respond to the prompts on an anticipation guide for Bud, Not Buddy, Christopher Paul Curtis’s tale of Bud Caldwell’s quest to...
Curated OER
Fever 1793: Anticipation Guide
Introduce the themes of Fever 1793 and determine your class members’ level of background knowledge with an anticipation guide for Laurie Halse Anderson’s novel about the yellow fever epidemic that swept Philadelphia. For each prompt,...
Curated OER
Guided Reading Lesson Plan
The learners will be invoived in a guided reading exercise. The lesson is performed in a small group setting. The monitoring of reading is done by the teacher and scaffolding can also be provided as necessary.
Curated OER
Things Fall Apart Reading Guide
Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart can present challenges even for experienced readers. Here’s a schedule and corresponding guide that will help readers focus on and record important events. The packet includes fact-based, interpretative,...
Curated OER
Main Idea in Informational Text
Readers identify main ideas and supporting details using informational texts. For this literacy lesson, they make predictions and read the text to find the main ideas. They use a table diagram to define the main idea and supporting...
Council for Economic Education
Morality in Markets: The Two Faces of Adam Smith
Economist Adam Smith supported free enterprise, he but critiqued mercantilism. These two ideas—seemingly contradictory—may be difficult for some young historians to grasp. A reading that explores these ideas guides scholars in unraveling...
Curated OER
What Am I Missing?
Discuss nutrition and identify components of a healthy diet, view a Food Guide Pyramid, and create a Personal Food Pyramid, listing all foods eaten in the past 24 hours. Compare food lists with the standard Food Guide and determine where...
PBS
Stories of Painkiller Addiction: Learning About Opioids
Feeling high is not the only side effect of abusing prescription opioids. Middle and high schoolers learn more about specific painkillers, including Fentanyl, Oxycodone, and Clonazepam, as well as their common brand names and extensive...
Serendip
Using Models to Understand Photosynthesis
Is your class in the dark about photosynthesis? Shed some sunlight on an important biological process with a thoughtful activity. After answering questions to help determine their level of knowledge, learners work with chemical equations...
Curated OER
Travel Tips! A Guide for Smoother Field Trips
Suggestions for making your next field trip successful, rather than stressful.
Curated OER
What Makes a Good Law?
Why were laws created? Spark a group discussion on why we need laws to co-exist. Should the sale of some things be outlawed on Sundays? Read a case summary between Target and the state of Minnesota that debated this issue. Ask your...
Curated OER
Mississippi Trial, 1955: Pre-reading Strategy
Pink and Say, a picture book by Patricia Polacco, and an anticipation guide, set the stage for a reading of Mississippi Trial, 1955, Chris Crowe's novel based on the true story of the murder of Emmett Till. Instructional routines, the...
Curated OER
Unlocking New Words: Partner Presentations
Following extensive modeling about how to apply word analysis and vocabulary skills to learn new words, partner teams create brief word presentations to teach new vocabulary to the class. Preselect words from upcoming social studies,...
Curated OER
Lesson 7: Smart Grids
Energy conservation is a hot topic these days; introduce your kids to the Smart Grid solution through a video clip and several interactive online tools. They discuss areas of household energy consumption, examining a pie chart...
Curated OER
Get a Half-Life Student Worksheet
Young scientists use a learning exercise to help them perform a lab on the decay of a radioactive element. The learning exercise serves as both a task guide and a lab sheet for pairs of learners. This activity requires a calculator and...
Core Knowledge Foundation
Maya, Aztec, and Inca Civilizations
A 10-lesson unit explores the Maya, Aztec, and Inca civilizations. Over the course of two weeks, scholars read nonfiction excerpts, discuss their findings, and complete activities. An assessment equipped with multiple choice and matching...
Core Knowledge Foundation
Early World Civilizations Tell It Again!™ Read-Aloud Anthology
Ancient world civilizations are the focus of a read-aloud anthology. First graders explore the early world of Mesopotamia, Babylon, the sphinx, and pyramids, get to know people of the Nile, Hatshepsut, and Tutankhamun, and examine world...
Chicago Botanic Garden
Preparing for Project BudBurst
Male deer growing antlers to begin the breeding season is an example of a phenological event. First in a four-part series is an activity requiring individuals to collect phenological data on their campus. Classes discuss phenology, the...
Avi Writer
The Cross of Lead, At the Edge of the World, and The End of Time
A fan of Ari's Crispin trilogy? Here is a packet that contains study guides for all three Crispin novels: The Cross of Lead, At the Edge of the World, and The End of Time.
Minnesota Courts
Inside Straight: the Third Branch
Learners use the worksheet as they view the film Inside Straight: the Third Branch. Multiple case studies and the history of the judicial branch of the US government are included via hyperlink and act as the topics of discussion...
Anti-Defamation League
What Is Culture?
Explore the complexity of culture with this rich and comprehensive lesson plan, which will prompt your learners to think critically and respectfully discuss our current definitions of culture, and how those definitions might...
Denver Art Museum
Alien Beauty
"Beauty is in the eye of the beholder," is a popular phrase in our society. The instructional activity here puts the phrase to the test as pupils explore what truly is beautiful through a study of some Japanese folk art. A careful...