K20 LEARN
No Imitations, Please! Avoiding Plagiarism
With all the stuff available online, good essays are just a click away. But talk about tracking! Writers beware! New tech can now identify plagiarism, and the consequences of presenting someone else's work as your own are severe. Here's...
Federal Reserve Bank
Constitutionality of a Central Bank
Considering the expressed and implied powers of Congress, was it constitutional for the United States to establish the Second National Bank in the early nineteenth century? What is the constitutionality of the Federal Reserve...
Curated OER
Express Yourself Lesson Seed 15: Theme
Build understanding of theme with an activity designed for The Cay and the Common Core. Small groups or pairs use graphic organizers to determine themes, find and record related details from the text, and formulate theme statements. In...
K12 Reader
Coyote: The Survivor of North America
Coyotes in Chicago? Yip. Middle schoolers demonstrate their ability to identify details that support the idea that coyotes are adaptable creatures.
EngageNY
TASC Transition Curriculum: Workshop 15
What do a cheetah, Audi commercial, and air have in common? They're all topics of an engaging inquiry-based, hands-on workshop for educators about background knowledge, reading strategies, the CER model, and argumentative writing. The...
Judicial Branch of California
Public Service Announcement: Civic Responsibility
Get your message across. Scholars use their prior knowledge and artistic skills to create public service announcements. The project is designed to explain the importance of civic harmony and the responsibility of all citizens to...
Curated OER
Ben Franklin's Game
A reading of What's The Big Idea, Ben Franklin? provides an opportunity for class members to practice paraphrasing, quoting, and citing sources. An exercise on how to avoid plagiarizing is also included.
Curated OER
After: A Study of Individual Rights
Use the dystopian novel After by Francine Prose to spark discussion about individual and student rights. Learners read the novel, evaluating how far a school can go to control its attendees. As they read, scholars...
Curated OER
The Kite Runner: What is Afghanistan Like Today?
After completing Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner, readers research a topic of interest and prepare a five-minute presentation, and share their findings with the class.
Northwest Career & Technical Academy Foundation
What's Mine Isn't (Necessarily) Yours
When we use images or ideas from the Internet, we might be infringing on someone's rights. Give your class the opportunity to understand copyright and creator's rights as they evaluate fair and legal use of media found online. As they...
Curated OER
Gathering Statistics for Research
Young scholars gather statistics to include in their research. In this statistics instructional activity, students investigate how to incorporate statistics into research and other readings besides math. They collect data based on other...
Curated OER
Historical Interview Project
Students practice effectively interviewing a subject and then use that interview to create a movie.
Anti-Defamation League
“They Don’t Know Me”: Exposing the Myths and Establishing the Facts about Immigration
Middle schoolers engage in a lesson that teaches them to distinguish myths from facts about United States immigration. Class members take an immigration quiz, watch a "What Would You do" video, and discuss how they could be an ally to...
Curated OER
Comprehension-Note Taking Skills to Supprt Opinions and Panel Discussion
Fifth graders examine note taking skills in order to support opinions. In this language arts lesson, 5th graders read several newpaper articles and discuss a current issue. Students explore how to paraphrase so as not to commit plagiarism.
Curated OER
Historical Interview Project
Students interview a subject about important historical events in his or her lifetime and create an iMovie of the experience. Era-related data is imported into the project from a variety of sources and presented to the rest of the class.
C3 Teachers
Celebrity Social Responsibility: Does Celebrity Require Social Responsibility?
Is much required of those to whom much is given? That's the central question asked of middle schoolers in this lesson. Scholars consider the actions of Tommie Smith and John Carlos, Colin Kaepernick, Lady Gaga, and others who have taken...
Curated OER
Express Yourself Lesson Seed 8: Character
Characters often change over the course of a story or novel. Use the sample graphic organizer provided here to track how the narrator has responded to the sequence of events in chapter four through six of The Cay. In addition to this...
Curated OER
“Self Reliance” Questions
Is consistency foolish? Or is “foolish consistency . . . the hobgoblin of little minds”? Ralph Waldo Emerson’s “Self Reliance” provides readers with an opportunity to reflect on their own musing about being self-reliant and about...
Curated OER
Express Yourself Lesson Seed 17: Obituary
The Cay has been criticized by groups such as the Council on Interracial Books for Children because of the way race is portrayed. Explore the argument against the book while taking the author's perspective into account. Class members...
Curated OER
Workers leaving Pennsylvania shipyards, Beaumont, Texas
In this primary source analysis activity, students analyze an image of workers leaving the Pennsylvania shipyards in Texas. Students respond to 1 short answer question based on the provided source.
Curated OER
A Midwestern Runaway Remembers the CCC (with text supports)
In this Civilian Conservation Corps learning exercise, students read a narrative from a member of the corps and then respond to 3 short answer questions based on the narrative.
Curated OER
A Bracero Enters the United States
In this primary source analysis instructional activity, learners analyze an interview with a bracero who entered the U.S. as an illegal worker and then became a bracero. Students respond to 3 short answer questions based on the interview.
Curated OER
A Ride for Liberty
In this American Civil War worksheet, students examine a Eastman Johnson painting titled "A Ride for Liberty," and then respond to 2 short answer questions based on their analysis of the painting.
Curated OER
A Bracero Protests Low Pay and Discrimination
In this primary source analysis worksheet, students analyze an interview with a bracero. Students respond to 3 short answer questions based on the interview.