Jackson Public Schools
Summer Reading Activities
Provide parents with the tools they need to bridge the summer learning gap with this collection of fun activities. Whether it's creating an alphabet poster with illustrations for each letter, playing a game of sight word concentration,...
Newspaper Association of America
Citizens Together: You and Your Newspaper
Not all news in a newspaper comes in the form of a traditional article; photographs, charts, and even editorial cartoons help spread important information, too. A civics-based unit describes the parts of the newspaper as tools for...
Curated OER
Stating Your Case: Writing Thesis Statements Effectively
As a writer, if you have a weak introductory paragraph or thesis statement, you might lose your audience! Have your middle and high schoolers practice writing introductory paragraphs that include clear thesis statements in response to...
Eye On Education
I Say Tomato, You Say To-Mah-To
Turn your junior high talkers into effective arguers. Introduce these budding lawyers to skills that show how to support a claim, decide what clear reason is, and how to use evidence to support an argument. Time is scheduled for class...
Maryland Department of Education
The Concept of Diversity in World Literature Lesson 4: Proverbs
"Eneke the bird says since men have learnt to shoot without missing, he has learnt to fly without perching." As part of their study of Things Fall Apart, class members read Paul Hernadi and Francis Steen's essay, "The Tropical Landscapes...
Curated OER
Marketing to Teens: Parody Ads
High schoolers deconstruct advertising messages by analyzing parody ads and exploring the purpose of satire. Then they create their own parodies based on real ads discussed in class. A creative activity to extend any study of media,...
Curated OER
Arkansas Photographs as Research Tools
Middle and high schoolers look at historical photos and written materials, and they develop questions which they use to interview an elder in their community. Learners are divided into groups and given sets of historical family photos...
Curated OER
Hamlet's State of Mind
Analyze various excerpts from Hamlet and read articles to develop an argument about his sanity. Middle and high schoolers write an argument essay defending whether or not they believe Hamlet is insane. You could modify this assignment...
Curated OER
The Outsiders
Are you working on an Outsiders unit? Use this list of activities to deepen your middle schoolers' understanding of the novel. After reading S.E. Hinton's novel, young readers work on three required activities, including participating in...
Curated OER
Homemade Holidays
Foster your high schoolers' creativity - and generosity - with this writing lesson. After reading the article "Homemade Holiday Gifts" by Frances Janisch (from the GALE Student Resource Center - Gold), pupils meet in groups to brainstorm...
Curated OER
The Heart of Your Paper: 11 Methods for Writing a Topic Sentence (or a Thesis Statement)
Help your young writers produce high-quality topic and thesis statements that go beyond basic wording and really illustrate complex ideas and critical thinking skills. From however and compound sentence statements to using...
Schoolwires
12th Grade Expository Reading and Writing Research Project
The beauty in this resource is the lengthy list of highly charged, controversial-issue research topics. Categories include issues of race, politics, law, environment, education, athletics, gender, and technology. After selecting a topic,...
Rio Salado College
Prewriting Strategies Worksheet
Prepare for any writing assignment with a series of prewriting activities. The resource includes instruction sheets, graphic organizers for brainstormng, and sample writing prompts.
Activated Story Theatre
Orpheus- A Greek Myth: Reader's Theatre Script
Is this any way to treat a Greek Myth? By all means, turn the tale of Orpheus into a reader's theatre exercise.
Novelinks
Zach’s Lie: Multi-Genre Writing Assignment
How do people solve problems in healthy ways? Writers explore a topic of interest in their multi-genre writing assignment exploring Zach's Lie. The final resource in a series of seven includes multiple scaffolds and organizers for...
Folger Shakespeare Library
Essential Everyday Bravery
Shakespeare's plays may be old, but they still have relevant lessons for today's world! A collection of lesson plans uses examples from The Merchant of Venice and District Merchants to teach about bravery. In addition to learning...
Curated OER
Animal Testing
Animal testing: cruel and inhumane, or innovative and life-saving? Scholars explore the topic and form their own opinions with help from the highly informative website. Pupils read a comprehensive overview of the topic, including...
Curated OER
Reading Comprehension: "Fried"
Prepare your high schoolers for upcoming testing with this reading comprehension practice! Learners will read the passage entitled "Fried," and then they will answer the questions that follow. Most questions focus on defining vocabulary...
Planet e-Book
Jane Eyre
Some say there is no place like home. Jane, a character in Jane Eyre, is thankful no other place is like the terrible home of her aunt. Jane is thankful that her mean aunt is convinced to send Jane off to school. Readers learn of the ups...
Curated OER
High Frequency and Spelling Words Practice
In this high frequency words instructional activity, students complete fill in the blanks using the following words: arms, every, feet, head, school, use, way, your, long, song, sing, ring, bring, thing, us, must, does and food.
Curated OER
Practice With Vocabulary for Wayside School Gets A Little Stranger
In this vocabulary worksheet, students learn six new words from Wayside School Gets a Little Stranger by Louis Sachar. Students answer 9 multiple choice and short answer questions about the meanings of the words.
Curated OER
Pinwheel Modern Art Styles
Students explore artistic design by creating pin wheel models in class. In this modern art activity, students examine historic art work of Van Gogh, O'Keeffe and Mondrian before emulating their work on construction paper. Students...
Curated OER
Experiencing Nature
Students create their own landscapes based on the topography of their region after studying the artwork of Cincinnati-based artist William Sonntag and other "Hudson River School" artists.
Curated OER
Eliminate Weak Verb-Adverb Combinations
Encourage your writers to use sob instead of cry loudly to trade in adverbs for strong verbs. Improve your middle and high schoolers' writing with this humorously written instructional activity which demonstrates how to remove excessive...