National Endowment for the Humanities
Martin Luther King, Jr. and Nonviolent Resistance
Was nonviolent resistance the best means of securing civil rights for black Americans in the 1960s? In this highly engaging and informative lesson, your young historians will closely analyze several key documents from the civil rights...
Curated OER
Speech! Speech!
Critical thinkers consider how word choice in speeches impacts the meaning and effectiveness of the message being presented. They examine and respond to some of the speeches made at the 2004 Republican and Democratic National Conventions.
Curated OER
From George to Martha: Writing a Sonnet Using Primary Sources
What was the relationship like between George and Martha Washington? To protect their privacy, Martha Washington destroyed all her husband’s letters after his death so historians have little evidence of their lives together. Two letters...
Museum of Tolerance
The Price of Personal Responsibility
A reading of Patrick Henry's "Speech in the Virginia Convention," Henry David Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience," and Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail" launch a discussion about the price one is willing to pay to...
Curated OER
Write Right!
After watching part of a Club Write Kids video and discussing the editing process, each group of learners writes a letter to a favorite author. They ask for a copy of a page of manuscript that has gone through the editing process. Prior...
Curated OER
Women’s Suffrage Movement
Though the movement for Women's Suffrage stretched over several decades and across two centuries, the final few years were the most difficult hurdle in many ways. Use a document-based question writing exercise to make inferences about...
Curated OER
Landscapes of the Mind
Students review Emily Dickinson's biography and examine themes and forms of some of her poems. They measure ways Graham integrates aspects of Dickinson's life and the themes and forms of her poetry into Letters to the World.
Curated OER
Persuasive Writing - Anticipating Opposing Views
Persuasion, when used effectively, is a powerful and effective tool. In groups, young writers develop a persuasive letter about something that they would like their parents to allow them to do. Then, independently, they use proper...
Curated OER
A River Ran Wild: An Environmental History
The Nashua River serves as the focal point of an investigation of the treatment of and care for natural resources. A reading of A River Rand Wild: An Environmental History by Lynne Cherry, launches the study and class members consider...
Alabama Learning Exchange
Phonics lesson for -ew and -oo
First graders identify letters and sounds associated with -ew and -oo sounds. Each learner receives a stack of cards containing these sounds, and they must determine whether the word uses the -ew or the -oo sound. This could easily...
US Holocaust Museum
Genocide in Darfur: Darfur Eyewitness Teacher Guide
The events of the Holocaust in World War II would never happen again, right? Scholars research the current genocide taking place in Darfur. Using video and Holocaust Reading Passages, they analyze the horror of this forgotten part of the...
Curated OER
Are You Money Smart?
Learners figure out and discuss the irony of this coin-centric poem. They also practice persuasive letter writing, and identify and count coin/money values.
Curated OER
To Whom It May Concern
Fourth graders produce and peer edit typed rough drafts of the business letters following the guidelines illustrated in the Eight Essential Parts of a business letter and save to disks. They complete the Where's the Math? scavenger hunt...
Curated OER
First Class Mail
Students read The Witch of Blackbird Pond, and write a friendly letter to Elizabeth George Speare, the author, discussing their points of interest in the novel with her.
Curated OER
A Response to Chaim Rumkowski's, "Give Me Your Children" Speech
Students examine the history of the ghettos and read Rumkowski's letter. Using journal and diary entries, they identify types of resistance used during the Holocaust. Writing a letter, they use references to Rumkowski's original letter...
Curated OER
Conventions: Quotation Marks
Fifth graders determine the difference between indirect and direct quotations. In this grammar lesson, 5th graders recognize that direct quotations have quotation marks and understand what the rules are for using quotation marks.
Curated OER
Dear Future Writing Assignment
Students write a letter to future residents of their town to complete a time capsule activity. In this letter writing instructional activity, students discuss the ideas of past, present, and future and review writing conventions....
Curated OER
Presenting Your Case
Students write letter from historical figure's point of view using proper letter writing conventions, write about two props/artifacts that are representative of their subject's life, and use Internet resources to gather images to use in...
Curated OER
Check My Writing
Use this resource as an evaluation tool, or have your class assess their own letter writing skills. They will use a checklist that they create during some interactive writing sessions as criteria for their self-evaluation. Teachers can...
Curated OER
Sentence Based Capitalization
Second graders demonstrate their command of Standard English conventions of capitalization by circling all the letters that should be capitalized in the sentences provided. In addition, they rewrite two sentences in which all the letters...
Curated OER
Writing Review 3
After reviewing basic capitalization and punctuation rules, give your young grammarians this four-question quiz to assess their understanding of the most basic English language conventions.
Curated OER
Half Man, Half Limping Rabbit
Read your class a folk tale from Romania then discuss it. As they listen they discover how the author sets the mood using English conventions such as foreshadowing, magical elements, and they look for descriptive language while looking...
Curated OER
Introducing Grammar: Grammar, Spelling, and Punctuation
Focusing on correct grammar usasge as well as the concept of language evolution, this conventions lesson prompts middle and high schoolers to examine the structure of sentences and word classes (parts of speech). Use the three activites...
Curated OER
Word Roots
Learners attempt puzzles using different Latin roots. This is an interactive, online tool, but you could use the same idea in your classroom by writing each letter on an index card and having pupils manipulate the cards until they are in...