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How to Say “I Ruff You”
Who says you need a human to be your valentine on Valentine's Day? Give your dog-loving readers an inspiring perspective on how a sister givdes her brother a valentine from the family dog. They then answer 10 questions thatd involve...
Curated OER
Drama from Animal Characters
Learn about animal habitats, characteristics, and writing in a different perspective. The class composes a narrative from the perspective of a fresh water animal, they include a problem and the animal's reaction to the problem. The...
Curated OER
Music and Interdisciplinary Connections
Students examine the interconnectedness of different art forms. They listen to music and watch a video while determining the similarities of the themes. They make connections between books, movies, opera, dance, and music.
Curated OER
What Makes a Hero?
Students identify the characteristics of a hero. In this character development and writing lesson, students listen to music with a hero theme and discuss the common traits of heroes. Students explore individuals and charitable...
Curated OER
The Night Before Thanksgiving
Natasha Wing's story The Night Before Thanksgiving is a great way to incorporate rhyme and literature into the Thanksgiving season. Learners make text-to-self connections, recall main events, and choose post-reading activities...
Orlando Shakes
Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde: Study Guide
Can science ever go too far? Learners explore this topic with the Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde study guide. They read about the connection between scientific experimentation in fiction and real life and then compare a scene from the novella...
NPR
Suffrage Lesson Plan
Has life changed for American women in the last century, or are there common themes between the lives of 21st century women and the struggle of suffragettes from the 1910s? Explore the ways media reflects the position of women...
August House
Anansi Goes to Lunch - Kindergarten
Greed is the theme of the West African folktale, Anansi Goes to Lunch and this multidisciplinary collection of lessons. First, scholars listen to a read aloud and participate in a grand conversation about the book's key details and...
New York State Education Department
Comprehensive English Examination: August 2015
Looking at literature through a critical lens helps readers connect the text to the larger world. An essay examining the theme "There is no ill in the world without a remedy" forms the main part of a sample comprehensive English...
Penguin Books
An Educator’s Guide to Chraisma by Jeanne Ryan
Often, science fiction makes a lot of connections to real life. An educator's guide for the novel Charisma by Jeanne Ryan, has readers discuss many of the real-life issues that come in the text. A brief summary helps garner interest...
Civil War Trust
Gettysburg Address
The Gettysburg Address may have been four score and seven years ago, but its message is still as relevant today. Young historians explore the context of the famous speech, as well as its central theme and argument, before discussing the...
Curated OER
Themes of Courage
Eleventh graders create a PowerPoint presentation or a brochure in which they persuade an audience of their choice and why their solution is the best for the problem they tackled after studying the Vietnam War.
Curated OER
Pre-writing activities for improving students' connections to literature
Students, while reading a novel together in class, jot in their journals any connections to their own lives they can make between the text and self, text to text or text to the world. Various themes are connected to open more doors to...
K20 LEARN
Lord of the Flies Unit, Lesson 4: Bad to the Bone
Is the nature of humans inherently good or evil? That is the question scholars consider in the fourth lesson plan of the Lord of the Flies unit. In a Four Corners activity, they examine statements about human nature and stand by the...
Novelinks
Treasure Island: Anticipation Guide
Captain Long John Silver himself would consider this anticipation guide a treasure. Full of rereading predictions for readers to consider, the anticipation guide makes the class excited to begin reading Robert Lois Stevenson's Treasure...
EngageNY
Grade 9 ELA Module 2, Unit 2, Lesson 7
The accusations begin in Sophocles' Oedipus the King, with troublemakers and enemies abound. As learners delve deeply into the sights unseen, they review textual evidence from their readings to write about the importance of timing in the...
Curated OER
Costume And Make-Up Shakespeare Style
Students create original costumes and make-up for a puppet presentation of a scene from Shakespeare in this week long creative project. Performances of the Shakespeare scenes end this lesson geared towards state and national standards...
Curated OER
AWARD CERTIFICATE FOR A CHARACTER
Connect to real-world experiences by having your primary learners create an award certificate based upon literal and inferential information from a story. They present the award to a character from a story and explain the criteria used....
Core Knowledge Foundation
Unit 6: American Revolution
The American Revolution is the theme of a five-week unit that focuses on reading, grammar, morphology, and writing. Scholars read and respond to texts, practice spelling and word work, and write paragraphs. Assessments gauge comprehension.
Curated OER
Where's Walden and Why Henry?
Sixth graders understand how Thoreau can serve as both inspiration and model for the investigation of home places. They explore ways to become better observers of natural and cultural history. Students find out how to connect with their...
Weston Wood
Joseph Had a Little Overcoat
Create a cross-curricular learning experience based on the children's book Joseph Had a Little Overcoat with this collection of learning activities. Starting with a class reading of the story, children go on to learn about the...
Curated OER
A Multi-Media Approach to Teaching The Grapes of Wrath
Integrate history, math, and art into a study of The Grapes of Wrath with a series of activities that ask learners to investigate the social, political, economic, and environmental factors at play during the 1930s. Designed to be used...
What So Proudly We Hail
Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness: A Lesson on the Declaration of Independence
What does it mean to say that a right is unalienable? How did the founding fathers convey this revolutionary concept in the Declaration of Independence? Engage in a close reading and analysis of the Declaration of Independence, and...
Orlando Shakes
Arms and the Man: Study Guide
Few aspects of life make better fodder for a comedic play than politics. A study guide introduces George Bernard's Shaw comedy Arms and the Man. Along with summaries of each scene and brief biographies of the main characters, two lesson...