Facing History and Ourselves
Making Meaning of Community
In the post-pandemic classroom, it's more important than ever to begin the school year by building a strong sense of trust and community. Using the Make Meaning and Big Paper teaching techniques, groups develop a definition of community...
Curated OER
Estimating the Mean State Area
Seventh grade statisticians randomly select five states and then determine the mean area. The class then works together to create a dot plot of their results.
Florida Center for Reading Research
Vocabulary: Word Meaning, All For One
Given a deck of cards with different words printed, pairs draw cards and work together to locate definitions for each multiple-meaning word. Learners complete a worksheet that challenges them to write the word, two of its definitions,...
Florida Center for Reading Research
Vocabulary: Word Meaning, Word Web
Explore the multiple meanings of common homographs with this fun language arts activity. Given a series of word webs and a pile of definition cards, pupils complete each web by matching four different definitions to each target word.
Curated OER
Introduce Vocabulary: How to Make an Apple Pie and See the World (Priceman)
Ask budding readers, "How do you make an apple pie?" You may get many answers, but Marjorie Priceman takes the cake with her idea in How to Make an Apply Pie and See the World, an adventurous tale full of wonder and new vocabulary. Using...
Curated OER
Introduce Vocabulary: Make Way for Ducklings (McCloskey)
Use the Caldecott Award-winning book Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey (which can be found on YouTube if you don't have it) to guide budding readers through vocabulary in context. Although the instruction here is limited to the...
Curated OER
Introduce: Prediction
What will happen next? Leave readers at a cliffhanger as they practice prediction strategies while listening to a story. Pupils start by making guesses based on the book's cover and title, discussing the techniques they use to make these...
Florida Center for Reading Research
Vocabulary: Morphemic Elements, Rooting for Meaning!
Scholars work with root and meaning cards to build vocabulary skills. Playing with a partner, learners read a root, locate its meaning, and cover it with a counter. The first player to cover their board wins.
EngageNY
The Mean Absolute Deviation (MAD)
Is there a way to measure variability? The ninth resource in a series of 22 introduces mean absolute deviation, a measure of variability. Pupils learn how to determine the measure based upon its name, then they use the mean absolute...
EngageNY
The Mean as a Balance Point
It's a balancing act! Pupils balance pennies on a ruler to create a physical representation of a dot plot. The scholars then find the distances of the data points from the balance point, the mean.
Missouri Department of Elementary
Lean Mean Coping Machine!
Seventh graders are asked to choose and rank five scenarios from a list of ten that are most important to them. After explaining the reasons for the choices, they then identify the coping skills they used to make their decisions.
Curated OER
Mean, Median, Mode, Range
Learners engage in a study of mean, median, mode, and range in order to represent data in tables. They are also exposed to the results of data that is skewed because of the outlier.
EngageNY
Comparing Meaning and Tone: The Fall of Saigon in Fiction and Informational Text
Who's that talking to? Readers listen to a reading of the "Forgotten Ship" transcript and answer questions focusing on word meaning and choice. They complete a chart to track the multiple narrators in the script. For homework, readers...
K20 LEARN
Preparing for Othello - Frontloading Meaning (Part 2): Pre-reading Strategies
The second lesson in a two-part series that prepares high schoolers for a study of Othello focuses on additional pre-reading strategies. Pupils reflect on what they have learned and consider what they would like to learn about the play....
Curated OER
Observing To Make Meaning
Students infer meaning while viewing a scene of Pinocchio without sound. They write a plot summary of the excerpt of Pinocchio, watch the same scene with sound, and compare their assumptions with the actual performance.
Curated OER
On Target: Strategies to Help Readers Make Meaning through Inferences
Here's a resource that explicitly teaches, models, and provides readers with opportunities to practice the process of drawing inferences from text. Packed with strategies elementary, middle, and high school teachers can use, the resource...
EngageNY
Analyzing Figurative Language and How the Author’s Word Choice Affects Tone and Meaning (Chapter 3)
How figurative language affects the tone and meaning in Chapter Three of Christopher Paul Curtis' Bud, Not Buddy is the focus of a series of exercises that ask readers to locate, record, and analyze Curtis' word choices.
Curated OER
Making Regolith
You may not be able to take a field trip to the moon, but that doesn't mean your class can't study moon rocks. Using graham crackers as the moon's bedrock and powdered donuts as micrometeorites, young scientists simulate the creation of...
Curated OER
Introduce Vocabulary: Franklin's New Friend
The story Franklin's New Friend contains three tier-two vocabulary words! Your class reads the story, identifies the vocabulary words, and then works to construct their meanings. The new words are recorded either in a journal entry or on...
Curated OER
Word Meanings From Context
Here's a context clues learning exercise that provides practice or assesses the use of "a" words including alacrity, abrasive, acrimonious, abridged, alleviate, and more. Readers study the context and then select the best meaning from...
Curated OER
Word Meaning from Context
Learners read very brief passages and answer multiple choice and short answer questions about words presented in the context of sentences. Four questions about the words edible, inedible, introvert, and trivial.
Curated OER
Word Meanings from Context
For this quickie context clues exercise, learners read four very brief passages and choose the best multiple choice answer to match the word in bold type. Here they practice with the words trepidation, materialized, porous, and lofty.
Curated OER
Making Sense of the Census
Students problem solve the mean and median of agricultural data by completing a worksheet. They discuss the results of the statistical data.
Curated OER
Maps and Modes, Finding a Mean Home on the Range
Fifth graders investigate data from maps to solve problems. In this data lesson, 5th graders study maps and collect data from each map. Students present their data in a variety of ways and calculate the mode, mean, median, and range.