Curated OER
Sentence Fragments
Students engage in a activity in order to identify sentence fragments and define why they are different than a complete sentence. Students examine sentences in order to differentiate between a noun and a subject. They also identify the...
Curated OER
Sexual Versus Asexual Reproduction
Students discuss the prefix "a" as in atypical and abiotic. They coy definitions of sexual and asexual reproduction into their notes. Students use prior knowledge of mitosis, meiosis, and previous diagrams to describe what happens in...
Curated OER
Skeletal, Skin, and Muscular Systems
Eighth graders explain the functions of various body systems. Using a concept map, 8th graders identify and explain the fuctions of the skeletal, skin, and muscular systems of the body. After completing their concept map, students...
Curated OER
Subject-Verb Agreement: Part I
Students identify subjects and verbs in sentences and identify subject-verb agreement. They view a Power Point and define singular and plural in relation to subject-verb agreement and review rules to demonstrate their understanding of...
Curated OER
The Decleration of Independence
Eighth graders read through, interpret and discuss the Declaration of Independence. They review the 4 main parts of it and add notes to their graphic organizers. They also read about and discuss the writers of the Declaration and...
Curated OER
Organ Systems: Excretory, Digestive, Immune, and Nervous
Eighth graders identify and describe the components of various body systems. They create vocabulary flash cards identifying the excretory, digestive, immune, and nervous systems and describing their functions. Students complete a...
Curated OER
Body Organization and Organ Systems
Eighth graders begin the lesson by building a house of cards. They discuss ways that building a house of cards is similar to the way the body is built: different systems work together to help the whole body work together. Students listen...
Curated OER
The Language of Algebra
Young scholars compare the language of algebra to a foreign language. They play the game "Pictionary" to emphasize that pictures can represent words. After writing definitions and discussing the meaning of variable expressions,...
Curated OER
Volume of Solids
Middle schoolers engage in a lesson that is concerned with finding the volume of a solid. They investigate and describe the characteristics of a favorite food and identify it as metal or non-metal. The lesson includes pictures of...
Curated OER
Word Structure-Prefix and Suffix
Students identify the common prefixes and suffixes used in the English language. They dissect a word into its various (root, prefix, suffix) parts and use a dictionary to determine the proper usage and derivation of each word part. ...
Curated OER
Word Structure
Students infer the meanings of unfamiliar words using context clues and knowledge of prefixes and suffixes. They identify vocabulary words as nouns or adjectives using context clues and suffixes. In addition, they decide the meaning of a...
Curated OER
Organelles
Pupils explore the functions of major eukaryotic organelles. They compare and contrast prokaryotic and eukaryotic cells. Given diagrams and drawings, students take turns drawing structures, discussing their function, and labeling each...
Curated OER
Osmosis
Students explore diffusion and active transport. They observe the effects of eggs in vinegar and predict what will happen when eggs are placed in corn syrup with food coloring. Students complete worksheets which lead them to describe...
Curated OER
Ornithology and Real World Science
Double click that mouse because you just found an amazing lesson! This cross-curricular Ornithology lesson incorporates literature, writing, reading informational text, data collection, scientific inquiry, Internet research, art, and...
Science 4 Inquiry
Musical Vibes with Palm Pipes
Ancient people used musical pipes as early as the third millennium BCE. Young scientists explore the workings of musical pipes to better understand the relationship with frequency, length of pipe, and sound waves. They determine the...
Curated OER
My View's Write!
After researching issues involving panthers, middle schoolers practice writing persuasive letters. They become familiar with a controversial issue related to panthers and write their position on the issue. This lesson...
Curated OER
"Andy Works for Charity"
Explore a real-word math problem with your class. Strengthen their problem-solving strategies by coming up with an answer to a money question. They work in groups to determine the answer. Also, they share with the class the various...
Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media
Analyzing Political Campaign Commercials
Imagine a lesson that models for learners how to separate facts from opinions. How to detect bias. How to evaluate a source of information. How to identify propaganda. Although designed for middle schoolers, the activities in this packet...
Curated OER
Jim Murphy, The Great Fire - Grade 6
The Great Fire by Jim Murphy provides the text for a study of the Chicago fire of 1871. The plan is designed as a close reading activity so that all learners have the same background information require for writing. Richly detailed, the...
Mathematics Vision Project
Quadratic Equations
Through a variety of physical and theoretical situations, learners are led through the development of some of the deepest concepts in high school mathematics. Complex numbers, the fundamental theorem of algebra and rational exponents...
Curated OER
Genetic Engineering
Students identify relationships between scientific concepts and their historical roots. They discuss and debate issues of ethics in science, specifically on the concept of genetic engineering and describe the processes of cloning and...
Curated OER
Childhood Lost: Child Labor in the United States, 1830-1930
Working in groups, middle and high schoolers describe and discuss photographs depicting working conditions experienced by child laborers in the 19th century. They then write a persuasive paragraph supporting an amendment to regulate the...
New York City Department of Education
What Did I Do to Be so Black and Blue: How Did Jazz Influence Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man
How did jazz influence Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man? Class members read some of Ellison's non-fiction writings about blues and jazz, listen to records, watch videos, and engage in student-centered discussions. They then produce podcasts...
Global Oneness Project
Our Shared Humanity
Ann Shin's award-winning documentary, My Enemy, My Brother introduces viewers to Zahed Haftlang and Najah Aboud, two child soldiers on opposite sides during the Iran-Iraq war. After viewing the film, class members are asked to...