Virginia Department of Education
The Writing Process for Persuasive Writing
Get your junior high writers stimulated with the strategies and ideas available in this activity. Learners discuss and debate controversial subjects, and outline their reasons with an online graphic organizer (link included) that creates...
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What's Fit to Print?
Students evaluate how newspapers are constructed and evaluate the extent to which newspapers serve their readers' interests.
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Rights Under the Fourth Amendment
Twelfth graders examine the Fourth Amendment and discuss an actual Supreme court case. They determine whether or not the person's rights were violated. they search newspapers for articles where the Fourth Amendment may have been violated
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A Visit to Vietnam
Students complete webquest to research Vietnam. They use a map to locate Vietnam. They research the climate, flora, fauna and tourism.
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Deer Hunting Pros and Cons
Students research, form an opinion, brainstorm pros and cons and support their own opinion after researching the pros and cons of deer hunting.
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Newspaper Scavenger Hunts
Students examine newspapers to find information. In this newspaper lesson, students collect newspapers from their homes to use for the lesson. They work in groups to complete scavenger hunts by locating specified information in different...
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From the Heights to the Depths
Students create a relief map of Asia and Australia. They work in small groups on sections of the map to make one complete map of the continents.
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Bargaining
Students create a newspaper or magazine advertisement for clothing and personal items. Students make statements of preference regarding these items. Students engage in a role play where two people are bargaining for various items.
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Night of the Twister
Learners use reading strategies for Night of the Twister. In this reading strategies lesson, students name five major catastrophes and books about each. Learners complete a vocabulary section, make inferences and predictions, read the...
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Why Kosovo? Why Now?
Young scholars explain the establishment of the modern state of Yugoslavia and the breakup of the country. They examine the human characteristics of the region - ethnic groups, languages, and religions.
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The Delicate Balance - Iowa's Natural Resources
Discover the natural resources in Iowa by studying it's history. In this environmental instructional activity, your students will observe a topographical map of Iowa and identify where its most valuable resources are. They complete an...
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The Fabric of Our World
Students discuss cultural diversity, and examine how the community reflects the cultural background of the inhabitants. They read the book, People, take a community walk, create a rainbow chart, and research other states for relocation...
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Advertising Then and Now
Students use resources to examine ads from historic newspapers. They analyze these ads and compare and contrast them to modern ads found on electronic editions. Students evaluate the changes as it applies to the information found.
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Latin America: Places and Regions
Seventh graders create a Latin American portfolio in the form of a country presentation using PowerPoint software. They use their knowledge of geographic concepts to interpret maps, globes, charts, diagrams, and timelines.
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Writing to Focus Reading and to Imagine Researching
Students examine several elements that would cue them into a newspaper article about community change without reading the main copy text. They discuss the details and write notes about the article. They first skim and then thoroughly...
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Creation and Interpretation of Voter Participation Graph
Ninth graders research information about voter participation in the United States based on age. They develop generalizations about voting patterns in the U.S and use Microsoft Excel to analyze the information.
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Forcasting the Path of Mudflows
Students visualize consistency of mudflows and how they move down stream valleys away from a volcano's summit. They use topographic maps of Mount St. Helens before the 1980 eruptions to forecast the path mudflows might take during an...
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Lesson 1 Activity 2: A Place in Time
Students select place to study, note how it has changed over time, and create and illustrate a timeline.
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Why Vote? A Public Awareness Campaign
Students examine the structure of local government and determine why citizens vote. In this civics lesson, students listen to a lecture about the structure of local government and then encourage others to exercise their right to vote.
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Day to Day Life in a Small African Village
Students analyze life in a village of Tanzania including its language, geography, health, and hygiene issues. In this African village lesson, students locate Tanzania and its capital city on a map. Students compare aspects of...
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For the Fun of It
Middle schoolers view pictures of Amelia Earhart and discuss the social and historical context of her life. They read excerpts of Earhart's autobiography "The Fun of It" and analyze her purpose in writing it.
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Everybody Needs a Little Sunshine
Three activities introduce upper elementary ecologists to photosynthesis and food webs. In the first, an experiment is set up to determine how plants respond to different types of light. In the second, they connect organism cards with...
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Interviews with the American People "Days of Infamy"
Learners compare and contrast statements made by people in "Man on the Streets." They are interviewing them on the current war in Iraq and how they felt on Sept. 11th. These interviews are tape recorded. To see what kinds of questions to...
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Cite Your Sites
What information would you find in an almanac that you would not find in an atlas? What is the difference between a dictionary and a thesaurus? Using a Cite Your Sites worksheet on which they record their observations, groups participate...