Curated OER
Lesson: Mixing Metaphors across Current Events and Literature
Expression, current events, and art can go hand-in-hand. After analyzing a multi-media piece entitled, Trade Canoe for Don Quixote, the class explores their own expressive process. They create collages that show a current event or issue...
Curated OER
Cartoons for the Classroom: Spinning off of Eyjafjallajökull
The name itself may have your scholars' heads spinning: Eyjafjallajökull. Its recent volcanic eruption spurred many political cartoons on unrelated topics- using an analysis handout scholars examine the use of metaphor in 2 cartoons...
Curated OER
The Function of Music
Explore concepts of audience, purpose and symbols in this lesson from Media Smarts that asks students to consider all the functions of music. Through a series of discussions and activities, your class will brainstorm possible functions...
Curated OER
Cognitive Triangle Worksheet
What you tell yourself about an event can have a profound effect on what you actually do about it. Encourage learners to examine their thoughts, and how these thoughts eventually translate into feelings and actions, with a...
James Madison Memorial Fellowship Foundation
A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words
This exercise on the Constitution requires small groups to design a visual metaphor that expresses the concept behind one of seven principles: popular sovereignty, federalism, republicanism, separation of powers, checks and balances,...
Curated OER
Cartoons for the Classroom: Sarcasm, Irony, and Satire
Satire, sarcasm, or irony? Editorial cartoons have long been the tool artists use to express their opinions about politics and politicians. Kevin "Kai" Kallaugher's four-panel cartoon offers readers an opportunity to examine how he uses...
Curated OER
Teaching with Poster Art: World War I Posters
Students interpret historical evidence presented in primary resources. For this World War I lesson, students examine World War I posters. Students investigate the use of propaganda strategies in the posters and discuss the visual metaphors.
Curated OER
1900 America: Historical Voices, Poetic Visions
Pupils examine the United States at the turn of the century. Using primary source documents, they interpret them within a specific historical context. Using this information, they write a poem with metaphors and a specific meter They...
National Constitution Center
Born in the U.S.A: Music as Political Protest
Though often used in shows of patriotism, Bruce Springsteen's 1985 song "Born in the U.S.A." is critical of America's role in the Vietnam war and its treatment of American veterans. High schoolers analyze the song's lyrics in an activity...
Prestwick House
Rhetorical Devices in Political Speeches
Have you ever watched a political speech and felt your heart beat a little faster, and your opinion either solidify or begin to slightly change? Rhetorical devices can be a strong tool in an effective and powerful speech. A short lesson...
Curated OER
Poetry of Abraham Lincoln
Fourth graders analyze Abraham Lincoln's poems "The Bear Hunt" and "My Childhood's Home" for word choice and deeper inquiry into the vocabulary he uses to convey emotion. They identify rhyming words and patterns in these poems. ...
Curated OER
Poetry and the American Presidents
Fifth graders choose a poetry activity in order to focus their research about American presidents.
Curated OER
Taxation Without Representation
Eighth graders empathize with how colonists felt when they were taxed without representation. They use a metaphor of students and a school principal to describe the strained relationship that developed between the colonies and Britain.
Curated OER
China's River Valleys
Students express themselves artistically while learning about China's ancient river civilizations. They are given a Dragon outline that needs to include revelant life of China. Students can do it through words or pictures. Some things...
Curated OER
We Are Unique - Yet Also Alike
Sixth graders compare their lives to trees and make connections between the two, consider how trees are metaphors for people, and draw and label trees to represent themselves. Students then read brief stories, fables or nursery rhymes,...
Curated OER
Slang Ain't the Thang!
Students examine how a speaker uses words and images to express a message. They read a speech written by Sojourner Truth and discuss the purpose and audience, and identify the speaker's tools used in a speech by George W. Bush.
Curated OER
Lesson: Allison Smith: What Are You Fighting For?
Trench art is a nontraditional art form created by soldiers in trenches during wartime. Artist Allison Smith connects her art to the American Revolution and the question: "What are you fighting for?" Kids examine her art, how it connects...
Curated OER
Disability in the Media
Students look at websites about Down Syndrome and respond to how the media has impacted this disability on society. In this Down Syndrome lesson plan, students respond to different situations on worksheets.
Curated OER
Cartoons for the Classroom: Spinning off of Eyjafjallajökul
In this current events worksheet, students analyze a political cartoon about the eruption of Eyjafjallajökul and respond to 3 talking point questions.
Curated OER
A Walk Through the Past: A Grave Undertaking
Learners explore how historians construct a story out of fragments of the past; a discussion of nineteenth century poetry and art leads students to connect art and literature to their place in time.
Curated OER
The Declaration of Independence
Learners empathize with the colonists. In this lesson on the Declaration of Independence, students collaborate to problem solve a school dilemma that enables them to understand the issues and difficulties that occurred in the creation of...
Curated OER
American Deaf Culture: Deaf Art
Students examine the culture and art of the Deaf Community. They discover the history of the Deaf Community using art and their values. They compare and contrast different pieces of art.
Curated OER
An Anecdote is Worth a Thousand Pictures
Students identify anecdotes in speeches and the purposes that politicians use the anecdotes for. They create personal anecdotes for the class to hear, and students decide if the anecdote is real or fabricated.
Curated OER
Human Rights/Civil Rights
Students connect their examination of the novel Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry to a historical and contemporary study of the issue of human rights and civil rights by creating a HyperStudio stack.