Curated OER
The Stuff of Stories: Using Museums to Inspire Student Writing
Middle schoolers write descriptions, narratives, and dialogues based on objects of art and time periods in a museum. They base several writing assignments on art objects and paintings, including a literal description and an emotional...
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Cross-Cultural Dialogue Lesson
Students read and analyze a personal narrative written about a Peace Corps Volunteer teaching English in Guinea-Bissau, Africa. They discuss the concept of crossing cultures, analyze maps, complete worksheets, and develop a writing...
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Cross-Cultural Dialogue Lesson
Use the Peace Corps to explore a different place and different perspectives. Your class reads the personal narrative "Cross-Cultural Dialogue" by Roz Wollmering, completing an attached story frame sheet in preparation for a class...
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Trek Across America
Bring a time machine into your classroom with this writing instructional activity, in which young writers project themselves back in time and have a variety of choices from that point forward. They either write a conversation with a...
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Adventure Writing: Oregon's Landscape as a Setting
Students identify geographical features of different regions encountered by migrants on the Oregon trail. Students research how the Oregon landscape may have affected life and 19th century westward migration. Students write a narrative...
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Step into the Painting: Social Studies, Literature, and Art
Travel back in American history to the era of slavery and abolition. After reading about the Underground Railroad, young historians examine a painting depicting the event, and write a narrative from the point of view of a person in the...
Polk Bros Foundation
History Dramatists
Bring the drama of history to life in your class and give your learners the opportunity to illustrate their understanding of a historical situation through the medium of a dialogue and/or play. Your young historians will consider a...
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Narrative History - Hypertext Dialogues
Students create scripts about California settlers. The document reflects the settlers' fears, expectations, and realizations.
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The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Dou
Ninth graders explore the concept that education is related to freedom. In this human rights lesson, 9th graders read The Narrative of Frederick Douglass. Students dialogue about their readings and education as it relates to human...
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Picture Prompt: Penguins and Christmas Tree
What happens when penguins put up a Christmas tree? Only your students know for sure, since they're the ones writing the story! A picture of penguins around a Christmas tree is sure to inspire even your most reluctant writers to begin,...
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Understanding Fair Trade
Students write a ballad from a farmer's point of view on trade. For this farmer's lesson plan, students listen to a farmer speak about fair trade, have a dialogue about it, and write a ballad to interpret their point of view.
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Great Explorations: To the End of the Earth and Beyond
Students analyze the factors that affect exploration such as religion, trade, territorial expansion, and science. In this Great Explorations lesson, students determine the names of famous explorers as well as their routes and...
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Cross-Cultural Dialogue Lesson
Students view situations from more than their own point of view. They use the incidents in the author's story to explore the concept of crossing cultures and reflect on what it is like to feel like an outsider (in the way that the author...
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A Day in the Life
Students write an essay. In this comparison lesson, students read about a child's typical day on a fair trade cocoa farm in the Dominican Republic. Students write about a typical morning of a child in the US and make comparisons.
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Democracy in Action: Everyday Farmers
Students experiment with a situation as if they were farmers in a co-op. In this democratic decision making instructional activity, students role-play as farmers that are members of a co-op and a have a serious decision to make about...
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Problems with our Food System: Hunger
Students understand that hunger causes many deaths a year and many children are trapped as slaves through watching a video. In this hunger and child slavery lesson, students write letters to call attention to the problems of hunger and...
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Picture Prompt: Elf at the North Pole Village
Great during the Christmas season, this prompt gives students a picture of an elf in the North Pole Village to inspire students to begin and end the story. A word box provides teachers the opportunity to add words from a spelling or...
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The Power of One
Young scholars read stories about people making differences in the world and specifically the hunger plight. In this making a difference lesson, students read stories about people who impacted people and the plight of hunger. Young...
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Who am I?
Students practice their writing skills by creating a character sketch of themselves. After viewing portraits, they select one personality trait and put their own picture into the painting of their choice. They include a conversation with...
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Chivalry
Eighth graders explore manners by writing short stories. In this chivalry code lesson, 8th graders identify the traits of chivalry and explore the history of chivalry in England. Students complete a chivalry worksheet and write a...
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Personalities of the Renaissance
Have the class interpret historical evidence presented in primary and secondary resources. They examine sources regarding architecture, art, exploration, government, literature, religion, and technology of the era. Then they use their...
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Kazan, Miller, and the McCarthy Era
Young scholars read The Crucible in order to investigate the McCarthy era and the Hollywood Blacklist. Students watch video clips of the McCarthy witch hunts and investigate the time period through online research. Young scholars...
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I Am What I Think I Am!
Students study conative and cognitive strengths through characters in literature. In this conative and cognitive strength lesson, students read about a favorite character or historical person. They make a chart of the difficulties the...
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The Western Migration Lesson Plan: Socratic Seminar
Students participate in a Socratic Seminar and explore Western Migration.