Curated OER
Lesson Plan: The Net Neutrality Debate
Should Internet users who send data-heavy content pay higher fees than those who are involved in activities, like sending an email, that have less content? This question is at the heart of the Net Neutrality debate. After watching a PBS...
Curated OER
A Guide to Getting Along: Listening
Here is an effective way to have your charges practice and model important listening skills. After a short review of effective active listening concepts, such as using body language, summarizing what the other person said, and asking...
Institute for Humane Education
Selling "Boy" and "Girl"
Monster trucks, action figures, and video games. Are these toys designed for boys or girls? Scholars work in small groups to find and categorize examples of boy and girl toys from catalogs. Next, learners analyze the two sets of pictures...
KindAPUSH
The Jungle Document Exercise
Go with your gut! Scholars read excerpts from The Jungle by Upton Sinclair and record their initial feeling from the reading as strong positive, positive, neutral, negative, or strong negative. They then discuss how their responses...
Curated OER
Words Really Matter: Examining Language at School
Help your students gain sensitivity and become aware of the implications of the words they see, hear, and use about lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people. After making lists of words or phrases they hear or use in school...
Curated OER
The Tailenders
Students discuss the relationship between language and cultural identity. They view a video clip about losing ones language. They answer questions to end the instructional activity.
Curated OER
Character Attributes in Writing
Third graders analyze the importance of characters in fiction writing and performances. For this theatre lesson, 3rd graders identify the important characteristics of a fictional character and how to portray a character through many...
Curated OER
Civil War Perspectives
Fifth graders have a debate and defend one of the three different perspectives of the Civil War. In this Civil War lesson plan, 5th graders defend either the North, the South, or the Neutral perspectives.
Curated OER
Unwind: Vocabulary Strategy, Creating an Unwind Glossary
Prior to reading Unwind, Neal Shusterman's 2007 young adult science fiction novel, class members research the common definition of words drawn from the novel that will come to have a very different meaning to them as they are drawn into...
Personal Genetics Education Project
Reproductive Genetic Testing: Technology, Access, and Decision Making
Explore the complexities of reproductive genetic testing respectfully in the learning space. Scientists read articles, view a slideshow, and complete a do-now about genetic technologies. A fishbowl activity allows scholars to discuss the...
Curated OER
Their Names Are Pricked
Students discuss areas of ambiguity in Julius Caesar and analyze the language as a tool to illustrate complex desires. In this Shakespeare lesson plan, students define subtext and use a neutral scene to act out subtext. Students create...
Curated OER
Communicative Choices & Linguistic Style
Start by watching a video entitled Do You Speak American? and respond to discussion questions about the various dialects showcased throughout the video to identify the regional linguistic styles throughout America. As a culminating...
Lafayette Parrish School System
Teaching Tone and Mood
Tone and Mood are not synonymous! Introduce young readers to these literary devices with a series of exercises that not only point out the significant differences between the terms but also shows them how to identify both the tone and...
Curated OER
Building Original Narratives
Fourth graders act out and write original narratives. In this theater meets writing lesson, 4th graders work in groups to create original narratives; after students act out their story, they write it down as a narrative.
Curated OER
Once upon a Time in the 1800's
Young readers examine the details in an 1821 painting by Jacques-Louis David depicting two sisters who are exiled princesses. They read a tale about the Brothers Grimm, who were writing fairy tales during the same time period that these...
Curated OER
Connotation and Denotation: How Word Choice Affects a Paragraph
Review the terms denotation, connotation, diction, and mood in paragraph writing. After defining the terms, middle schoolers practice writing examples of both connotation and denotation. They complete a connotation and denotation graphic...
Indiana University
World Literature: "One Evening in the Rainy Season" Shi Zhecun
Did you know that modern Chinese literature “grew from the psychoanalytical theory of Sigmund Freud”? Designed for a world literature class, seniors are introduced to “One Evening in the Rainy Season,” Shi Zhecun’s stream of...
Curated OER
Twenty-Five Great Ideas for Teaching Current Events
Teaching current events can be an amazingly-rewarding part of your teaching week. This resource presents twenty-five ways to incorporate current events into your curriculum. It offers some outstanding ideas, such as providing your...
Virginia Department of Education
Developing an Essay: Word Choice
Grading essays after reading a novel written by a lyrical master (think Nabokov, Morrison, Chabon) is a deflating experience. Why can’t your student’s display the same skill in diction as your favorite writers? Because you did not use...
Novelinks
Running Out of Time: Anticipation Guide
Get your class ready to read with this anticipatory set for Running Out of Time. Small groups each consider one thought-provoking statement. After each group comes to a consensus, the whole class participates in sharing ideas and voting...
Curated OER
Gender Bias in Language
Twelfth graders study the issues between male and females. In this current events lesson, 12th graders read an article and answer questions. Students watch a video and write an essay.
Curated OER
What's So Bad or Good About Conflict?
Learners of all ages discuss how conflict can be negative and positive. First, they create a class bulletin board about conflict, and provide their thoughts and connotations surrounding the word. In a class discussion, they ask questions...
Curated OER
Creating Transitions
Fourth graders analyze the use of transitions in text. In this transitions lesson, 4th graders determine how and why a transition is used at a specific time in a piece of writing. They show transitions by using movements before...