Curated OER
Character Study
In this character study learning exercise, students complete a graphic organizer with 6 boxes. Students complete the sentences in the boxes that are written in the first person from the point of view of the character. Example: Other...
Orange County Department of Education
The Hero: Writing and Responding
Pupils identify heroic character traits that they admire and that inspire trust and result in service to others. They identify the heroic traits of a character of their choosing and defend their reasoning using evidence from the text and...
Curated OER
Character Traits and People in Black History
Third graders, after reading a one-page biographical essay, write in paragraph form how an African American has demonstrated a certain character trait.
Curated OER
Quick Writes and RAFTs
Students explore Quick Writes and RAFTs in all academic areas. They review the 6+1 Traits of Writing, the purpose of quick writes and how they can be used in various content areas.
Curated OER
Writing Own Tale
Third graders read The First Strawberries and complete a character chart. In this writing a tale lesson, 3rd graders discuss viewpoints and identify character traits. Students complete character charts and write their own tale about...
Curated OER
Encouraging Writing Through Combined Photos
Students practice writing skills through using photography to help create a writing prompt. They investigate how images can be used to create new ones that related to each other. This is similar to making a collage except now the images...
Curated OER
Writing with Style: Six Traits of Good Writers
Fourth graders listen as the teacher reads a picture book that emphasized word choice. They discuss words and how word choice impacts a piece of writing. Students view various passages on the overhead, and highlight adjectives and verbs...
Curated OER
Creating a Story that "Stacks" on Itself and Repeats a Catch Phrase
Students explore language arts by reading a classic children's story in class. In this story structure lesson, students read the Judith Viorst book, Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. Students discuss the...
Curated OER
What Makes a Hero?
Students identify the characteristics of a hero. In this character development and writing lesson, students listen to music with a hero theme and discuss the common traits of heroes. Students explore individuals and charitable...
Curated OER
Karen Hesse's Witness; Tolerance and Non-Discrimination
Learners complete a graphic organizer depicting character views regarding African Americans during the early 20th century in America. In this graphic organizer of views lesson, students read the book Witness and become familiarized with...
Curated OER
What's the Scoop on Slang?
Students examine examples of sports jargon by reading sports articles from a newspaper. They write a news article about a fictional sports event using examples of sports jargon.
Curated OER
Nasonia Genetics-A Jewel of a Wasp
High schoolers investigate the inheritance pattern of eye color in Nasonia wasps. In this genetics and inheritance lesson plan, students read about the life cycle of Nasonia wasps and hypothesize about the possibilities of eye color...
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
How Novel Icefish Genes Can Improve Human Health
Designed to accompany the 13-minute video The Making of the Fittest: The Birth and Death of Genes, this handout serves as both a viewing guide during the video and an analysis of how the adaptations of the icefish might help treat...
Curated OER
The Genetics of Parenthood
Students draws the child's face and compares "mother's" and "father's" perception of characteristics. One student draws the child's face; partner writes a biography of the child at age 30- what is the child like, what have they...
Curated OER
What a Character!
Middle schoolers read a novel and discuss character personality. First, they analyze a character in a novel and keep a chart or web of the character's identity, which includes specific examples from the book. They then write a script...
Penguin Books
An Educator's Guide to The Name of the Star by Maureen Johnson
Jack the Ripper terrorized London in the late 1800s. An educator's guide for the novel The Name of the Star places the historical figure in a modern context. Readers complete a pre-reading activity before answering a series of discussion...
Curated OER
Compare and Contrast Poems vs. Lyrics
Combine your pupils' love of music with their growing knowledge of poetry! First, have them bring in their favorite songs for a discussion on word choice and literary devices. Then, use a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast the...
Curated OER
A Call for Change
"Come gather round people, wherever you roam..." Bring the voice of Bob Dylan to your class with this lesson plan, which takes Dylan's song "The Times They Are A-Changing" and analyzes both the message and voice in the lyrics. Your class...
Howard Hughes Medical Institute
Sorting Seashells
Scientists use morphological, physiological, and molecular information to continually revise organism classification. Scholars observe and learn about 20 shells. Then, they work to sort and classify the shells, building a taxonomy based...
Curated OER
The Coin and the Fable: Alaska quarter reverse
An Alaskan quarter and a book of fables is what you'll need to start this lesson. Learners will use the image of the bear and the salmon found on the reverse side of the Alaskan quarter as inspiration. They will compose a fable about the...
Curated OER
Flying Freudian Fun: A Look At Ethical Decision Making
There are not many more apt examples of ethics gone awry than William Golding's Lord of the Flies.. Ninth graders focus the ethics of decision making with the examples provided in the plot. They focus on the...
Curated OER
Antagonist
Young learners explore the antagonist. They retell Hansel and Gretel and identify the witch and the stepmother as antagonists. They then brainstorm common character traits of an antagonist, and then write a paragraph describing...
Curated OER
Raptors: Senses and Influences
Students compare the traits of humans to raptors. In this senses and beneficial traits lesson students create a newsletter and compare raptors to aircraft.
Curated OER
Language Arts: Character Analysis
Fourth graders identify the character traits of Peter in Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing. They find quotations in the story that illlustrate the traits. Students use Kidspiration to write their reports on a template.