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Family Pictures
Fourth graders, after reading the story, "Family Pictures," discuss the format of the story and then recall a favorite family experience of their own. They then write a paragraph as modeled by the author describing that experience with...
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The Star Spangled Banner
Fourth graders perform research about the star spangled banner and then perform the song. The background to the song helps to build literacy skills with the writing of a paper. The author is also investigated for historical context.
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Civil War on Sunday
Third graders read "Cvil War on Sunday" together and discuss characters, setting, problem and resolution. They determine facts from fiction used in the story and research drummer boys in the Civil War or Clara Barton using the Internet....
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Nutrition
Fourth graders, with a partner, design, construct and create a title card with a picture and a fact card based on one of the food groups in the Nutrition Pyramid. They determine the nutritional value of foods in his/her diet and design...
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Geometry
Students are introduced to the basics of Geometry. Using cutout shapes, they identify whether they are polygons by using the properties of polygons. They practice drawing shapes they are going to be using on an everyday basis and...
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Research Skills: Information Retrieval and Evaluation
Focus on research skills, specifically identifying key words and concepts on a specific topic and evaluating information for relevance and authority. This is part of a multi-step instructional activity on Ancient Rome; however, it is...
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Web Designs: A Story Comes Alive
Learners work cooperatively to choose a theme, write a story, and produce a web site to display this story in this middle-level lesson on the career of a web designer. This excellent lesson ends with an organized, web site launch party.
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What's the Big Idea
Discuss the concept of main idea in a story or other reading material. Middle schoolers identify the main idea in a passage using a technique that eliminates unnecessary words not relevant to the main idea.
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Perception and Observation
Students use common and unusual objects to make observations of details, design, and functionality. They describe and draw each object while working in small groups. The differences between observation and perception is covered as part...
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1900 America: Primary Sources and Epic Poetry
Using Walt Whitman's Song of Myself and Hart Crane's The Bridge as models, class groups first craft their own epic poems for 1900 and, using primary sources, create a multi-media presentation that captures the sights and...
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Solar Surfing
Students explore sources of solar astronomy. They use the internet to identify web pages associated with solar observatories, astronomical organizations, and educational sights associated with both. Students identify the type of...
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Hispanic and English Literature
Eleventh graders listen to a brief history activity about the 40's and 50's mid-West America and the Migrant workers that worked the fields. Next, learners will read a short story written by Tomas Rivera (both in Spanish and English)....
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Who Wrote That?
Students explore the Project Gutenberg website and conduct a webquest to answer questions about well known literature and authors.
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How Man Negotiates Away His Natural Freedom
Students recognize that our legal-political system hasdeveloped through a process of moving from philosophical ideals to compromised working models. They apply John Locke's views to the development of U.S. political theory and systems.
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Using Context
Teams practice decoding and using context strategies to determine the meanings of unfamiliar words. After verifying the meanings of words through the use of dictionaries, the Internet, thesauruses, and other sources, learners write the...
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Design Explorations: Frieze Patterns
Students will explore frieze patterns. A frieze pattern is a mathematical concept to classify designs on two-dimensional surfaces, which are repetitive in one direction, based on the symmetries in the pattern. They will explore examples...
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The Tell-Tale Heart
Bring Edgar Allan Poe's spooky story to life! After reading the short story "The Tell-Tale Heart," middle and high schoolers identify the theme, character traits, irony, and other story concepts. During pre-reading, they take notes,...
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Do I Have a Right To Privacy?
Students, in groups, explore the Fourth Amendment and their right to privacy. They explore reasonable search/seizure, sanctity of a man's house, right to privacy.
David Suits
“Wild Readers” Decoding Skills Lesson Plan
Set young readers on the path toward fluency with this phonemic awareness resource. Based on the award-winning children's book, Where the Wild Things Are, this lesson allows beginning readers to practice isolating...
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The Influence of Physical Geography
Students explore the limits and demands of their physical world and how it relates to the survival and well-being of people.
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5 Types of Chemical Reactions and a Lab on Mole
Students recognize the concepts of the five general types of chemical reaction: combination, decomposition, single replacement, double replacement and combustion. They practice classifying chemical equations and determine the moles in a...
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Making Binding Agreements
A verbal contract can be legally binding under the right circumstances. Upper graders are assigned verbal topics to study and present. They prepare and deliver a 2-3 minute talk about their topic. Each topic relates to an aspect of...
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Anasazi Basket Weaving
The Anasazi Indians of Mesa Verde are the focus of this art and social studies lesson. Working in pairs or groups of three, pupils utilize computers and go online to search for websites about the Anasazi. Students will choose two or...
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History Personified
Students explore historical events by writing a research paper using personification.