Curated OER
Comparing Themes Across Texts
Read various texts to compare the themes across each text. Learners write a journal entry describing the most beautiful scenery they've seen and use a map of the United States to locate the Sequoia National Park and Muir Woods. They then...
Poets.org
Ghosts and Spirits
Connect poetry to a naturally kid-friendly topic: ghosts! Draw on your class's prior knowledge of the paranormal to help them access the classic poem "Haunted House" by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. After a fun warm-up activity describing...
Curated OER
Tell Me A Story -- Feelings
Practice using feelings as a way to reflect on past experiences. The poem The End and the text Tell Me a Story Mama are used to identify feeling words. As an extension, pupils participate in a service learning project and...
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Long Vowel Phoneme - i_e
The vowel/consonant/vowel combination of /i_e/ is one of the most common in our language. In this lesson, kindergarterners share the book, The Doctor's Line to gain practice in reading these kind of words. A brainstorm session...
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A Walk Around the School: Mapping Places Near and Far
After reading Pat Hutchins’ Rosie’s Walk, have your young cartographers create a map of Rosie’s walk. Then lead them on a walk around the school. When you return class members sequence the walk by making a list of how the class got from...
Curated OER
A Good Man is Hard to Find
Students, in groups, read and analyze the short story, A Good Man is Hard to Find, by Flannery O'Connor. They present their findings tot he rest of the class and then connect the various themes discussed to outside material, events...
Curated OER
Poetry
Fourth graders participate in reading and listening to poetry. They are exposed to a variety of poems and examine and identify basic elements of poetry. They write their own poems and recite a poem with enthusiasm, expression, and props.
Curated OER
A Courtly Love Poem
Students engage in a writing assignment to produce a thirteenth century Italian Courtly Poem. They imitate the literary patterns of writing to produce a unique poem using a model for example. Students review the basic terminology for...
Curated OER
Comprehension
Young scholars identify that comprehension is an essential component or reading and in order to be efficient and fluent readers. They interpret what they have read through various strategies. Finally, students use one of the strategies,...
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Native American Poetry
Fourth graders locate the poetry section of the LMC. They produce a hand written transparency based on the poem Hiawatha by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. Students illustrate a poem from their poetry section. It is a mystery to them what...
Curated OER
The Poetry Archive
Students discover how to express their feeling poetically. In this poetry instructional activity, students discuss their feelings, descriptive language to describe these feelings, and create poems.
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Destination Reading
Students practice reading skills and comprehension through the use of computers and the educational software "Destination Reading" provided by Riverdeep in this self-directed lesson plan.
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Japanese Culture
First graders research information about Japanese people and culture. They read a Japanese story listening for rhyme schemes. They create their own rhyme schemes. They discuss Japanese food and sample rice cakes. They read Haiku and then...
Curated OER
The Catcher in the Rye: Chapters 21-23
After answering comprehension questions (good for a homework reading check), class members analyze "Comin' Thro the Rye," and using the included guidance questions, discuss Holden's misreading of Robert Burns' poem. The URL to text of...
Curated OER
Illinois Biodiversity
Students examine the amount of biodiversity in the state of Illinois. They practice using new vocabulary and listening to stories about animals. After given time to reflect, they write their own haiku. They work together to create a...
Curated OER
Welcome Back to the Computer Lab: Starting a New School Year
Get kids re-oriented to the computer lab for back-to-school. The constructivist approach in this session allows children to exert ownership of their behavior in the computer lab. Read aloud a few books about good and poor manners, as...
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I am Special and You are Special Too - Project Children L.E.A.D.
Eighth graders recognize what makes them special through class participation and discussion of rap music, writing a poem about themselves, and designing their own special hat while working in groups.
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Concepts of Beauty Put Into Words
Studying haiku poetry with your English class? Delving into Japanese history with your world history class? Here is an authentic and creative way to explore Japanese culture more deeply. Pupils will compare and contrast two tea caddies...
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Discovering Yourself
Students explore Aboriginal storytelling. In this literature lesson, students read Knots on a Counting Rope and then create a story line as they discuss the attributes of Aboriginal culture. Students retell the story in their own words.
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A Trip to Wonderland: The Nursery "Alice"
Primary learners explore elements of wonder in The Nursery "Alice" by Lewis Carroll. They analyze the plot point after listening to the text. Next, they describe the imagery in various works of children's literature using the given links...
Curated OER
Pop Concert in Iran
Read, analyze, and critique a newspaper article about a concert with a Western singer and an Iranian band. Scholars will assess key vocabulary terms within the article, learn how to understand a short news report, and hone in on how the...
Curated OER
Rewriting Shakespeare
Have your learners play around with Shakespeare's language. In this plan, small groups examine and rearrange soliloquies from Othello, noting how the language changes and morphs. All groups have a chance to change each soliloquy, making...
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A State By Any Other Name
Learning about the fifty states can be motivating. After listening to books, pupils discuss and learn about the nicknames of various states. This is an interesting way to review the locations and characteristics of the states.
Curated OER
The Holocaust
High schoolers comprehension widens on the subject of the Holocaust by focusing on two different, yet related, experiences of Jews in Europe during the Holocaust. Those being death camps and life in major ghettos. They trace both...