The New York Times
Collateral Damage? Researching a Connection Between Video Games and Violence
Hook your class into an exploration of and discussion about violence in video games with a cute animal clip and a video game trailer. After a quick discussion about how media can affect mood, class members read a related article and...
Curated OER
Beyond Black and White
Students critically examine the portrayal of minorities in video games and other forms of entertainment and assess the role of racial stereotyping. They keep a log of media minority portrayals and respond to their findings.
Curated OER
Wagons Ho! Hard Times! Hard Choices!
You have just hit the lesson plan jackpot! This isn't just a lesson, it's a ten-day unit covering westward expansion, pioneer life, and the Oregon Trail. Activities include baking, model building, role-play, newspaper writing, science...
PBS
Using Primary Sources: Nazi Spy Ring Busted
Spy games are not just for professionals anymore! Scholars use short video clips, primary documents, and photographs to investigate Nazi spies in America during World War II. The young detectives analyze the paranoia warfare can...
Curated OER
36 Public Policy Questions to Energize Your Government/History Classroom Debates
Need topics that are sure to engage your debaters? This list of public policy questions includes such topics as school mascots, regulation of major league baseball, physician-assisted suicide, and violence in video games. A great...
Curated OER
Awesome Antonyms
Review with your young learners what opposites are and use a fun tag board game called Auntie Alice to practice. After the class plays the game, pairs work on computers practicing with interactive matching/flashcards/concentration games...
Curated OER
Olympic Athletes and Moments in Time
Students examine the history of the Olympics and their athletes. In this interviewing skills lesson, students role play the parts of reporters and athletes as they conduct interviews based on research of the Olympic games and athletes.
Curated OER
Paws in Jobland: An Interview With...
Elementary schoolers listen and watch television or radio interviews in order to learn interviewing skills. They work in pairs, and "interview" their partner to find out about his/her life, job, and any interesting personal facts. Peers...
Curated OER
Technology Rich Native American Unit
Student groups retell stories from Iroquois storytellers. They role-play Iroquois women, men and children and explain their roles. They read "Knots on a Counting Rope" and make up their own stories. They create timelines. They visit a...
Curated OER
INSTANT REPLAY
Students, through role-playing fictional scenarios, brainstorm, discuss and practice safe and realistic responses to name-calling and bullying. They experience the "instant replay" and "SAFE" techniques, in which they rehearse and retry...
PBS
Baseball: The Tenth Inning
Bring the historical relevance of baseball into the classroom, as pupils discover the lessons learned from the breaking of baseball's color barrier by Jackie Robinson. Learners view video and analyze Robinson’s character, as well as his...
Curated OER
Status Games
Tenth graders, in groups, participate in a simulation activity in which they are assigned a certain "status" role to play in a given situation. After the simulation, they reveal their status roles and discuss what they observed. They...
Curated OER
Let's Forecast the Weather!
Students discuss weather and how it is forcast on the news. They set up a "news room" and create their own sentences with a forecast and advice for those watching based on the forecast. These sentences are used as students role play weather
Curated OER
The Raid on Raters
Students read and discuss the article "Hollywood Rethinks its Rating Process." They discuss their views on the rating system. Students work in small groups to role play a "headhunting" company to find applicants for a new and improved...
Curated OER
Sorting: Library Books
Students discover organization by participating in a class game. In this information sorting activity, students utilize the Internet to play a library role-playing game with their classmates. Students answer study questions about library...
Curated OER
Bargaining
Students create a newspaper or magazine advertisement for clothing and personal items. Students make statements of preference regarding these items. Students engage in a role play where two people are bargaining for various items.
Curated OER
Farm Animals
Students participate in fluency activities related to farm animals. They discuss counting sheep and view clips from the video "Babe." They create a short dialogue between Babe and Fly. They role play as animals providing the sounds...
Do2Learn
Waiting Your Turn to Speak
Have you ever been so excited to talk that you interrupted another person? Help young conversationalists wait their turn to speak with a social skills activity.
Curated OER
Broadcasting the News Lesson 6
Students practice news reading at three words per second. They produce a news program while working as a team of reporters. They watch news clips of current reporters making a list of news reading tips. They play an online game that...
Curated OER
Family
In this ESL conversation worksheet, students examine 7 pictures of family members and a question that relates to it. Students collaborate with a partner to ask and answer these questions about family.
Curated OER
Encounter with an Interviewer
Students read the Mark Twain short story, Encounter with an Interviewer. They study "the interview" and discuss the role of the interviewer and the person being interviewed. They conduct mock interviews, constructing questions and...
Ellsworth American
Think About the Newspaper
Investigate the significance of adjectives with a newspaper activity that addresses effective language. Readers probe teacher-provided articles in search of the mighty modifiers, and practice by replacing them with a different word, and...
Do2Learn
Respecting the Ideas of Others
Communicating clearly is one part of a successful conversation, but listening to others is just as important. Individuals with special needs plan calm responses and reactions to differing opinions with a collaborative activity.
Curated OER
Mr. Popper's Penguin's
Fourth graders locate Antarctica and recognize it as the setting of Mr. Popper's Penguins. In this Mr. Popper's Penguins instructional activity, 4th graders understand the financial decisions made by Mr. Popper. Students discuss wise...