Channel Islands Film
The Legendary King of San Miguel: Lesson Plan 3 - Grades 9-12
The documentary, The Legendary King of San Miguel Island, introduces the fascinating tale of Herb Lester, his family, and their life on San Miguel Island. Viewers have an opportunity to expand their study of the island and of...
Curated OER
"The Drum"
Second graders read and discuss the folktale "The Drum" from India. They also answer story comprehension questions, complete an adjectives and verb worksheet, and label a map of India. Students sequence events from the story and make...
For the Teachers
Cause and Effect Matrix
Study cause and effect in both literature and informational text with a instructional activity designed for several different reading levels. After kids review the concept of cause and effect, they read an article or story and note the...
Louisiana Department of Education
Essential Elements Cards
Use essential elements cards to help lesson plan! Each card contains an informational text common core standard for grade levels six through eight and suggestions for activities and supports. Cards address skills such as citing textual...
Curated OER
Animal Diaries
Launch this lesson plan with Doreen Cronin's Diary of a Worm! Discuss the format and content of a diary, and ask learners if they've ever kept a diary before. Then, after an introductory discussion, have learners choose an insect or...
Curated OER
Egypt, Mesopotamia, Indus River, and Huang He Civilizations
Young scholars develop a timeline of events associated with Egypt, Mesopotamia, the Indus River, and the Huang He. They prepare a clay, wood, or paper model of a representative artifact from one civilization. They write a description of...
Curated OER
Episodic Writing Using Pictures of Hollis Woods by Patricia Reilly Giff
Help your middle-schoolers expand their writing skills with this lesson on episodic writing, which focuses on story details, idea development, and organization. After reading "The Eighth Picture: End of Summer" from Patricia Reilly...
University of Arizona
Fusing Firecrackers with Narrative
Improve your youngsters' descriptive writing. They study an object and write about what they see as a warm-up, then they read an excerpt from Paul Guest's memoir, One More Theory about Happiness. The next part of the...
New Jersey Historical Commission and New Jersey Council for the Humanities
Thomas Edison: The Wizard of Menlo Park
What would change in your daily life due to a power outage? Here, learners explore the inventions brought to us by the one and only, Thomas Edison, and imagine a day without them. Scholars take part in a grand conversation and write a...
Utah Education Network (UEN)
7th Grade Poetry: I Am Poem
A study of Alfred Noyes's poem "The Highwayman" opens a lesson about narrative poetry. Scholars read the poem and compare it to the animated video version using a worksheet. Learners look at models and use a template to craft an "I Am"...
Curated OER
Text Structure Booklet
Middle schoolers work on comparing and contrasting different text structures with this project. First, they study an example of a sample page in a booklet, which they go on to use as a model. They complete a booklet with text structure,...
Code.org
Using Variables in Apps
Investigate the benefits of using global variables. The seventh installment of a 21-part unit continues the study of variables from the previous lesson plan. Young computer scientists modify two existing apps by adding variables and...
Alabama Learning Exchange
Triple Addition Shuffle
Get those kids practicing basic math skills. They practice adding 3 numbers together by playing the game "Triple Addition Shuffle." Each pair of learners shuffles number cards together, places them face down, then flips them over to...
EngageNY
Getting to Know Esperanza (Chapter 2: “Las Uvas/Grapes”)
Delve into Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan with close reading and evidence-based, text-dependent questions. Part of a unit series, this well-sequenced, Common Core designed instructional activity draws on material from the...
National Research Center for Career and Technical Education
Hospitality and Tourism 1: Safety and Sanitation
Math and science come alive in this career-related lesson on sanitation. Along the way, learners explore bacterial growth rates using exponential notation and graphs. A link to a very brief, but vivid video shows just how quickly these...
San Francisco Symphony
Instrument and Visual Appreciation of Art
There are a lot of great ideas to be found here. To better understand the connection between art and history, learners research several music and art pieces, then relate them to major social events. They study the lives and works...
Curated OER
Exploring Gullah Culture...Through Language and Numbers
First graders examine the culture of the ancient Gullah people. As a class, they practice saying and writing the days of the week and numbers in Gullah. They are read a Gullah folktale and put the events of the story into the correct...
Curated OER
National Love Our Children Day
Have your class discuss National Love Our Children Day worksheet. Learners complete activities, such as reading a passage, matching phrases, filling in the blanks, choosing the correct word, spelling, sequencing, asking questions,...
Curated OER
Everyone's a Critic: Analyzing Sitcoms as Cultural Texts
Start by defining the word sitcom with the goal of launching a discussion. What exactly is a sitcom? How is a sitcom different from sketch comedy, drama, and reality television? Class members give examples, remember storylines...
EngageNY
Inferring About Characters Based on How They Respond to Challenges (Chapter 4: "Los Higos/Figs")
How do you know what a character's personality is like if an author doesn't tell you? With a focus on character development in Esperanza Rising, pupils complete a jigsaw activity to analyze the actions of Mama, Abuelita, and Miguel. Once...
Curated OER
Poetic Elements
Poetry is all about sound and rhythm. The sound of the words, the rhythm of the lines, and the emotional atmosphere created by these elements and the literary devices poets use, compress whole stories into a few stanzas. The specialized...
Time Warp Trio
My Big Fat Greek Olympics
The Olympic Games are indeed a significant and far-reaching cultural component in our international community today, but from where do they originate? Where do our traditions stem from, and how do we choose the sports that constitute...
Curated OER
What Happened Next?
Fifth graders read one short story on their own. After reading, they are given a series of sentences and events from the short story and put them into the correct sequence. To end the instructional activity, they draw pictures from the...
Curated OER
Betsy Bear Does a Trick
Help your youngsters develop an understanding of sequence and order of events in a story, with this fun simple tale about Betsy the Bear and her tricks. They will cut out images of Betsy and match them to the correct description and...