Curated OER
Local Motives
Investigate current local elections across the United States with this New York Times reading lesson. Using informational text, middle and high schoolers research local elections and create their own news reports about what they...
National Endowment for the Humanities
The Poet's Voice: Langston Hughes and You
Middle schoolers complete a unit of lessons that explore the poetic voice of Langston Hughes. They define voice, read and analyze various poems by Langston Hughes, and complete journal entries for each instructional activity.
Curated OER
Reflection
The tenth lesson in the 12-part poetry unit asks seventh graders to reflect on their learning about poetry and share their work with other poets.
Star Wars in the Classroom
"Shakespeare and Star Wars": Lesson Plan Day 4
Class members have an opportunity to compare how a film and a play handle the same source material by viewing the opening chapters of George Lucas's Star Wars: A New Hope and acts I and II of Ian Doescher's play, William...
Core Knowledge Foundation
A Time for All Seasons - Winter
As the days get shorter and a chill enters the air, it's time to start teaching your little ones about the wondrous winter season. Through a series of teacher demonstrations, whole-class read alouds and discussions, and hands-on...
Poetry4kids
How to Write a Fractured Nursery Rhyme
Scholars take a popular song or nursery rhyme and make it their own as they write a fractured nursery rhyme. Writers seek out a nursery rhyme's rhyming words and change them to create an original poem.
Teaching Tolerance
Picture Books
Aspiring artists and budding writers combine their skills in an interactive lesson. Young scholars become authors when they create their own picture books focused on social justice. The resource guides learners through the writing and...
Facing History and Ourselves
The World the War Made
The United States Civil War forced Northern and Southern societies, as well as the people who made up those societies, to reconstruct their vision of themselves and their identities. A series of video-based web lessons look at the great...
National Endowment for the Humanities
The World of Haiku
Middle schoolers complete a study of Japanese culture through haiku. They read and interpret haiku poetry and write haiku of their own.
Curated OER
The Iditarod Race Compared with the Movie, Iron Will
Feel the freezing rush of an Alaskan sled dog race in this reading lesson plan. Using research about the Iditarod Trail Sled Dog Race, seventh graders compare and contrast the depiction in the movie Iron Will. The lesson plan lasts for...
E Reading Worksheets
Idioms
This idiom worksheet will give your reluctant grammarians a change of heart about figurative language. Scholars read 15 sentences and then write the meaning of the idiom and the sentence in the space provided.
Chicago Botanic Garden
Are Global CO2 Levels Changing?
According to the Mauna Loa observatory, carbon dioxide levels increased by 3 ppm in our atmosphere between 2015–2016. Individuals analyze carbon dioxide data from around the world and then share this with a home group in lesson...
Penguin Books
An Educator’s Guide to the Works of John Green
The novels of John Green cover the gamut of teenager emotions. A guide to his works provides classroom lesson plans for the novels Looking for Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines, The Fault in Our Stars, and Paper Towns. Each lesson...
EngageNY
Planning for Writing: Revisiting “Key Elements of Mythology” and Determining a Theme in the Myth of Cronus
Refresh my memory please. Scholars quickly read over the Myth of Cronus to refresh their memories of the story. They then get in groups and write parts of the myth on sticky notes that relate to the elements of mythology, sticking their...
All for KIDZ
The Orphan of Ellis Island
Everyone comes from somewhere. An interdisciplinary lesson on Elvira Woodruff's The Orphan of Ellis Island includes discussion starter and writing prompts for the novel, as well as a graphic organizer to help learners begin their...
Nemours KidsHealth
Conflict Resolution: Grades 9-12
Conflicts happen. Learning to deal with them positively, manage anger, and communicate feelings is the focus of a lesson that gives high schoolers the tools they need for conflict resolution. After reading a series of related articles,...
Nemours KidsHealth
Depression: Grades 6-8
Over two lessons, scholars examine depression—what it is, signs of it, and ways to cope. Through discussion, reading articles, writing a resource, and completing worksheets, participants make their way through the learning process,...
Curated OER
The Noughties
Take a look back at a decade your class will actually remember: the noughties. Guide discussion about events your class recalls from those years, and then have them analyze an article (included). Although not specified, learners...
Education Outside
Birder - Watcher
Take the class outside with a bird watching lesson. Young ornithologists participate in an outdoor activity that guides them on how to observe and study the feathered animals. After walking around school campus, bird watchers provide a...
Literacy Design Collaborative
Catching a Grenade: How Word Choice Impacts Meaning and Tone
Beyonce's "Halo" and Bruno Mars' "Grenade" provide eighth graders with an opportunity to consider how a writer's choice of words can create a very different tone even when the subject is the same. After a close reading of both lyrics,...
EngageNY
Making Character Inferences: Analyzing How Words and Actions Reveal Character in To Kill a Mockingbird
Partner up! After an I have/who has activity, readers partner with one of their discussion appointments to add evidence from chapters 11-13 in To Kill a Mockingbird to the Atticus Note-catcher. Partners then share with the class and add...
Channel Islands Film
Lone Woman of San Nicolas Island: Lesson Plan 2
After watching West of the West's documentary The Lone Woman of San Nicolas Island, class members imagine how Juana Maria/Karana may have felt about living alone on the island for 18 years and craft a blackout poem or a narrative in...
Ashoka
A Toolkit for Promoting Empathy in Schools
Instill kindness with a unit all about empathy. Lessons and activities follow a prepare, engage, reflect, and action sequence. Learning experiences include making the classroom a safe environment, peer-invented handshakes, discussions...
Health Smart Virginia
Decision Making
Researchers have discovered that when making decisions, teens' brains function differently than the brains of adults. After reading an article about this research, middle schoolers learn about a five-step decision-making process and...