National Endowment for the Humanities
Dramatic and Theatrical Aspects in Thornton Wilder’s “Our Town”: A Common Core Exemplar
“So I’m going to have a copy of this play put in the cornerstone and the people a thousand years from now’ll know a few simple facts about us.” Our Town is used as the text in a Common Core exemplar that examines the dramatic and...
Columbus City Schools
Cell-abrate!
Lights, camera, action! With the cell at center stage, guide your seventh grade biologists through the tiny drama that plays out within every living thing. Then, enjoy the show as they portray the organelles they've studied—a performance...
Curated OER
"As You Like It" by William Shakespeare
Jacque's soliloquy from Act II, scene ii of As You Like It sets the stage for a close reading exercise that models how to approach difficult, dense text and enables readers to practice reading comprehension and analysis...
Poetry Society
A Conceit Poem
Young writers needn't be self-involved to craft a conceit. Directions for how to craft this form of extended metaphor, models, and a worksheet are all included in the packet.
Poetry Class
Eccentricity and Sound
What do Lady Gaga and Dame Edith Sitwell have in common? As they examine Sitwell's poetry, class members learn that the similarities are far more than their unique appearance.
Louisiana Department of Education
Fahrenheit 451
In his 2013 introduction to Fahrenheit 451, Neil Gaiman states, “Fiction is a lie that tells us true things, over and over.” In this extraordinary unit plan, readers "explore the power of written language to educate and...
Personal Genetics Education Project
DNA, Crime and Law Enforcement
Civil rights meets biotechnology in a instructional activity that scrutinizes the collection of DNA of citizens who have been arrested, but not yet convicted of a crime. Real-life cases are examined in which the DNA of a relative was...
Facing History and Ourselves
Verifying Breaking News
The attempts of journalists to verify the events surrounding the shooting of Michael Brown take center stage as individuals analyze three of the initial newspaper accounts of the story. The whole class discussion then focuses...
C3 Teachers
Celebrity Social Responsibility: Does Celebrity Require Social Responsibility?
Is much required of those to whom much is given? That's the central question asked of middle schoolers in this lesson. Scholars consider the actions of Tommie Smith and John Carlos, Colin Kaepernick, Lady Gaga, and others who have taken...
Curated OER
Human Embryo Development and Birth Defects
Open this lesson with a discussion on birth defects. Break the class into groups to visit a website and learn about what happens at each stage of human embryo and fetal development. Assign each group a particular birth defect to...
PBS
The Caterpillar or Larva
The larval stage of the butterfly life cycle is quite exciting. Start a discussion about the specially designed body parts unique to caterpillars. After examining images of caterpillars, learners use plastic soda bottles, string, and...
Virginia Department of Education
Relationships Round Robin
Mathematics is all about patterns. Young mathematicians analyze geometric patterns to write algebraic expressions. They use the expressions to predict future stages of the patterns.
Curated OER
Disney's Animal World Part 2: That's My Baby
Students see that baby animals go through different stages of growth during their life, just as people do. They use the downloadable Cyberlesson Worksheet to reinforce what they have learned about animals and their offspring.
Curated OER
Understanding Cell Division
Middle schoolers collect and describe cells from an onion root tip which are undergoing the stages of cell division. They use a ProScope USB microscope to identify and compare cells in five phases of mitosis.
Curated OER
Populations – The Survival of the Fittest (Part 1)
Students explain in their own words why organisms live together. In this biology lesson, students model what happens to organisms if their environment changes. They explain the importance of evolution.
Curated OER
Setting the Stage
Students investigate the importance of literacy to philanthropy. In this literacy lesson, students read the book, Amber on the Mountain, before answering questions about the main character's motives for learning to read. They make charts...
NWT Literacy Council
Readers Theatre Scripts
Engage and entertain young learners with this collection of readers theatre activities. With over 25 different scripts, a wide range of topics are covered from simple counting and rhyming exercises to adaptions of popular children's...
Curated OER
CHAIN OF EVENTS
Students, exercising knowledge, reasoning and communication complete a chart that is well-organized and well-detailed. They assess the Economic concepts of supply and demand and how that relates to production and sales. In addition, an...
Curated OER
"The Story of Ruby Bridges"
Third graders examine the role of Ruby Bridges in the U.S. Civil Rights Movement. They listen to the teacher read the book "The Story of Ruby Bridges" by Robert Coles, identify what is fact or opinion in the story, and sequence events in...
Curated OER
The Art of Persuasion
Students analyze images using several perspectives or entry points. They create images and develop accompanying texts that support a specific purpose or function. Students assess the effectiveness of collected images and those of their...
Curated OER
The Dance of the Butterfly
Students explore butterfly life cycles and movement. In this integrated fine arts and biology life cycle lesson, students listen to the book The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle and identify the related life cycle stages....
Curated OER
ESL Network: Tezen, A Haitian Folktale
Sixth graders brainstorm various types of friendships prior to reading "Tezen," a tale about a young girl's friendship with a fish. After writing story reviews, they work in small groups to create dramatic skits based on the text and...
Curated OER
Water Cycle (Role of Water)
Second graders explore the role of water as a natural resource in order to conserve and protect its use for future generations.
Curated OER
Surveying and Assessing the Environmental Compatibility of a Building Construction Site
Learners examine an area of land and assess its suitability for construction purposes. This project requires a vast amount of hands-on experimentation, data analysis, community involvement, and job shadowing/career awareness.