Curated OER
Reading Clinic: Use Predictions to Help Kids Think Deeply About Books
Students learn to use prediction to think more deeply about literature. For this reading comprehension lesson, students chart predictions in order to more fully understand text.
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Change Over Time
Students write a personal narrative that is designed to help them reflect on the nature and meaning of change in their lives.
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Introduction to the Circulatory System
Fifth graders are introduced to the human circulatory system. After watching a Bill Nye video, they identify any misconceptions they had before watching it. They practice taking guided notes and discuss the video as a whole.
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Comparing the Boston Massacre to the Kent State Shootings
Learners compare and contrast the Boston Massacre to the Kent State shootings. In this compare and contrast lesson plan, students review what happened in each case and compare them using a Venn Diagram.
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I Pledge to the Allegiance
First graders are introduced to the purpose of the Pledge of Allegiance. With a handout, they read through the Allegiance and define the key words as they go. To end the lesson, they try to state it from memory and draw a flag to end...
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Lessons to be Learned: The Importance of Attribution, Accuracy, and Honesty
Students investigate real world examples of media law issues. In this media law instructional activity, students read Janet Cooke’s feature and respond to the writing. Students read articles by Stephen Glass to highlight facts...
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Every Graph Tells A Story
Seventh graders explore linear equations. In this graphing instructional activity, 7th graders explore constant rates of change. Students discover the real-life application of graphs and demonstrate their ability to read...
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Introduction to the Cold War
Learners explore the correlation between the Cold War and the Domino Theory. In this history lesson, students watch a short video that exhibits the domino effect, then divide into small groups, each representing an assigned...
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Writing a How-To Paper
Students discover that when writing a how-to paper, they are telling readers how to do something such as cook a particular recipe. They then choose one of the provided topics and write their own how-to paper.
State Bar of Texas
Worcester v. Georgia
Can the president of the United States defy the rulings of the Supreme Court? Students investigate the case of Worcester v. Georgia and the impact it had on society and, most importantly, Native Americans. Using a short video clip as...
US Institute of Peace
Nonverbal Communication
What is your body saying that maybe your words aren't? Scholars explore the vast world of the subtle, and not-so-subtle, nonverbal communication cues through group and individual work. Lesson seven in a series of peacebuilding exercises...
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Legends in Their Own Times
Students learn folk tales from many different cultures and retell them using the medium of their choice. They write about the cultural indications found in these tales.
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Creating and Using a Checklist of Performance Techniques to Critique and Find the "Message" in Mass Media Performances
Students analyze and critique theater events by evaluating and constructing meanings from improvised and scripted scenes and from theater, film, television, and electronic media productions.
Military Kids Connect
Military Life 101
Here's a very powerful video that deserves a place in a Veterans Day lesson. Four young girls talk about what it's like to have a parent deployed and how they support one another during the deployment.
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Equipment Ad
Students create a one-minute advertisement for a piece of sports safety equipment. They define the terms ad, advertisement, and commercial and demonstrate creative-thinking and creative-writing skills.
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We of the Sea: Tribal Native American Stories
A video featuring members of Oregon’s Astoria Native American fishing community launches a study of the oral tradition of poetry, and how traditions are passed down within different cultures. Activities, assessments, extensions and...
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Denial on Trial
What is the "Faurisson Affair”? What is “Holocaust Revisionism”? What does freedom of speech entail? Do revisionists have a right to voice their ideas? Such questions are at the heart of a richly detailed, thought provoking lesson...
PBS
Historical Perspectives: Coming Home from War
What do the homecoming experiences of soldiers who fought in WWII, Vietnam, Iraq, and Afghanistan reveal about the politics and culture of the US during the time period of each war? Young historians view The Way We Get By, which tells...
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
How Much Water Do You Use?
Incorporate reading strategies, math, research, and the scientific method into one lesson about water conservation. After reading a story about a landlady trying to determine how many people are living in an apartment, learners develop a...
Texas Instruments
Is It or Isn't It Proportional
How can you tell if number relationships are proportional? Mathematicians investigate proportional relationships. They compare and contrast functions and graphs to determine the characteristics of proportional relationships, as well as...
Curated OER
"I Cannot Tell a Lie"
Students examine and debunk historical myths, using the American Revolution as a starting point. They create and play a game of "American History: Fact or Fiction?"
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Veterans' Voyages
Introduce your middle and high schoolers to a different perspective on war: that of soldier's. Read Guisseppi Ungaretti's poem "Vigil" to kick-start this instructional activity. After discussing his perspective, read "The Screaming...
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Domestic Violence and Teen Dating
It is important for students to have a safe place to discuss domestic violence, dating, and abuse. This discussion-based instructional activity provides upper graders with a list of warning signs for abuse, community resources, and ways...
Film English
Inseparable
Built around a moving short film about second chances and tough choices, this instructional activity mixes grammar, prediction, and narrative writing. Pupils practice with adjectives and prefixes before moving on to the film. The...