Curated OER
Fossil Fuels (Part I), The Geology of Oil
Junior geologists work through three mini-lessons that familiarize them with the formation and location of fossil fuels. Part one involves reading about petroleum and where it comes from via a thorough set of handouts. A lab activity...
Curated OER
The Cowboy Life
Travel back in time to the 1800s and research the Old West! Elementary and middle schoolers work with a partner to complete at least four activities from a list provided by the teacher. They use these activities to present their...
Curated OER
Teaching Appositives
Explore appositives, phrases that immediately follow the noun they modify, using sentence strips, examples, and collaborative learning. The class works together to identify appositives and use commas to properly punctuate them. Partners...
Curated OER
Lyddie: An Instructional Unit Resource Guide
Katherine Paterson’s young adult novel Lyddie is the foundation of a differentiated instruction unit that not only explores the rise of industrialization and labor but women’s rights issues as well. After learners read the novel, they...
Curated OER
Blood Vessels
A series of diagrams and photographs is a vivid tool for delivering a lesson about blood vessels. Each slide has notes for the lecturer to use to explain each slide. Your young biologists will increase their understanding of the...
Curated OER
Youth Obesity: Schools Fight Back
Explore nutrition and healthy eating habits with a study on youth obesity. Learners watch a PBS documentary on the obesity epidemic which discusses government programs aimed at healthier choices, as well as more localized efforts. Kids...
Shakespeare Uncovered
War and Leadership in Shakespeare’s Henry V
“Compared to war all other forms of human endeavor shrink to insignificance.” “War is not healthy for children and other living things.” These two views of war, embodied in George Patton’s statement and Lorraine Schneider‘s famous 1966...
EngageNY
Mid-Unit 2 Assessment: On-Demand Informational Writing
Lesson 7 focuses on building academic vocabulary and writing an explanatory letter with supported textual evidence. For the first five minutes of the lesson, the educator reminds the class of how to read and refer to the accordion...
EngageNY
Building Background Knowledge: Colonial Craftspeople
In the first lesson plan of this unit on colonial trade, fourth graders gain background knowledge of different jobs performed by early colonists. The class begins with a slide show presentation that includes a variety of great...
All Things PLC
Cultural Shifts in a Professional Learning Community
Talk about a quantum shift in educational thinking. The shift in attitudes toward the fundamental purposes, the shifts in the use of assessments, the shift in the response of educators when students don't learn, the shift in the work of...
Curated OER
Condensation Polymerization: Preparation of Two Types of Polyesters
College-level or AP chemists use phthalic anhydride to synthesize two different polyesters, one linear and one cross-linked in structure. A detailed materials list and well-written procedures are provided on a lab sheet. Learners write...
Curated OER
Goals and Perseverance
Define the word perseverance to have learners understand why it is important in reaching goals. Young scholars research how Martin Luther King needed perseverance to accomplish his goals. They write acrostic poems using the word...
Curated OER
Sing a Song of Science
Using parodies of popular music to introduce and reinforce concepts in secondary classrooms.
Perkins School for the Blind
Find the Objects/Beginning Sound Indentification
If you are just starting out as a teacher for children with visual impairments and want a fun way to teach braille and phonemic awareness, look no further. You'll fill 21 boxes with objects that start with specific letter sounds. You'll...
National Endowment for the Humanities
John Steinbeck’s "The Grapes of Wrath": The Inner Chapters
Here’s a must-have resource for anyone using The Grapes of Wrath. Everything from guiding questions to background information, from photographs to documentary films, from activities to assessments is included in a richly detailed packet...
Curated OER
Conducting a Functional Behavior Assessment
This is an excellent guideline for an observer to use when conducting an assessment for a student who has a chronic behavior problem. The chart has 3 categories--antecedent, behavior, consequences--and clear examples to guide you.
Curated OER
Understanding Different Views on Death
A thought-provoking lesson presents how different cultures view death. Upper elementary through high school pupils engage in a series of activities that will leave them with a new understanding of how death is dealt with globally....
Curated OER
The Learning Network: Re-envisioning Classic Stories
Readers reflect on enjoyable stories they know, brainstorm criteria that make a story "good," analyze a New York Times article about innovative children's performances, re-envision classics on their own, and peer edit drafts. Use this as...
Curated OER
Documenting Child Labor in Nepal
Fourth graders, using Apple's iMovie, create a digital documentary to raise awareness about the existing child labor in Nepal.
Curated OER
I Am Not a Crook
Students use video, Internet research and discussion to consider the presidency of Richard Nixon. They obtain information from multiple perspectives and form an opinion of how Richard Nixon should be remembered.
Curated OER
Fossil Fuels (Part III), The Geology of Coal
Do not overlook this set of lessons just because your school does not have a data analysis system. There is plenty of material here to administer a complete mini unit on the formation, distribution, and properties of coal. Since it...
Curated OER
Structures And Mechanisms
Eighth graders explore and demonstrate an understanding of the factors that contribute to the efficient operation of mechanisms and simple machines. They design and make a mechanical toy device that moves a given object a specified...
Curated OER
Ben Franklin Timeline
Celebrate inventions such as lightning rods, bifocals, and stoves with a Ben Franklin Day. Young historians conduct research and write a paragraph about an accomplishment of Benjamin Franklin including an illustration...
Curated OER
"Just Cruising"
Practice writing the same number sentence in a variety of ways. Learners will explore math cruise ship problems to write equivalent sentences. Then complete word problems which have been included in multiple languages.