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Exploring the Self
Students examine a variety of songs, poems, and books exploring and analyzing the theme of self reliance and being true to one's self. They write a poem, essay, or letter that captures their true spirit and individuality and then they...
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Compositional Techniques: Are There Similarities Between
Learners recognize how chromatic scales create tension and pentatonic scales create relaxation as compositional techniques used to create tonality. Also, students aurally recognize the use of mixed or alternating meter as a means of...
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Mary Had A Little Lamb
Fourth graders listen and observe the role play of the various versions of the poem. They take notes while listening and observing and develop their own versions of "Mary Had a Little Lamb".
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Writing to Photography/Photography to Writing
Students improve their' writing by incorporating photography into descriptive and narrative writing exercises. They write descriptions of various professional photographic collections. Later they use their own and other classmates'.
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Portrait of a Place, Portrait of a Family
Students act out stories based on lives of famous people from Harlem. In this memoirs lesson, students compare the life of the people in Harlem in 1930 to the people of today. Students explore how "home" is different for different...
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Lively Read of the Tale of Despereaux
Students create a character map of the main characters in The Tale of Despereaux. After reading the text, students create a character chart based on information they gleaned from the story. They use this information to write a letter...
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Create a Playbill!
Middle schoolers examine the variety of elements for a written play and create a playbill. They read about and define literary elements on a worksheet, and participate in a dramatic reading. Each student then creates and publishes a...
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Michelangelo: Artist and Man
Students are introduced to Michelangelo in this A&E influenced lesson.
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How Grandmother Spider Stole the Sun
Students explore U.S. history by reading a Native American tale in class. In this cultural storytelling lesson, students read the story How Grandmother Spider Stole the Sun and discuss the characters and themes of the Native American...
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On With the Show: Fifty Years of the Public Theater
Students view video clips from the program NY VOICES: "The Public" at 50, which examines Joseph Papp's passion and commitment to bring theater to diverse communities of New York. They create a playbill highlighting productions for an...
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A Happy Time
Second graders listen to stories about feelings and identify their own feelings during certain times of their lives. In this a happy time lesson, 2nd graders explore writing elements as a way to communicate with a variety of audiences...
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Animal Tales Theatre
Students participate in a theatre production involving how to protect animals. Students create their own puppets which will be used in the production. Students read information provided to them and highlight the important information...
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Improvisational Setting - "Where are You?"
Second graders explore setting through improvisations. For this theatre lesson, 2nd graders perform a variety of improvisations in different settings and chart how they established the setting in the different environments.
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Africa: Small Sounds From a Big Country
Students explore the music from Burundi, Zimbabwe, and Pygmy cultures. They listen to and discuss music from the African cultures, analyze the musical elements, write a song, and perform music.
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The Freedom to Fight
High schoolers study the African American troop experiences in the Civil War. In this American history lesson, students examine primary and secondary sources regarding the experiences and contributions of African American soldiers who...
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Map of Ship Trap Island
Students read the short story "The Most Dangerous Game," and create maps of Ship Trap Island and justify why items are placed on their map in certain locations.
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Story Starters
Students orally tell different types of stories using the assistance of props. For more advanced students, stories may be told according to a specific genre, or the story may have to include a given condition, setting, situation or theme.
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Checkmate
Students start identifying the cause and effect relationships in games of Chess. Using the internet, they research the history of the game and how the roles for each of the pieces. They develop a skit based on the roles and...
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Getting Positioned for Fieldwork
Students examine interviewing and fieldwork through a student essay and activities that help them understand the interviewer's task of examining his or her position in fieldwork through observation and questioning. They explore cultural...
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Birth and Early Childhood
Eighth graders read and compare creation stories of different cultures around the world. They identify and define the concept of the cycle of life and collect and analyze birth and childhood folk beliefs and stories in their families...
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Passing Down Family History Through Oral Tradition: Corridos
Learners create and perform Corridos which are oral tradition ballads. In this Passing Down Family History Through Oral Tradition lesson plan, students interview family members using a predetermined list of questions. In addition,...
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Cooperative Comics
Students create comics identifying conflicts and their resolutions. In this conflict resolution lesson, small groups of students follow specific mapping instructions to illustrate a conflict and its resolution. Students present orally...
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Shakespeare Shows
Students study, interpret, perform, and present various Shakespearean works adapted for middle school Students. They choose a scene from one of the plays covered in this teaching unit to reenact with a group.
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PowerPoint Short Story Report
Students make a Microsoft PowerPoint report from a short story read in class. They summarize and paraphrase a short story identifying the six story elements: characters, setting, plot, conflict, solution, tone/mood.