Curated OER
You Are What You Eat!
Young scholars create believable self-portraits incorporating selected food items as details, forms, and texturesThe compositional focus is a head-and-shoulders portrait appropriate to the food theme resulting in a humorous illustration....
Curated OER
We Tell Stories
Young readers bring characters to life by working in small groups to script and perform stories that contain a community concept. Detailed questions and activities are outlined for the class. Consider having your groups create...
New York City Department of Education
Theater Units for Lower and Upper Elementary Levels
Introduce middle schoolers to playwriting and the elements of drama with a six-session storytelling unit that encourages kids to expand their acting and writing skills. The 12-page packet includes overviews of the lessons, assessment...
Curated OER
Macbeth News Broadcast
Here is an authentic assessment task for Shakespeare's Macbeth. Young literature scholars prepare, perform, and record a news broadcast about the major events in the play. For example, groups may choose to report on the death of Lady...
Denver Art Museum
The Poetry in Non-Events
The photograph, Nellie and her Italian Soda is viewed and discussed by the class. They are instructed to use the photograph as inspiration to write a poem about non-events, or things that are beautiful in every day life. Pupils use a...
Curated OER
Recreating a Masterpiece
Students analyze and critique various artists and their work. They write research papers on artists and create reproductions of their works, reflecting their earlier critiques of the works.
Curated OER
Illustrating Endangered Species
Students conduct research to answer the questions for each section. They critique a work of art using the levels of art criticism. Also they prepare gathered facts for a final presentation.
Curated OER
Lights, Camera, Campaign
Students employ their technology skills to produce campaign commercials. In this political campaign lesson, students discover the appropriate uses of video cameras and create fictitious campaign commercials.
Curated OER
Comparing Themes Across Texts
Read various texts to compare the themes across each text. Learners write a journal entry describing the most beautiful scenery they've seen and use a map of the United States to locate the Sequoia National Park and Muir Woods. They then...
Curated OER
School Facilities: Setting the Mood for Education
Students watch the News Ohio video about Lincoln Junior High School. They write a reaction paper, explaining what effect the studying environment has on students. If the classroom was in a basement, perhaps a little dark and damp, would...
Curated OER
Lesson Refresh: Plan with the END in Mind
Fourth graders identify literary techniques by participating in a class discussion. In this organization activity, 4th graders practice public speaking while presenting ideas for a story to their classmates as well as critiquing the...
Curated OER
Creating Comic Strips
Students create comic strips to communicate ideas that cannot be expressed through words alone.
Curated OER
Unseen Perspectives
Learners view themselves and their surroundings from different perspectives and gain insight into how others might see them, and discuss how and why they act differently when around various people. After brainstorming multiple meanings...
Curated OER
Internet Investigations: Unsolved Mysteries
Young scholars conduct Internet research to investigate the facts and fiction of various unsolved mysteries. They examine the facts and opinions of the mysteries, and create a Powerpoint slide show to present the theories and the group's...
National First Ladies' Library
We're off to see the Wizard!
Students explore the process of play and movie making from books. They study the basic elements of drama and write and produce a play based on a chosen theme. Students explain the basic elements of a play by looking at "The Wonderful...
Curated OER
Coast-to-Coast Book Design-Part 3: Brainstorming the Book
Students examine the process of designing a book and identify the steps necessary to publish a book. In small groups they analyze ABC books, and discuss the similarities and differences between the books. Students then brainstorm ideas...
Curated OER
Coast-to-Coast Book Design-Part 4: Let's Create the Pages!
Students work in groups to share their lists of A-B-C ideas they came up with from the previous activity. They review page layouts taught during lesson two. Students complete a rough draft of their page. They create a colored...
Curated OER
Stretching It
Pupils recognize the use of exaggeration and understand how it may enhance the story, painting, conversation or event. Students transfer their understanding of exaggeration as it is used in many places, ie., daily life, paintings,...
Curated OER
Can You Hear Me Now?
Students demonstrate their ability to give and follow verbal directions. They explain steps to guide another student to reproduce a drawing, and evaluate their partner's articulation abilities.
Curated OER
25 Greatest Protest Songs
Pupils analyze the lyrics of protest songs as a catalyst for social change. They discuss the influence of music on behavior and explain the use of music as historical record.
Curated OER
Night by Elie Weisel
Pupils read "No News from Auschwitz" and answer the study questions as an introduction to the novel. They record reactions to the essay and compare with reactions after reading "Night".
Curated OER
It's All in the Translation
Students compare and contrast translations of Greek literature. In this dramatic literature lesson, students read and perform passages from four different translations of Euripides's Hecuba. Students discuss how the translations impacted...
Curated OER
The Value of Exchange
Sixth graders examine the relationship between the Jefferson Peace Medal and the nickels in the Westward Journey Series. They make bartering negotiations to similate the ones made by Lewis and Clark. They note the similarities and...
Curated OER
Parts of Speech: Active Verbs
Students use White Fang to help them study active verbs. In this grammar lesson, students define active verbs and find examples in the the novel White Fang. Students then use ProQuest to research a place they'd like to visit. Students...