Curated OER
Using Aphorisms to Help Dealing with People
Here's a formal plan for what many effective teachers already do: Provide a week's worth of aphorisms and have learners choose one to write about in their journals each day. They reflect on the meaning of each aphorism and project how it...
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Discovering Descriptions
Delve into the journey of Lewis and Clark using this instructional activity on Missouri. After sharing books on Lewis and Clark's journey across the United States, pupils discuss the descriptive language used in their writing, and come...
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Sweden: The Landscape
Students imagine they are taking a trip around Sweden. They create a nature journal for their trip including the description of the landscape, climate, animals and plants. They are to give details to make it seem real. Students may use...
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The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses
Second graders use literature journals and discussion groups to summarize and improve their reading comprehension. In this reading skills lesson, 2nd graders discuss animals they've loved and read the story The Girl Who Loved Wild...
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Bronze Bow
Explore ancient Rome through reading The Bronze Bow by Elizabeth George Speare. Readers activate prior knowledge by examining objects that relate to the story and predict the significance of the items. Their curiosity is aroused...
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Dig A Little Deeper
Here is a great lesson on recognizing events and themes in a story. Students read chapters from a chosen book and then fill out a graphic organizer to further explore the purpose of the chapter. They write the events, themes, author's...
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Getting the Word Out
Discuss and generate blogs in this technology lesson. Middle and high schoolers explore examples of blogs and create their own blogs. Use this lesson throughout the year to reinforce concepts from your language arts class (or any class)....
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Run On Sentences
Sixth graders review three sample sentences in order to identify sentence structure, and to practice how to edit sentences appropriately. They work with a partner to define a run-on sentence and identify three ways to correct it. They...
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The Odyssey Lesson 6
"How are belief systems represented and reproduced through nature?" This essential question guides lesson 6 of this unit on The Odyssey (the rest of the unit is linked). Students first write about a scenario in which they are...
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Salute to Heroes
What is a hero? Used as both an introduction and conclusion to the play Into the Line of Duty (author not provided), this presentation details the definitions of a hero before posing discussion questions. Students discuss their...
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Travelogs
Students make travelog journals to send to acquaintances in other states in order to receive mail in return. They make scrapbooks with the return mail they receive.
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Accident Pinpoints Dangerous Site
Students read about local accident sites and conduct research of areas of high incidence. They interview police and insurance agents and explore what can be done if a site has multiple accidents. They write a news feature about the...
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Life as a Legend: Marilyn Monroe: What is Beautiful?
Students consider the notion of beauty and what impact the media and popular culture have on it. In this cross curricular lesson, students examine print ads, write down and share their thoughts on them. Then students form literary groups...
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My Life in Math Class
Students reflect on their past experiences in mathematics classes - both good and bad. They identify what methods, knowledge and strategies have been helpful to them and write about them in a journal to be shared with the current teacher.
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Buckling Up May Not Help Bus Safety
Students discuss the issue of putting seat belts in all school buses. Using the internet, they research how other districts are solving this problem. They interview school administrators about the pros and cons of putting seat belts in...
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Nonfiction Journal Prompts
In this nonfiction journal prompt worksheet, learners respond to ten prompts related to a nonfiction book before and while reading the book. What information surprised you, and why did you choose this book are two examples.
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Using Primary Sources: Letters from the Presidents
Young scholars find out about the minds and thoughts of presidents through reading their actual letters. They explore the personal lives of presidents. They answer questions about a primary source. They write essays.
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"Swamp Monsters" by Mary Blount Christian
Using the book Swamp Monsters by Mary Blount Christian, young readers discuss key vocabulary terms and make predictions about swamp monsters. They complete a Cloze activity, explore past-tense verbs, and categorize vocabulary words.
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Making Predictions:
Pupils of all ages practice making predictions about what will happen next in a fairy tale as the teacher reads it aloud. They demonstrate how to support their predictions with information and facts from the story.
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Nightmares of Hieronymus Bosch
High schoolers, while studying a unit on Medieval Art, become familiar with the works of Hieronymus Bosch. They identify symbols and imagery of fear in his works and relate this to some of their own fears and nightmares they have...
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Sleuthing A Writer's Skills
Students read The Train Ride Home by Robin Solomon. For this literature response lesson, students will inspect the writing of Solomon to determine how she established a certain tone through her word choice and...
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From A Different Perspective
Emerging writers create a response to their reading. They read Notes from the Trail and discuss whose perspective the journal entry is written from. Then, they write a response to the journal entry in first person perspective as if...
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Akron: This City Reads
Students write their thoughts about the value of reading and of Akron launching a city wide reading campaign. Students also research literacy in their own community, finding out how it compares to Akron's statistics where it has been...
Alabama Learning Exchange
A Novel Study Unit to Take Us Back in Time
A Novel Study is the focus of this Literature PowerPoint. A class is about to have author Chris Paul come speak to their class about his novel, The Watson's Go to Birmingham - 1963. Before his appearance, the class is directed to do an...