Curated OER
Strong Descriptive Writing: James and the Giant Peach
Support your writers! Clear procedures and appropriate support make this a superb resource for elementary writing instruction. Ready your class to compose original descriptive paragraphs inspired by the episode in Roald Dahl's James and...
Curated OER
The Imagine Poetry & Mural Lesson
Readers of all ages can work together in groups to create original poetry on the theme of "Imagine," inspired by John Lennon's classic song. They also create a mural to illustrate their poetry. A beautiful lesson, inspired by a beautiful...
Curated OER
Outlining Main Ideas and Details
Begin at the end. Present your class with an expository essay and ask them to create an outline of the article, paying particular attention to the main ideas and the details supporting these ideas. After a discussion of what they have...
Curated OER
Children's Books
A challenging lesson on writing a book for children awaits your fifth-graders. They must use laptops, document cameras, and a projector to create and present an original piece of writing. A checklist that has all of the requirements for...
Curated OER
Muggie Maggie
Students explore the book Muggie Maggie by Beverly Cleary. For this vocabulary lesson, students read to discover multiple meaning words, synonyms, antonyms and identify important details. Students make story predictions and write...
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,...
Curated OER
Identify Intended Media Messages
How does media convey different messages? Use this instructional activity to explore media by identifying and analyzing selected images. Middle schoolers analyze a poster and discuss the intended meaning of the imagery and how it makes...
Curated OER
It's a Matter of Opinion
Dissect the parts of an advertisement with your class. Middle schoolers discuss advertisements and locate the hook in them. Then, they create an advertisement for a business, in which they include the name of the business, an...
Curated OER
Scripting The Great Train Robbery
Take writing prompts to another level in this activity, which allows pupils to create scenes of dialogue based on the 1903 silent film, The Great Train Robbery. Useful for a language arts/history cross-curricular activity, the lesson...
Mexic-Arte Museum
El Dia de los Muertos
Celebrate the traditional Mexican holiday El Dia de los Muertos! Explore the intricate history behind the traditions, compare other cultural rituals honoring the dead, and create sugar skulls. Learners read informational text on Aztec...
Orlando Shakes
Into The Woods: Study Guide
Fans of musical theater may know the title tune of Into the Woods well, but do they know what the show is all about? A study guide provides information about the classic musical, including details about the characters and a summary of...
Curated OER
Reality Media?
Yeah, but is it real? Clips from the famous documentary film series 56 UP launches an examination of the differences between reality television and documentaries. After considering the characteristics of each format, class members...
National Endowment for the Humanities
“House by the Railroad”: A Painting and a Poem for the Common Core
Introduce your class to ekphrastic poetry with an exercise that asks them to examine Edward Hooper's painting House by the Railroad and Edward Hirsch's poem "Edward Hopper and the House By the Railroad." After a close reading...
University of Southern California
Coming to America After the War
As part of their exploration of the American dream, class members examine primary source materials to compare immigrant experiences of those arriving early in our country's history to those arriving in the US after World War...
Curated OER
Retelling Information
This scripted lesson suggests using the journalist’s five W’s (who, what, when, where, why) to teach readers how to summarize a story and to how to distinguish between significant and supporting details. A template and rubric are...
Curated OER
Crazy Critters Creative Writing
Students brainstorm animals with unusual characteristics such as a giraffe with a short neck or a zebra without stripes. They write paragraphs about their animals and work in peer editing groups to refine their stories.
Curated OER
Panther Exam: Writing a Play
Students demonstrate their knowledge of panthers by writing a play on the subject. In this animal life lesson plan, students view a slide-show on school computers of a veterinary exam of a panther. Students utilize this...
Curated OER
Connecting Literature, Writing and Music
Students assess the impact of music to portray emotions and tell stories. Examples are taken from the life of Rosa Parks and a piece of band music called "A Movement for Rosa". Evaluation is accomplished through in-class participation...
Film English
Real Beauty
Consider the theme of beauty with discussion about what makes person beautiful and the well-known short film put together by Dove skin care. Class members examine some of the images from the film and discuss the message of the...
J. Paul Getty Trust
Narrating a Family Tradition
After examining a piece of art, scholars discuss what they see, paying close attention to details and space. A read-aloud introduces the topic of family traditions. Pupils interview their family members about a tradition in preparation...
Curated OER
Sensory Details
Students observe their environment and write detailed, sensory-specific sentences about that environment. This lesson can be extended to include the creation of a personalized story or movie of the experience (student examples are...
Curated OER
Lesson Plan 18: Art Project! Design Your Own Book Cover
Finished your novel? What’s next? Designing the book cover, of course. But how to begin? After examining the covers of published books and noting the common elements of these jackets, young novelists design a front and back cover for...
Google
Art: Graffiti
Your principal won't mind graffiti, as long as it's on a virtual wall. Scholars use the Scratch block-based computer language to write a program on graffiti. The program lets users place certain designs on a wall.
Shakespeare Globe Trust
Othello
Emilia mocks Bianca, who is in a relationship with Cassio, who attacks Montano. Using the resource, learners explore profiles of the characters from Shakespeare's Othello. They also read a scene-by-scene synopsis and follow a weekly blog...