Lesson Plans

424 Result(s)
Grade Range
K-5
Play with Words: Rhyme & Verse

Poetry provides us with a rich vehicle for helping children explore how language sounds and works. Students will use their senses to experience poetry.

Grade Range
6-12
Shakespeare's Othello and the Power of Language

By means of group performances, writing exercises, and online search activities, students learn about the sometimes dangerous and destructive powers of language, particularly when wielded by such an eloquent and unscrupulous character as Shakespeare's Iago.

Grade Range
K-5
The Olympic Medal: It's All Greek to Us!

Students are bound to be curious to know what all that Greek writing means. This lesson plan uses an EDSITEment created Greek alphabet animation to help students "decode" the inscription on the Olympic medal. Because the Olympic medal is both a familiar and mysterious object for students, it presents an ideal prompt to build basic literacy in the Greek alphabet. Thus, this lesson uses the Athens 2004 medal inscription as an elementary "text" to help students practice reading Greek and to help reinforce the link between ancient Greek culture and the Olympic games.

Grade Range
K-5
Lesson 4: Non-British Surnames

Modern American society is known for its ethnic diversity, and this, of course, is reflected in a wide variety of surnames. In this activity, students will learn about the origins and meanings of surnames commonly used in the United States that derive from non-British cultures.

Grade Range
9-12
Frederick Douglass’s Narrative: Myth of the Happy Slave

In 1845, the Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave, and Written by Himself was published. In it, Douglass criticizes directly—often with withering irony—those who defend slavery and those who prefer a romanticized version of it.

Grade Range
K-5
Helpful Animals and Compassionate Humans in Folklore

Through examining several examples of tales from around the world that focus on the relationship between people and animals, students will learn about humans living in cooperation with the land and sea and with the beasts that inhabit them. This lesson plan addresses various helpful animal tale types, such as animal nurses who rear great heroes after they have been abandoned as infants, and beasts that lend supernatural aid to humans.

Grade Range
6-8
Lesson 1: James Madison: Madison Was There

Why is James Madison such an important figure? Why is he known as the "Father of the Constitution"? How involved was James Madison in the most important events in America from 1775 to 1817? The answers to these questions provide context for understanding the importance of James Madison's opinions on constitutional issues.

Grade Range
K-5
Rudyard Kipling's "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi": Mixing Fact and Fiction

In this lesson, students will use interactive materials to learn about Rudyard Kipling's life and times, read an illustrated version of "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi," and learn how Kipling effectively uses personification by mixing fact and fiction.