Authentic Lessons for 21st Century Learning
The Building School and Classroom Community professional development focuses on building school identity among teachers and students. Participants will be empowered to select research-based strategies that create community and support learning for all students. Participants will create a vision for... Read more »
Created by: Karin Lange
Date Updated: August 10th, 2023
Teamwork is a major contributing factor of job satisfaction and work engagement. The investment in building strong team collaboration creates a win-win outcome for both the employee and the organization. This professional learning session is part of a series that explores the eight aspects of organizational... Read more »
Created by: Shayna Pond
Date Updated: November 15th, 2023
In this professional development, participants will reflect on equity in their school. They will work in groups to create images that represent equity, read through an equity research brief for theory and practice, and discuss educational case studies and how they can work to provide equity in different... Read more »
Created by: Mariah Warren
Date Updated: August 6th, 2024
This professional learning session introduces some of the more effective strategies for preparing for the ACT. The goals of this learning experience are to access prior knowledge of the ACT and use the "Power Up: ACT Prep" activities already prepared to assist students in increasing their scores. Read more »
Created by: Matthew McDonald
Date Updated: October 21st, 2024
In this session, participants explore the Authenticity Framework and foundations for how people learn. The Authenticity Framework is a conceptual framework that promotes a meaningful, student-centered learning environment and encourages higher-order thinking. Participants will also explore excerpts... Read more »
Created by: Brittany Bowens
Date Updated: October 2nd, 2024
5E Lesson Writing Session 1: Authenticity and 5E Lessons focuses on building relationships with participants, examining different 5E lesson frameworks, and aligning 5E snapshots with the authentic teaching tool. Read more »
Created by: Daniel Schwarz
Date Updated: August 28th, 2024
How do you persuade others? How did the characters in Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" use ethos, pathos, and logos to sway the minds of the Roman people? This lesson explores the three modes of persuasion and invites students to analyze and notate the speeches in Shakespeare's tragedy for ethos, pathos,... Read more »
Created by: Chelsee Wilson
Date Updated: October 10th, 2024
Julius Caesar
In this lesson, students will work together to determine the definition of desertification and create a chart to explain the causes and effects of desertification in the sub-Saharan Sahel region. Then, students will learn how Africa is responding to desertification with a project called the Great Green... Read more »
Created by: Sarah Brewer
Date Updated: July 8th, 2024
Desertification of the Sahel
How do authors develop characters? How do readers recognize a character through their thoughts, actions, and emotions? This literary analysis lesson will examine literary characters, invite students to consider the literary "anatomy" of a character, and find textual evidence that showcases characterization.... Read more »
Created by: Chelsee Wilson
Date Updated: August 10th, 2023
Literary Analysis: Characterization
In this lesson, students will use self-reflection to create a piece of descriptive writing. Students will use sensory details, organizational strategies, and the revision process to produce a short descriptive piece of writing. Read more »
Created by: Keristy Nieto
Date Updated: September 12th, 2024
Creating and Editing Descriptive Writing
Students will analyze two primary sources, Patrick Henry's speech to the Virginia House of Burgesses and Thomas Paine's "Common Sense" pamphlet to understand the colonial resistance to British rule and how these primary sources influenced the American Revolution. Read more »
Created by: Susan McHale
Date Updated: July 23rd, 2024
The Journey to Revolution
In collaborative groups, students will work to understand and create point-of-view statements, such as tweets for a mock Twitter debate, for both Federalists' and Anti-Federalists' viewpoints on ratifying the U.S. Constitution. Then, students will identify important issues currently being debated on... Read more »
Created by: Sarah Brewer
Date Updated: July 29th, 2024
Ratification of the Constitution Debate
Students will listen to a New York Times podcast discussing the contradiction in the Constitution by which it protects both freedom and slavery. Working in collaborative groups, students will summarize four parts of the Constitution—the Three-Fifths Clause, the Fugitive Slave Clause, the Slave Trade... Read more »
Created by: Sarah Brewer
Date Updated: August 6th, 2024
How Did the Constitution Protect the System of Slavery?
In this lesson about the Industrial Revolution, students will begin by observing photographs of factory workers and analyzing primary sources to make inferences about working conditions during the Industrial Revolution. Based on the information they gather, students will write a letter protesting working... Read more »
Created by: Sarah Brewer
Date Updated: November 13th, 2024
The Industrial Revolution
In this lesson, students will discuss conflicts, cliques, and stereotypes and what can cause each of them to arise. Through the lens of five nonfiction articles inspired by the cliques in the film "The Breakfast Club," students will form real-world connections to the stereotypes at their own schools... Read more »
Created by: Jane Baber
Date Updated: February 21st, 2024
What Makes Us Clique?
Is love really like a red, red rose? Or is that just a way to describe how someone feels about love? This lesson explores different types of figurative language used by Shakespeare in "Romeo and Juliet." Students will play a short game to identify types of figurative language, develop their own definitions... Read more »
Created by: Chelsee Wilson
Date Updated: June 21st, 2023
Figurative Language in Romeo and Juliet
This lesson focuses on comparing and contrasting fiction and nonfiction, writing a researchable inquiry question, and developing justice-based research questions. Students will familiarize themselves with the Tulsa Race Massacre and then read an excerpt from the novel "Dreamland Burning," followed by... Read more »
Created by: Polly Base
Date Updated: June 10th, 2024
Guided Inquiry Research
Students will evaluate what motivates people, especially as it relates to the main characters in “The Gift of the Magi.” As they read and listen to the story, students will identify thoughts and feelings that relate to the motivations and actions of the main characters. Students will also look for and... Read more »
Created by: Margaret Salesky
Date Updated: June 21st, 2023
Motivation in Characters
Colloquial language is informal and consists of words or phrases known primarily to native speakers of a language. In this lesson, students will examine not only how familiar they are with English colloquialisms, but also how often these colloquialisms are used in our speaking and writing, and the effect... Read more »
Created by: Jane Baber
Date Updated: October 17th, 2024
Colloquial Language
In this lesson, students explore the idea of superstitions and ghost stories and how they affect people and their emotions and behaviors. Students read “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow” by Washington Irving and examine how the two main characters react to and are affected by the legend of the headless... Read more »
Created by: Margaret Salesky
Date Updated: September 12th, 2024
Characters' Differing Perspectives
This lesson asks students to analyze the motivations of Montresor in Edgar Allen Poe's short story "The Cask of Amontillado" and engages students by placing them in the role of a forensic psychologist. In this role, having students will answer questions in a clinical evaluation. Students will analyze... Read more »
Created by: Brandy Hackett
Date Updated: September 12th, 2024
Irony and Characterization in "The Cask of Amontillado"
Students will investigate financial lending sources and compare their services. Students will identify similarities and differences among the different sources through a mind-mapping strategy and evaluate which financial source offers the best opportunities for lending. Read more »
Created by: Susan McHale
Date Updated: June 28th, 2023
Standard 3: Banking and Financial Services
Students will read and analyze the short story "The Interlopers." They will determine multiple themes throughout the story, compare character motivation, and evaluate the effects of setting on the story. Using a similar format, students will research a popular “feud” in contemporary culture or history... Read more »
Created by: Polly Base
Date Updated: September 10th, 2024
Conflict, Motivation, and Setting
In this lesson, students explore themes of community and identity by analyzing a poem and creating their own poem inspired by the themes. Through these activities, students reflect deeply on their lives and learn to apply a variety of literary devices that allow them to express their creativity and... Read more »
Created by: Shelby Blackwood
Date Updated: September 13th, 2024
Poetry
In this lesson, students compare and contrast the poem, "The Hill We Climb," and an excerpt from the speech, "I Have a Dream," and analyze how the authors' messages are made clear through their word choices and rhetorical strategies. Students compose a poem, evaluate how poetry can be used to send a... Read more »
Created by: Shelby Blackwood
Date Updated: August 10th, 2023
Perspectives in Poetry
In this introductory lesson to the "Lord of the Flies" unit of study, students learn what a microcosm is, what its significance to this story is, and how to build a microcosm of their own. The author's use of the microcosm to symbolize human nature sets the stage for the unit and focuses on author William... Read more »
Created by: Margaret Salesky
Date Updated: November 14th, 2024
I'm a Survivor
In this second lesson of the "Lord of the Flies" unit, students examine leadership qualities, looking especially at characters Jack and Ralph. Students analyze multiple points of view in the text. Read more »
Created by: Margaret Salesky
Date Updated: August 29th, 2024
Leader of the Pack
In this fifth lesson of the "Lord of the Flies" unit, students analyze the word choice the author uses to show characters' thoughts and actions and to compare the evolution of characters in the story to outside characters. Students begin the lesson by comparing words used in an article about Oklahoma's... Read more »
Created by: Margaret Salesky
Date Updated: June 20th, 2023
Big Scary Animal
In this lesson, students will engage in several activities to understand Machiavelli's political writing, "The Prince." Students analyze excerpts from "The Prince," view a video about Machiavelli, participate in an activity to examine Machiavellian characteristics, and have a class debate about the... Read more »
Created by: Laura Halstied
Date Updated: July 29th, 2022
The Political Thought of Machiavelli
The purpose of this lesson is to introduce students to new concepts and terminology regarding syntax, focusing mostly on defining new terms and identifying them in both isolation and application. Read more »
Created by: Lisa Loughlin
Date Updated: August 10th, 2023
Syntax and Parallel Structure
In this introductory lesson, students will explore the different parts of a journalistic article to determine what makes a good newspaper or magazine story. Students will begin by brainstorming a list of elements that make an article visually, textually, and emotionally engaging. Students then will... Read more »
Created by: Margaret Salesky
Date Updated: August 10th, 2023
What Makes a Good Article?
In this lesson, students will learn how to design their own resumes and prepare for job interviews. They will begin by thinking about what they already know about resumes. Next, they will review examples of resumes before writing their own based on common descriptions of jobs for which students typically... Read more »
Created by: Will Markham
Date Updated: May 11th, 2023
Resume Creation and Interview Skills
Examining Intrinsic & Extrinsic Motivation Through Character Analysis in Macbeth
In this lesson, students explore what intrinsic and extrinsic motivations are and the characters' motivations in William Shakespeare's Macbeth. Students create visual and written representations of their assigned character's motivations. Students end the lesson by writing a scholarly essay about the... Read more »
Created by: Lisa Loughlin
Date Updated: September 28th, 2023
Examining Intrinsic & Extrinsic Motivation Through Character Analysis in Macbeth
This lesson introduces students to the phenomenon of the bystander effect. They begin by examining situations in which the bystander effect has been known to occur. They also have an opportunity to analyze hypothetical scenarios and determine whether or not they are examples of the phenomenon. Students... Read more »
Created by: Daniel Schwarz
Date Updated: October 14th, 2024
The Bystander Effect and How to Overcome It
The Reign of Terror: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
This lesson centers on Killers of the Flower Moon by David Grann which examines the Osage murders of the 1920s. Students analyze the connections between the events depicted in the book and the factual background of the Reign of Terror as presented in an interactive e-learning activity, helping to foster... Read more »
Created by: Polly Base
Date Updated: September 10th, 2024
The Reign of Terror: The Osage Murders and the Birth of the FBI
Chaucer's Wife of Bath Tale
In this lesson on The Wife of Bath’s tale from Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, students will examine different perspectives of characters from the story. They will do a deeper dive on “What Women Want?” and the history of women’s movements. Read more »
Created by: Margaret Salesky
Date Updated: March 13th, 2024
Chaucer's Wife of Bath Tale
This companion lesson to "Screaming into the Void" explores the idea of nihilism and what it can teach us about the search for meaning and purpose in our lives, how we can reconcile existential questions with our own values and beliefs, and how one finds meaning, purpose, and value in a world seemingly... Read more »
Created by: Margaret Salesky
Date Updated: October 4th, 2024
In this lesson, students explore the rules of colons and how they can be used to enhance their writing style. They begin the lesson by determining which colon rules are true and which are false. Next, they practice their new knowledge of the colon rules and read an article about the Iroquois’ “Three... Read more »
Created by: Lisa Loughlin
Date Updated: July 1st, 2024
Using Colons To Enhance Writing
Is that really necessary? Often when telling a story or in their writing, students include details that are irrelevant and off topic. In this lesson, students will analyze Sheldon’s ability to stick to relevant information while being a reference for his friend in an FBI interview. Students will then... Read more »
Created by: Amy Hall
Date Updated: October 3rd, 2024
Audience and Purpose
Students will learn how location impacts businesses and markets. Students will also identify the infrastructure, manufacturing, and markets of different businesses: Huffman’s, Braum’s, and Netflix. Read more »
Created by: Tanner Lusher
Date Updated: September 24th, 2024
Importance of Location
This lesson is designed to help students use an excerpt from “In Praise of Bats” to identify the author’s purpose by analyzing word choice and figurative language use. By examining an author’s purpose and the mood of a text, students will be able to better identify with texts on a deeper level. Read more »
Created by: Polly Base
Date Updated: November 12th, 2024
Identifying an Author's Purpose and Intended Response
Surprises and roadblocks can keep us from accomplishing our goals on time. In this lesson, students will learn how to consider what could become roadblocks to completing a task and how to build a calendar to stay on track and to minimize surprises. Read more »
Created by: Teresa Lansford
Date Updated: June 25th, 2024
Students will listen to an engaging speech and record their thoughts. Students will then choose a topic of their interest and write down all they know about the topic in a two-minute paper. Students will learn more about preparing a speech and discuss their learning with their peers. They will create... Read more »
Created by: Daniel Schwarz
Date Updated: September 12th, 2024
In this reading ACT prep activity, students review the structure of the reading portion of the ACT and practice locating the main idea, supporting details, and evidence of an ACT-style reading passage about The Great Depression. Students practice responding to five ACT-style questions and review the... Read more »
Created by: Laura Halstied
Date Updated: September 19th, 2024
In this activity, students will learn how to approach story problems to make them less intimidating. Students will then apply their learning to a set of ACT-style math problems. This is the eighth activity in a 10-week "Power Up" series for ACT prep. Read more »
Created by: Michell Eike
Date Updated: August 27th, 2024
In this English ACT prep activity, students review the content from the past four prep activities. First, students finish going over the answers from week four's reading passage activity. Then, students annotate their collection of Skill Sets Check handouts using the Rose, Bud, and Thorn strategy, which... Read more »
Created by: Patricia McDaniels-Gomez
Date Updated: September 19th, 2024
In this third science ACT prep activity, students learn strategies for interpreting graphs, particularly for when they are unfamiliar with the content in the science passages. First, students focus on the components of tables and graphs that convey key information through Categorical Highlighting. Next,... Read more »
Created by: Teresa Lansford
Date Updated: August 28th, 2024