Classroom Resources > Resource Type
National Bullying Prevention Month was created by PACER in 2006 with a one-week event which has now evolved into a month-long effort that encourages everyone to take an active role in the bullying prevention movement. Efforts are focused on encouraging both personal and community responsibility to prevent bullying. During this month, communities are urged to address the problem of bullying through media campaigns, classroom activities, workshops, and other special events.
Promote school-wide awareness of bullying issues by sponsoring a poster contest. First, complete one of the lessons below and review information learned about bullying and the roles of bystanders and victims. Divide the class into three groups, and have each group create a poster representing the role of the bully, the victim, or bystanders to educate other classes about bullying issues. Then, advertise a poster-making contest to other classes, asking students to create posters that illustrate ways each student in the school can help stop bullying and make the school environment safer.
- Invite entrants to use any medium they wish to create their posters, including pencil, crayon, paint, or even an interactive medium such as the ReadWriteThink Printing Press (flyer format).
- Ask other classroom teachers, the school counselor, and the art teacher to help in judging the posters. Be sure to communicate your judging criteria as part of the contest.
Include a reproduction of the winning poster in the school newsletter or website, or feature the poster in the library, cafeteria, or main office.
McGruff.org provides resources for adults and children looking to stop bullying and educate others about bullying issues. Look for comics, a kids' poll, parent articles, and more.
This resource, from the U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration, offers fun games, webisodes, and other resources designed to teach children about bullying prevention.
This site provides information about bullying and offers tips for preventing bullying and providing help both to victims and to students who engage in bullying behavior.
The Meet Kelly Bear website provides this teacher's guide with strategies for teaching about bullying.
The goals of this site/center are to engage and educate communities nationwide to address bullying through creative, relevant and interactive resources.
In support of Bullying Prevention Awareness Month, the National Child Traumatic Stress Network (NCTSN) is providing resources for families, teens, educators, clinicians, mental health professionals, and law enforcement personnel on how to recognize, deal with, and prevent bullying.
The "1984" commercial launched Apple's Macintosh personal computer in the United States in January, 1984. The 45-second ad, which aired during a break in the third quarter of Super Bowl XVIII, was declared the best ad of the last 50 years in 1995. Directed by Alien and Blade Runner director Ridley Scott, the advertisement cost $1.6 million to produce and was aired only once.
After finishing one or more of the lessons on advertising below, have students create original advertisements. Have students review the advertising techniques they've studied (propaganda, advertising fallacies). Next, have students identify a subject for their ad, such as a favorite television show, CD, or product; an upcoming event; or a political candidate. Then, ask small groups to create advertisements designed to persuade others to use a product, hold a viewpoint, or participate in an activity. Students can use one of the following activities to share their ads:
- Videotape student presentations.
- Perform skits in the style of radio or television commercials.
- Draw posters or print flyers using the Printing Press interactive.
This page includes background information about the ground-breaking Apple commercial and the difficulties involved in airing it, as well as links to the commercial itself.
MediaSmarts provides lesson plans and other resources for teaching about advertising and media persuasion.
Media specialist Cynthia Matzat provides this slideshow, which highlights propaganda and other advertising techniques.
This PBS website illustrates the ways advertisers try to manipulate consumers. Included is a collection of interactive activities for kids.
Toni Morrison, Nobel Laureate and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of fiction, nonfiction, drama, and poetry, was born in 1931 in Lorain, Ohio. Best known for her novels such as The Bluest Eye, Song of Solomon, and Beloved, she also published children's books based on Aesop's fables with her son Slade. Recurring motifs in her works for both young and adult readers included the reworking of myths, fables, and folk tales and the importance of personal and collective memory. She passed away in 2019.
Although most of Morrison's works are appropriate at the secondary level, students at any grade can be introduced to her style and language through her book Who's Got Game? Poppy or the Snake?, based on Aesop's fable "The Farmer and the Snake."
- Remind students of (or retell) "The Farmer and the Snake." Ask students to consider how the moral of the story relates to who is portrayed as the victim and who is the portrayed as the aggressor.
- Share with students Morrison's retelling of the fable. Ask students to pay attention to ways in which the retelling changes and expands on the original story (such as setting, character, dialogue, etc.). Use the ReadWriteThink interactive Story Map tool to facilitate this process.
- After reading the retelling, discuss students' observations. Ask students to compare the moral of the new story-now a tale about memory and paying attention-to the old one. How have the authors altered the resolution of the conflict-the snake is now a pair of boots that Poppy uses to remind him of the lesson-to shape that new moral?
- Consider sharing other such reworkings such as Christopher Myers' book Wings (which thoughtfully plays off the Icarus myth) before asking groups of students to adapt a myth, folk tale, or fable of their choosing to share with the class. Invite students to use the Story Map tool in their writing process.
The society, an official member of the Coalition of American Author Societies that make up the American Literature Association, has as its goal to "initiate, sponsor, and encourage critical dialogue, scholarly publications, conferences and projects devoted to the study of the life and works of Toni Morrison."
In 1993, the Nobel Foundation awarded its prize in Literature to Morrison, "who in novels characterized by visionary force and poetic import, gives life to an essential aspect of American reality." The site contains a biography, the text and sound recording of her Nobel lecture, and excerpts from her prose.
In this special edition of the Book Tour program on National Public Radio, Toni Morrison reads from her 2008 novel, A Mercy. The page also includes an interview with Morrison.
A collection of essays offering new and experienced teacher-scholars alternative ways to approach Toni Morrison's fiction and prose in the classroom, focusing on the history of racism and identity and cultural politics.
Prominent political and social activist was born in Ponce, Puerto Rico on June 29, 1893 or September 12, 1891. After being educated at the University of Vermont and Harvard University and serving in the US military in World War 1, Albizu Campos became interested in the Puerto Rican independence movement, serving as the president of the Nationalist Party from 1930 until his death in 1965.
Among his accomplishments are improved labor conditions in Puerto Rico (Albizu Campos led strikes against the Puerto Rico Railway and Light and Power Company and the US sugar industry) and bringing attention to the problematic colonial relationship between the US and Puerto Rico. His theory of non-collaboration with colonial structures (such as boycotting elections and military service) made him a controversial figure in the US. He was jailed twice and was under FBI surveillance for much of his life.
Called “El Maestro” or “The Teacher” for his powerful speaking ability, Albizu Campos is the namesake of several schools in Puerto Rico, Harlem, and Chicago.
Using background information on Pedro Albizu Campos as an example, invite students to investigate the complicated histories of figures from throughout the world associated with nationalist movement. These movements, often related to histories of colonization, assert the interests of one's own nation as separate from the interests of other nations or the larger interests of all nations. Prominent nationalist figures include
Pedro Albizu Campos (Puerto Rico)
Simón Bolívar (South America)
Miguel Hidalgo (Mexico)
Ho Chi Minh (Vietnam)
Nelson Mandela (South Africa)
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (India)
Michael Collins (Ireland)
Let students or groups of students choose a figure from this list, or another nationalist figure of their choice. Students can conduct research through print and Internet sources and share their findings with their peers using the Bio-Cube student interactive.
This biography provides additional information about the life and accomplishments of Pedro Albizu Campos.
This entry from Stanford University provides background information on nationalism, including links to other resources.
Tim O'Brien, author of the memoir If I Die in a Combat Zone, Box Me Up and Send Me Home and short story collections and novels such as Going After Cacciato (for which he won the National Book Award) and The Things They Carried, is known as America's preeminent writer of the Vietnam War era. A veteran of the conflict, O'Brien writes about the experience of the Vietnam War and Vietnam Era with both specific realism and artful imagination. After his tour of duty in Vietnam, he enrolled at Harvard for graduate work but left to pursue an internship at The Washington Post.
Students who read Tim O’Brien’s stories, particularly The Things They Carried, are intrigued by his flexible literary concept of “truth.” He suggests that the truth of fiction, as revealed by a story, can be more true than what actually happened. After reading O’Brien’s story “A True War Story” from The Things They Carried, have students choose a powerful event from their own lives. Using the Timeline Tool, have them map out the events from real life. Then, with the emotional impact of the full story in mind, encourage them to create a fictional version that remains true to the facts of real life but moves toward O’Brien’s notion of the “story truth.”
This site offers a collection of research links about Tim O’Brien for students and a list of his works and related resources.
In this 2010 interview, Tim O’Brien discusses a number of topics related to his work and their relevance today.
Here you’ll find an audio archive and transcript of O’Brien’s talk on the challenges of writing.
Born in the Hill District of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, August Wilson went on to become one the most significant American playwrights of the 20th Century. The only African American at his high school, Wilson was eventually driven out by threats; his family suffered the same fate when they moved out of the Hill District to a white working-class neighborhood in Pittsburgh.
Wilson was the cofounder of the Black Horizon Theater Company in Pittsburgh. He is most famous for his collection of ten plays-the Pittsburgh Cycle-that, decade by decade, chronicle a portrait of African American experience in the 1900s. Two of those plays, Fences and The Piano Lesson, earned him Pulitzer Prizes in Drama. Wilson died in 2005 and is currently the only African American to have a Broadway theater named after him.
Taking inspiration from August Wilson's epic cycle of ten plays, each set in a different era and together representing a broad portrait of life in a particular community, work with a school or local librarian to gather a number of print and digital resources about the history of your community. Challenge students to find an event or theme that can serve as the focal point for a story set in each decade. Have the class work together to use the Timeline Tool to create a decade-by-decade record of the community's history. Then, have small groups choose one of the events/decades to develop into a play using the Drama Map as a guide.
This site is the online home for this not-for-profit organization that presents performing, visual, and education programs that celebrate the contributions of African Americans and the impact of cultural expression from Africa to the African Diaspora.
The work of Kutztown (Pennsylvania) University assistant professor Mike Downing, this site is an archive of information relating to the life and works of August Wilson.
This site offers a biography of August Wilson, plus links to all of his works currently in print.
After spending many years writing for The New Yorker, E.B. White turned his hand to fiction when his first children's book, Stuart Little, was published in 1945. White's most famous children's book, Charlotte's Web, followed in 1952. Both went on to receive high acclaim and in 1970 jointly won the Laura Ingalls Wilder Medal, a major prize in the field of children's literature. That same year, White published his third children's novel, The Trumpet of the Swan. In 1973, that book received the William Allen White Award from Kansas and the Sequoyah Award from Oklahoma, both of which were awarded by students voting for their favorite book of the year.
In honor of White’s love for children’s books about animals, have a class discussion about the ways that animals are portrayed in different fictional novels (both those by White and others). Have students do one or more of the following activities to further examine farms and farm animals, such as those in Charlotte’s Web:
- Take a class field trip to a local farm. Have students take pictures and write down the sights and sounds of the farm. After returning to the classroom, have students compile a class scrapbook that highlights the different animals at the farms and the most important things learned on the field trip.
- Students can create Acrostic Poems about a farm animal of their choice, share their poems with the class, and then create a classroom bulletin board showcasing all of the students’ favorite farm animals and information about each one.
- Have students create a Venn Diagram comparing and contrasting the farm with the city, farm life with city life, or two different farm animals. This activity can also be followed up by writing a Compare and Contrast Essay as a part of a longer activity.
- Compare the book version of Charlotte’s Web to the movie version. Then, use the Compare and Contrast Map or Venn Diagram to discuss the similarities and differences between the two.
This site includes stories about E.B. White's life and Charlotte's Web, Stuart Little, The Elements of Style, and Trumpet of the Swan.
Read about E.B. White, author of the cherished children's classic Charlotte's Web, Stuart Little, and The Trumpet of the Swan.
Find out information about E.B. White, Charlotte’s Web, and take part in some “fun and games” related to the book and movie.
Laurie Halse Anderson, the New York Times-bestselling author who is known for tackling tough subjects with humor and sensitivity, was born on this day in 1961. Her work has earned numerous national and state awards, as well as international recognition. Two of her books, Speak and Chains, were National Book Award finalists. Laurie was honored with the 2009 Margaret A. Edwards Award given by YALSA division of the American Library Association for her “significant and lasting contribution to young adult literature…”.
In the novel Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson, the main character lists "the first ten lies they tell you in high school":
1. We are here to help you.
2. You will have time to get to your class before the bell rings.
3. The dress code will be enforced.
4. No smoking is allowed on school grounds.
5. Our football team will win the championship this year.
6. We expect more of you here.
7. Guidance counselors are always available to listen.
8. Your schedule was created with you in mind.
9. Your locker combination is private.
10. These will be the years you look back on fondly.
Discuss with the students if some of these "lies" were similar to the ones they have heard, as well as how they are different. Then, ask students to brainstorm their own personal list of "ten lies they tell you in high school," complete with the truth, or their views on the truth.
Have students share, as a class, the "lies" they have been told in high school and how they've learned differently. Consider publishing a handmade classroom book with the lists of ten lies created by each student, and using it as a "guide to high school" for future students.
Laurie Halse Anderson's site has information on her life, books, and censorship, among other resources.
This site contains biographical information and an interview with the author.
Anderson's playful side emerges when she looks at real history and women who played a role in it.
John Venn the notable English logician, philosopher, mathematician and most notably the creator of the Venn Diagram was born on this day in 1834. In the diagram, circles are used to visually and logically sort groups to illustrate their relationships to each other. The creation is used in the fields of mathematics, psychology, literature, logistics, statistics, probability, but most significantly it used in school classrooms around the world.
Build a community within your classroom using Venn Diagrams.
Group Activity – Print out copies of the 3 Circle Venn Diagram graphic organizer. Arrange students into groups of three and supply them with the graphic organizer. Have students talk in their groups about themselves and the things they like to do. After a brief discussion, students document ways in which they are alike, ways in which they are like others in their small group, and ways in which they are totally unique. Have students display their diagrams and share them with the entire class.
Partner Activity – Print out copies of the 2 Circle Venn Diagram graphic organizer, or if students have access to a mobile device, download the Venn Diagram Mobile App. Arrange students into pairs within the classroom. Using the graphic organizer or mobile app have the students share information about themselves and their likes and dislikes.
This website provides a short biography, honors, pictures, and the obituary of John Venn.
This website provides a short biography about John Venn.
Author of such titles as Minnie's Boys, Feathers, Locomotion, and After Tupac and D Foster, Jacqueline Woodson won the National Book Award for Young People's Literature for Brown Girl Dreaming in 2014. She is also a recipient of a Newbery Honor, a Coretta Scott King Award and a Margaret Edwards Award.
Read aloud the poem “February 12, 1963,” the first poem in Brown Girl Dreaming, and encourage students to use Woodson’s free verse style to write a poem commemorating their own birthday or the birthday of a friend or relative.
After students draft a collection of images and ideas, encourage them to use the Line Break Explorer to experiment with ways to arrange their words for aural and visual effect. Students can also use the Acrostic Poems or Diamante Poems interactives to find other ways to represent a birthday through verse.
Jacqueline Woodson’s official site offers tips for readers, teachers, and caregivers to get the most out of the resources it offers.
This thirteen part interview also includes a transcript and other reader resources.
This page on the National Book Foundation site includes video of Sharon Draper presenting the National Book Award to Woodson’s acceptance speech and a reading from Brown Girl Dreaming.