Lesson Plans and Resources Unique to this Site

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Last updated 12-6-23

The resources and lesson plans listed below were developed by Edmund Sass, Professor of Education, College of Saint Benedict/Saint John's University. They are organized by subject/topic (see index below). Anyone wishing to reproduce and use these materials for educational purposes is free to do so as long as they credit me and the web page source.

Site Index: Disability-Related, History, Language Arts, Learning, Minnesota, Human Development, Miscellaneous/Other

Disability-Related Lesson Plans and Resources
Speaking and Writing About People with Disabilities
Ideas and a worksheet I use for teaching about appropriate language (including people-first language) for speaking and writing about individuals with disabilities.

Teaching About Intellectual Disabilities/Mental Retardation: Ideas for Classroom Activities
Two activities, complete with handouts, that I use in my
Human Development class (Education 203) to teach college students (mostly second year) about mental retardation/intellectual disabilities. I believe the activities would also be appropriate for use at the high school level, perhaps in a psychology class.

The Polio History Pages
No unit on the the history of disabilities or disease would be complete without some mention of polio, the near hysteria caused by the epidemics of the early 1950s, and the euphoria that greeted the development of the Salk vaccine. Drawing from my book, Polio's Legacy: An Oral History, this site provides excerpts from polio narratives, a polio timeline, and information about the disease, its history, and late effects.

A Polio History Quest
A set of 25 questions, complete with a printable worksheet, coinciding with the information provided within the Polio History Pages. It should be appropriate for use with grades 5 and up.

Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Deception: Was It Successful?
A secondary-level activity exploring disabilities issues within the context of FDR's efforts to hide the extent of his disability from the American public.

History
American Educational History: A Hypertext Timeline
My latest Web project, this annotated, clickable timeline of American educational history extends from 1607 to the 21st Century. See the accompanying lesson plan/activity, American Educational History: What's Most Important?

Franklin Delano Roosevelt's Disability
A secondary-level activity exploring disabilities issues within the context of FDR's efforts to downplay the extent of his disability from the American public.

WW II: The Other Americans
A multicultural World War II lesson plan I developed as an example for my students.

German-American Internet Scavenger Hunt
A site I developed for Rocori Middle School German Day.


Language Arts
A Horse is a Hoarse, Of Course, Of Coarse
An intermediate-grade lesson plan using cooperative learning to teach about homonyms/homophones.

Using Commas and Semi-Colons Correctly
A high school lesson plan based on an activity I use with my college students.

Courage and Fear
A lesson plan using The Red Badge of Courage developed as an example of confluent education.

Introducing The Hunger Games
An excellent 9th-grade lesson plan submitted by one of the students in my Educational Psychology class.

Learning
Your Emerging Theory/Philosophy of Teaching
Complete this rating scale to find out if your beliefs about learning are consistent with those of behaviorism, cognitivism, or humanism.

Faculty Psychology and "Formal Discipline"
A concise overview of this historically important view of human learning.

Classroom Motivation Activity/Lesson
An activity I used in my Educational Psychology Class. See the related handout, Motivation: The 4 Factors.



Minnesota

Tracking the T-Wolves
An ongoing intermediate-grade activity designed to take advantage of students' interest in professional sports to help them learn about the first of the five themes of geography: location, particularly the location of U.S. and Canadian cities having NBA teams.

Minnesota History: A WebQuest
This 25-question WebQuest might make a good extension or culminating activity for your Minnesota state history unit.

The Minnesota Fish Quiz
Not a lesson plan, but this interactive, online quiz is a fun way to learn about Minnesota fish species and may be just what you need to motivate the outdoors-types in your classroom this spring.

Where in the World Is the Northwest Angle?
A brief lesson plan in  which students
learn about  the Northwest Angle's location, history, and people.

Lake Agassiz
Would this lake have been the ultimate fishing spot? Read this hypertext essay and decide for yourself. See the Lesson Plan and Worksheet developed for use with this essay.

Living in Minnesota!
Are you doing a state report on Minnesota? This is your lucky day. I wrote this essay just for you!


Human Development
Erik Erikson's Psychosocial Stages Activity
An activity I use with my human development class.

Freudian Jigsaw Cooperative Learning Activity
Another activity I use in class.

Kohlberg's Stages of Moral Development: Discussion Activity
An activity I used in my Human Development class.


Other/Miscellaneous
On Sisyphus and Teaching

Read my essay.

Centigrade and Fahrenheit: What's the Difference?
A multi-level, cooperative learning lesson plan for fifth-grade science/math.

 

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This site is maintained by
Edmund J. Sass, Ed.D.
You can reach him at
esass@csbsju.edu

Background courtesy of the Assorted backgrounds