EngageNY
Analyzing the Main Idea in Video: Understanding the Limbic System
It's time to put on those thinking caps and analyze the brain! Pupils watch a video about teenage brain development, using a note-catcher to capture their thoughts about the main idea. Finally, they select two pieces of information from...
Purdue University
Healthy Body Image: A Lesson Plan for Middle School Students
This is a very valuable lesson for middle schoolers on the importance of maintaining a healthy body image through diet, exercise, and positive mentality. The resource includes four lesson plans. The first two plans outline the physical...
HealthTeacher
Get More Sleep
Help learners identify habits that interfere with sleep and to understand the importance of adequate rest and its impact on not only physical health, but also emotional wellbeing.
Curated OER
In Search of Self: Adolescent Themes in the Twentieth Century Short Story
Students read short stories that are related to adolescent issues and behaviors. In groups, they review the elements of a short story and vocabulary they might need while reading. To end the lesson plan, they read "Sir Tatton Sykes"...
Curated OER
Choices That Adolescents Make
Students examine the different types of information available to adolescents. They analyze the decision making process of adolescents and examine the basis for egocentric thought. They analyze to what degree peer pressure affects...
Curated OER
I Have to Change!? The Role of the Adolescent in the Family
Sixth graders examine the changes occuring during adolescents using children's literature. As a class, they brainstorm a list of the various roles they play in their family. In groups, they use excerpts of plays from Shakespeare to...
Curated OER
Female Adolescent Identity Formation: Am I Powerful or Powerless?
Students explore the "coming of age" process experienced by adolescent girls on their journey from children to adulthood. They focus on the middle years or limbo period in which girls decide who they want to become as women or rather,...
Curated OER
The Outsiders
Are you working on an Outsiders unit? Use this list of activities to deepen your middle schoolers' understanding of the novel. After reading S.E. Hinton's novel, young readers work on three required activities, including participating in...
Curated OER
Adolescent Obesity and Susceptibility to Disease
Students understand the importance of maintaining a healthy weight and good health. In this health lesson students read text then create their own pamphlet on the cardiovascular system, weight gain, treatments and health risks.Â
Curated OER
Getting to Know Yourself: Developing and Accessing Intrapersonal Intelligence Among Early Adolescents
Learners improve understanding of the concept of self-awareness by differentiating the internal from the external world. They develop a vocabulary to describe feelings and to understand the uniqueness and variations of people's inner...
Curated OER
Fighting Obesity in Adolescence
Students understand the physical and cultural reasons for the growing rate of obesity in kids. They learn new ways to maintain and promote personal health through exercise and healthy eating.
Nikola Tesla documentary student worksheet
PBS documentary: Tesla - Master of Lightning; this worksheet will keep the students engaged while watching this excellent documentary about Tesla. The documentary can be found on Netflix or YouTube. It will take two class periods to...
Curated OER
Changes, Choices, and Lessons
The teen years are nothing but a series of personal, social, and academic changes. Help kids understand what to expect as they mature and give them ways to make good decisions. After discussing they types of changes they'll go through,...
IRISS
Exploring Self-Esteem 1: What Is Self-Esteem?
Adolescents explore self-esteem and the various factors that influence a person's sense of self in this four-part lesson series. Through a combination of whole class instruction, small group discussions, and independent work, students...
Curated OER
Smoking Today = Smoking Tomorrow
Examine statistical data to recognize the relationship of statistics to real-world issues. Pupils navigate e-stat using the Internet and find data about social issues. They complete a worksheet with their data and create an anti-smoking...
Personal Genetics Education Project
Introduction to Personal Genetics
Adolescents have the opportunity to consider how they feel about the possibilities presented by the current availability of genetic sequencing. After some instruction, they participate in a four-corners activity in which you read a...
Curated OER
Hoot: Concept/Vocabulary Analysis
Augment your unit on Carl Hiaasen's Hoot with a series of activities about the environment, civil disobedience, making an impact in the world, and growing up. A list of literary concepts and themes helps you to write your lessons to...
Curated OER
Cover Up: Tools for Integrating Math and Engineering
Blend art, adolescent snacking habits, and math to create new cereal boxes. Secondary learners review scale drawings. They use this information to construct cereal boxes to scale and will compare their creation to the original product to...
King County
Reproductive System
It's every health and science teacher's favorite subject to cover: the reproductive system. This comprehensive lesson introduces adolescents to the reproductive anatomy of men and women with the help of a series of diagrams, discussions,...
EduGAINs
Chemical Properties Investigation
This lesson demonstrates differentiated instruction at its best. Over the course of 2-3 class periods, young chemists have the opportunity to gain a thorough understanding of metals and their chemical properties from a variety of...
Novelinks
Things Fall Apart: Problematic Situation
If you could pick characteristics you would want your child to possess, what would they be? To better understand Okonkwo, one of the key characters in Things Fall Apart, class groups engage in an activity that asks them to consider this...
CPALMS
Analyzing Vonnegut's View of the Future and His Commentary on the Present in Harrison Bergeron
Kurt Vonnegut's short story "Harrison Bergeron" engages adolescents with its theme about the dangers of complete societal equality. Learners complete a graphic organizer to track literary elements in the story, as well as an inference...
Curated OER
The Physiological and Psychological Development of the Adolescent
Students examine the life of a teenager from their own perspective and an adult's. In groups, they focus on the biological changes and how they are different in a girl and a boy. Individually, they write a paper about these changes and...
Curated OER
Statistical Drug Abuse and Adolescents in the U.S.A.
Students examine statistics of teenagers using alcohol and marijuana. In groups, they brainstorm the reasons why they believe usage is higher than in years past. As a class, they role-play different roles in scenerios to help them...