Can animals think? Learners develop their thinking abilities by reading Linden's essay and constructing an evidence-based response. Complete with rubrics and exemplars to evaluate writing, the resource also has suggested pre-, during,...

It is impossible to know whether one has reached a goal without first knowing the goal. Help your sixth graders reach all the Common Core writing standards by giving them a checklist written in language they will understand. As you teach...

New ReviewHalloween is the topic of a writing lesson that challenges scholars to research the holiday and create an information product such as a brochure or oral report. A presentation activates prior knowledge in preparation for a small group...

Children in foster care face a lot of uncertainty in their lives. A guide for the novel One for the Murphys introduces a main character, Carley, who is thrust into the foster care system. Chapter-by-chapter questions cover key details in...

The Grapes of Wrath may be the most famous novel set during the Dust Bowl, but what other stories cover the same time? The unit focuses on the Karen Hesse novel Out of the Dust. Learners keep a timeline of the Dust Bowl, maintain a...

Rome wasn't built in a day, but researchers can be with proper scaffolding. This writing unit has scholars write a research paper through scaffolding of various parts of the process. Learners begin with identifying a topic and crafting a...

I Have A Dream ... that after the lesson, all individuals master the reading, writing, researching, listening, and speaking skills the biography project helps them develop. Martin Luther King, Jr. serves as a topic example for a model...

Take your class on the ride of their lives! Physical science scholars get an in-depth look at potential and kinetic energies in an amusement park-themed unit. Students research, design, and promote their own amusement parks, complete...

Would your ideal science lab be filled with bubbling beakers and zapping Tesla coils? Or would it contain state-of-the-art computer technology and data analysis? Dream big with an innovative lesson that connects math and language arts...

Learners create a standing cube with four panels that display information on the North and South's economy, geography and climate, society, and means of transportation before the Civil War. Through discussion and reading informational...

Be sure to grab a copy of the Revolutionary Times! Scholars take a step back in time to report on topics as set in the revolutionary time period. Events include the ride of Paul Revere, the Battle of Saratoga, and more.

Turn scholars into news reporters whose assignment is to cover the goings on in Early America. Your job as editor is to help individuals select a topic and to guide them on their writing journey. Young journalists then draft their...

Accompany a novel study of Hatchet by Gary Paulson with a unit consisting of 16 lessons focused on physical and emotional survival. Reading the story along with a variety of informational texts, scholars compare and contrast reading...

Sixth graders strengthen their understanding of what a high quality website is composed of. Learners evaluate three websites for accuracy, credibility, and reliability by completing a chart.

Extra! Extra! Read all about leap year! Here, scholars write a newspaper article all about leap year/leap day from given facts including who, what, where, when, and why.

Students act globally by reducing, reusing, and recycling, but now they take it to the next level by upcycling. Middle school students design a proposal to eliminate waste by exploring the new material cycle and applying their knowledge...

Young scholars demonstrate their knowledge of geography with this fun, collaborative social studies project. Working in small groups, students develop their very own countries, writing descriptions of their physical location, social...

Writing the conclusion of an essay can often seem like a superfluous or daunting task. Support your young writers in understanding the various types and purposes of a conclusion paragraph, such as summarizing key points of a paper or...

Writing a research paper has never been so easy! From choosing a topic to publishing the final draft, this presentation covers all the steps in between. Show this to your class in a single lesson, or cover it a few slides at a time as...

Focus on plot and the impact-specific events in The Cay. Class members use their double-entry journals, created in a previous lesson in this series, to record their thinking about the guiding question as they read chapters 15 through 17....

The Odyssey, Star Wars, The Hunger Games. Odysseus, Luke Skywalker, Katniss Everdeen. Add The Hobbit and Bilbo Baggins to these lists, and you have a unit examining classic and contemporary myths, legends, and folktales with hero and...

To many young writers, the conclusion of an essay often seems like a tedious and redundant task. Break down the key elements of a conclusion with this resource, which details how to summarize specific information in the body of an essay,...

An effective argument must be backed up with supporting details and facts. Sixth graders use The True Story of the Three Little Pigs to formulate a personal opinion of the wolf's portrayal of the events. They compose a persuasive letter...

Use famous orators of the past to teach rhetoric to your middle schoolers. In groups, they examine speeches by Malcolm X, Barack Obama, and John F. Kennedy, creating and presenting Wordsplashes to display keywords and their stance on...