Take note. Scholars receive their claim drafts back to revise and write their claims and three pieces of evidence on notecards. They save the notecards to use when the verbally present their claims to the class. At the end, individuals...

Art classes, like any lab class, require extensive preplanning and set-up time. Use this planning template in the quiet before the storm to identify the equipment and materials that will be needed, the procedures and processes...

Encourage scholars to retell their favorite short story or folktale, adding personal details to make it their own. After reading their book of choice several times, story tellers retell a tale verbally to their classmates. 

Explore non-fiction comprehension strategies with your class. They will visualize daily activities and label a 4 circle Venn diagram with related phrases. They must identify the overlapping sections as "main ideas," then complete a...

Students examine the attributes of pop art. In this visual arts lesson, students examine works by Andy Warhol and Claes Oldenburg prior to applying pop art techniques to their own pop art examples.

Take an in-depth look into the vocabulary from the novel, Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. With a list of words to choose from, scholars discover the definition, origin, stories associated with...

Model for your class members how to use a definition map to make connections between new words and prior knowledge. Although the strategy is designed for social studies classes, the approach can be use at any grade level and in any...

Middle schoolers work with a partner to gather information on a question from two sources using a computer program and the Internet. They also write a report with visuals to air on closed-circuit TV for the school. Use this lesson to...

What's the best resource to use when looking up words? Use Visual Thesaurus to see a word's meaning. The class accesses the interactive website and then compares and contrasts the difference between using a traditional dictionary and the...

Elementary and middle schoolers research animal facts and use them in a fable. First, they pair-share to find animal traits to use in writing a fable. They then complete a prewriting worksheet. After going through the writing process,...

Papier Colle is a printmaking technique used by many famous artists, including Georges Braque and Henri Matisse. Have your class master this art using this fantastic resource. What a fun, new art technique to learn!

Introduce middle schoolers to playwriting and the elements of drama with a six-session storytelling unit that encourages kids to expand their acting and writing skills. The 12-page packet includes overviews of the lessons,...

Begin writing personal narratives in this writing lesson plan. Junior high writers start by writing a journal about their favorite holiday. They read a book at their skill level and use graphic organizers to record their ideas for...

"How important is freedom to you and your family?" The guiding question becomes much more powerful after your class reads and responds to a passage from a historical novel. While reading the passage, they complete a graphic organizer...

Groups of older elementary learners begin their study of figurative language by visiting a website and completing the exercises detailed there. They then apply what they have learned by finding examples in several poems. Finally, they...

Collect evidence and reasons and fill them in on this page to prepare for presenting an argument. Learners can evaluate what they are missing and make sure they fill in each line and bubble before considering their argument complete.

Investigate articles from the daily news and share opinions with classmates. Using current events, learners view a news program without sound and predict what news is being discussed by analyzing the visuals. Then they read news articles...

Developing a topic sentence can be a real challenge for young writers. Make the process a whole lot easier with a poster that can be displayed in the classroom. The visual first describes the two parts of the topic sentence, the occasion...

Students gain an awareness for the work of Alexander Calder, study a variety of utilitarian objects and discuss their purposes, and create graphic of a utilitarian piece using computer graphic software.

The student reflects on concepts of ecological footprints and climate changes. In this Art instructional activity, students will produce a visual representation showing understanding of how ecology and climate affects the world.

Looking for ideas for your Lunar New Year celebration? Check out an interdisciplinary unit of study that includes lessons in counting, calligraphy, culture, geography, literature, art, and music. Kung-hsi Fa-ts' ai! (May you...

The Persuasion Map, a one-page graphic organizer from Houghton Mifflin, not only makes visual the logical organization structure of persuasive writing, but also provides young writers a chance to organize and record facts they will use...

Visualize a plot rollercoaster using this graphic organizer for budding authors. Don't think you're getting the typical five-part plot structure here, though; there are nine spaces for writers to fill in plot elements, assuring they...

Students examine seven different African-American artists. In groups, they use the internet to identify their contribution and techniques to the art world and examine the time period in which the artwork was produced. To end the...