Go beyond simply telling learners to improve their work ethic and study habits with this complete instructional activity on developing study skills! 

Use this comprehensive packet to accompany a study of Missing May by Cynthia Rylant. Starting out with a brief author biography and background information about the novel, this guide includes materials to use throughout the entire novel....

West of the West's documentary Arlington Springs Man introduces viewers to the remarkable finds on Santa Rosa Island. Archaeologist have discovered on this small island that is part of the Channel island chain, human and pygmy mammoth...

Words can hurt! But self-esteem can blunt the impact. That's the takeaway when discussing the themes in Sharon G. Flake's powerful novel The Skin I'm In. A discussion guide leads groups through a study of this narrative of a girl...

No wonder the ship was called the Titanic. An investigation of Norse, Roman, and Greek Mythology provides insight into mythological characters and corresponding words in the English language. A close look at roots, prefixes, and suffixes...

Words, words, words. The function of words in persuasive writing is the focus of a group activity that asks members to analyze how words advertisers use are designed to influence targeted audiences.

Every culture has a set of social skills one must learn to establish and maintain relationships. Some of these skills are particular to a culture and some are universal. Class members practice using appropriate language,...

Readers of Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry expand their understanding of discrimination by using the provided graphic organizer to record the definition of the word, characteristics of and different types of discrimination, as well as...

Following extensive modeling about how to apply word analysis and vocabulary skills to learn new words, partner teams create brief word presentations to teach new vocabulary to the class. Preselect words from upcoming social studies,...

School House Rock's "Preamble" launches a study of the Preamble of the US Constitution and the relevance of this 200 year-old document today.

Take a look at linguistics and stereotypes in Great Britian with a word study of "chav." Learners find out what terms are pejoratives and what they are meant to convey. Geared toward British culture, study the ever-changing English...

Act and act, address and address...there are so many words in our dictionary that can function as nouns or verbs. Start this activity by having your class list as many as they possibly can. When an adequate list presents itself, have...

It is easy to forget the power that written or spoken word can have in effecting change. Using quotations from such inspirational leaders as Maya Angelou, Mahatma Gandhi, and Martin Luther King Jr., encourage your class members to...

As part of a study of Spoken Word Poetry, class members watch a series of performance videos and note where poets get their ideas and the performance techniques used by the poets. Pupils then draft and share their poems.

Pop quiz! Learners work in groups to answer questions on a quiz about dictionary skills.  They then work to create a dictionary skill quiz of their own. Groups exchange quizzes and race to find all of the answers.

Youngsters learn how "hand-me-downs" can help save money while practicing math word problems with this fun learning center activity.

Words are powerful ... can your class choose them wisely? Scholars evaluate news articles to discover the concepts of tone, charge, and bias during a media literacy lesson plan. The resource focuses on recognizing implicit information...

There's something fishy going on in the ocean. Using the resource, scholars engage in a jigsaw activity, researching a case study of a depleted fish species. After completing their research, each triad partners with another group to...

Do you ever give your class the "teacher look"? Without saying a word, they become silent and engaged (hopefully). How do they know what you're thinking? Explore the concept of nonverbal communication and how it relates to our...

Revisit the documentaries viewed in the previous lesson in this series in order to take a look at the persuasive techniques employed by the documentary creators. Small groups watch the films a second time, taking notes on two provided...

The verbal techniques and emotional appeals contained in the language used in political ads plays a vital role in creating the impact of the ad. As class members continue their study of Presidential campaign commercials from 1952–2012,...

Encourage your class to use a variety of strategies to learn and retain vocabulary words. The plan suggests that near the beginning of your reading of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead pupils should find words in the text that are...

As part of a study of women in Congress, groups analyze historical photographs associated with women's history and with women senators and representatives.

What fun! As part of a vocabulary exercise designed for Victor Martinez's Parrot in the Oven: Mi Vida readers create word trees with the trunk representing the root word and the branches representing prefixes that can be added to the...