Students examine the challenges of a new language and culture. In this cultural lesson, student read Running by Peter Hessler and discuss obstacles faced, including the language barrier. Students write an essay about a time they...

With the emphasis on incorporating more nonfiction in language arts classes the question arises about how to design activities that motivate kids to engage with informational text. How about an assignment that asks class members to...

Class members may "think themselves accurs'd" when they first hear of an assignment that asks them to create a motivational speech. After studying the Saint Crispin's Day speech from Shakespeare's Henry V; however, they will count...

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs provides the lens class members use to analyze and evaluate the motivations of the characters in Sylvia Plath's "Initiation" and scenes from Mean Girls. Readers then select a character from A...

Designed to help readers recognize the point of view of the author of a primary source documents and analyze how that point of view influences the reliability of a text, young historians examine two personal letters, one...

Students explore the concept of design, and identify items in their lives that have been designed. They explore the concept of book design and create and arrange their own page layout.

There is nothing more frustrating than discussing theme in literature, and now the Common Core requires that your learners determine two or more, and discuss the development of it throughout the text. This is crazy, but manageable with...

Second graders collect data by spinning two spinners and creating sums, organize the data, and make conclusions from the data. Each students makes a spinner. They spin and record the number of the section each time. Students work in...

The first instructional activity of a five-instructional activity unit designed for eighth graders has class members reading and watching a video of Edgar Allen Poe's narrative poem, "The Raven." They then craft their narrative poem,...

Pupils examine similarities and differences between cultures. They'll see that literature, reading, and story telling is something all cultures have in common. They should construct Venn diagrams to help them compare and contrast the...

When we think of ocean exploration, many of us have visions of sunken pirate ships full of treasure or mysterious creatures of the deep. What really motivates deep-sea investigation? The first in a series of diverse six-part lessons...

Learners make predictions and draw conclusions from given information as they learn the meaning of probability in this vocabulary-rich, integrated activity that presents a variety of teaching strategies to motivate and reach...

Third graders roll a die seven times, each time determining whether to add that number of tens or that number of ones to try to make a sum as close to 100 as possible without going over.

Introduce your math class to the perimeter of a circle. Teach them that pi describes the relationship between the circumference and the diameter. As a hands-on investigation, pairs or small groups use string to compare these two values...

Fifth graders use interlocking cubes to build towers to represent factors of numbers and place the towers in the appropriate places on a Tower chart in order to look for patterns. They work in partner groups, and finish by writing...

To conclude their investigation of the life of Mary Maverick and to demonstrate their ability to analyze primary source documents, groups use the SOAPS questioning method to examine Maverick's account of events in early Texas history.

Sixth graders discuss The Butterfly. For this literacy lesson, 6th graders write two postcards about the issues of the Holocaust from the two different perspectives of the two girls from the text.

Motivate young conservationists to stand up and make a change. After learning about the efforts in Cascade Nation Park to reduce carbon emissions in order to preserve the wilderness, students work in groups creating action plans for...

An activity packet explores the concept of time. First, scholars read two stories—The Very Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle and Telling Time: How to Tell Time on Digital and Analog Clocks! by Jules Older, illustrated by Megan Halsey....

Students study the similarities and differences between their school and a school in Korea. In this culture study lesson, students discuss and list their classroom's weekly schedule. Students then read about a Korean class schedule and...

Use the fairy tale Rumpelstiltskin to teach your third grade class about descriptive writing. Following a teacher read-aloud of the story, the class brainstorms a list of adjectives describing the main character. Students use this list...

Learning to analyze language, symbols, and codes is part of becoming a deep and critical thinker. Young analysts consider their ability to see hidden messages as they analyze the work of Paul Chan. There are two fully developed...

Bring the Age of Exploration into the 21st century with this ancestry activity! Learners get a chance to explore the complex genealogy of the Spanish settlers through watching two video clips (approximately five minutes each) featuring...

Young scholars plan healthy lunches and how to dispose of their lunch waste. In this pre-field trip lesson, students and teachers plan healthy, nutritious lunches to bring on a field trip. They also discuss how to sort their garbage into...