Have your high schoolers practice their public speaking skills by writing an either/or speech. Individually, they complete an outline on what they want to discuss and give their speech to the class. To end the lesson, they complete a...

Even though readers investigate matters of the heart, this activity promotes the inner workings of learners' brains. The fifth lesson of six has the teacher first model the strategy to the class before having small groups practice. To...

Students write a story.  In this critical thinking and writing instructional activity, students read a fable, answer the provided thinking skills questions, and write their own fable.

Utilizing a video camera, learners will read a story while being recorded. Later, they analyze the footage. After identifying their strengths and weaknesses with the teacher, they discuss reading fluency techniques. Adaptation: Instead...

Commonplace today, the zipper and button construction of blue jeans was a major innovation. Using the patent for the J.W. Davis and Levi Strauss innovation, individuals comb an image of the fly for clues. Afterward, they discuss its...

Eighth graders study and analyze the elements of color by creating an personalized color wheel. Emphasis is placed on constructive criticism of student work by others for assessment. Students create short poems for their color wheel...

Conduct research on the Internet about labyrinths and mazes to learn about proportions and ratios. Inquisitive minds design their own maze, one maze is chosen and proportionately enlarged to 20 feet by 30 feet. This is a fun challenge...

This is a wonderful exercise for learners to apply their critical thinking skills along with their knowledge of quadratic functions and parabolas. Young mathematicians investigate a real-world scenario about the height a baseball reaches...

Your class may believe that geometry is a trial, but they don't know how right they are. A thorough math lesson combines the laws of logic with the laws of geometry. As high schoolers review the work of historical mathematicians and...

A three-part writing assessment challenges scholars to think critically about schools of the past and present. Learners read informative texts, answer questions to prepare for a discussion, research in small groups, complete a Venn...

A three-minute exercise warms-up scholars' writing abilities in order to follow a writing process that ends in an essay. The essay's topic is a barrier and the values used to break it. Four steps include choosing a topic,...

Identify the length, width, and height of prisms. Critical thinkers calculate the volume of prisms given small amounts of information. They derive the formula given the length, width and height.

Students discover the meaning of the word genealogy as it appears in the context of reading. They continue finding new vocabulary words and entering them in their personal dictionaries.

Fourth graders solve division problems by practicing on function machine.

Young scholars create web pages by using Microsoft FrontPage and HTML with Microsoft Notepad, and use a web-based template found on the Internet to create web sites for non-profit organizations or businesses with which students are...

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...

Teach the five different types of media with the first of three in a media literacy unit. Learners create and propose a final newspaper project, which must address information covered throughout the unit. 

Combines mathematical measurement with gardening skills. Third graders hunt for worms in the garden and try to find the longest one. They also measure and weigh vegetables that they harvest from the garden, measure rainfall amounts,...

Most twenty-first century pupils don't know how to interpret cuneiform. Examining images of cuneiform and papyrus writing and using a chart and Venn diagram, young historians extrapolate what life may have been like for people who lived...

World War I was known for its gruesome battlefields and horrific injuries. Using photographs from a battlefield surgeon's scrapbook, scholars see first-hand what life was like in the trenches. After creating a timeline of the war using...

Who would have thought to explore the concept of race through children's literature?  After reading Bell Hooks' picture book, Skin Again, and chapter sixteen of Jerry Spinelli's Maniac Magee, class members...

Guide your learners step by step through the process of designing an original, independent student project. This resource includes a wealth of worksheets and materials, including student project checklists, timelines, primary and...

Did he die for a cause, or was he crazy? Although the resource discusses John Brown and West Virginia history, many historical figures have the same reputation. Teach learners about different perspectives and highlight the importance of...

John Brown is considered by many to be a martyr for abolition and civil rights. The resource covers an important event in West Virginian history, the raid by John Brown, as a standalone that discusses Brown's last words and his reaction...