Students read and write journals to relate to events of the past, in this case the Oregon Trail travels. They watch a video and read journal accounts dealing with the trip to the West as they attempt to keep a journal of what the trip...

Consider the possibility of a new U.S. draft with this instructional activity, which encourages class debate and persuasive arguments. Middle and high schoolers discuss how such a draft might be enacted and how they would feel about it....

Students explore and evaluate poetry. In small groups, they read and summarize poems, complete a handout, create and perform a dramatization of a poem, and write a journal entry in response to their performance.

Bring U.S. history to your language arts class with this lesson. Middle schoolers complete an interview for an oral history project, and discuss the importance of oral histories - and how they embellish written accounts. They write...

Students explore the feelings surrounded by humiliation, resentment and retaliation in the context of school violence.  In this character building instructional activity, students examine possible reasons for school violence and...

Eleventh graders participate in activities that compare and contrast The Canterbury Tales with the television show, Survivor. They write a compare and contrast essay, and create a festival table and PowerPoint presentation.

Fifth graders examine excerpts from a diary of a Confederate soldier and his experiences in a Union prison camp. After receiving character cards, they write diary entries from the perspectives of their Civil War identity. As an...

Pupils prepare for an participate in a debate. They watch instructional videos on how debates proceed. Pupils work in teams to research various topics, present their opinions on the issue, and respond to opposing viewpoints during a...

Students identify and research significant people, causes, and primary documents of the U.S. Revolutionary War. They create a class Revolutionary War web using Inspiration computer software, write a journal depicting three days in the...

Students express their opinions about how growth and modernization affect nations. Reading an article on China, they discuss the causes and effects of exponential growth in a single town. They research how China has changed by writing...

Students examine the French draft law to ban religious symbols from public schools. They research "secularist" and "pluralist" positions regarding this ban, debate the topic in class, and draft a position paper on the ban.

Students experience life in the Secret Annex. For this Holocaust lesson, students participate in a simulation. The simulation places them in the Secret Annex for dinner as residents. Students journal about the experience and the quality...

Third graders write a one page paper about what they would like to purchase given the savings techniques. They write down what the object is that they are going to buy, how they are going to earn money to purchase this object, and what...

Sixth graders read the books, The Invisible Thread: An Autobiography by Yoshiko Uchida and Baseball Saved Us by Ken Mochizuki about Japanese Americans during World War II. They hold discussions, take quizzes, and write essays about the...

Students analyze racial issues related to the Human Genome Project. They participate in a mock symposium and write a reflection/position paper based on specific ethical principals.

Fourth graders research and write an author report on Roald Dahl, including books written by him, birthplace, family life, and other information on his writing. Students read aloud chapters in the book. Students create a newspaper...

Students investigate the feelings of Iranian immigrants in California by reading an online article. They write an article on immigrants' thoughts on current events in their home countries.

Middle schoolers access different style and levels of communication. They define the levels of communication and assess personal communication styles. Students write in a journal their different views of the styles covered within this...

Students discuss their role in their local government. Individually, they use various types of media to examine and take a position on a topic important to them. To introduce their position, they write a letter to the Board of...

Students describe what it means to be nomadic and the advantages and disadvantages of living this type of lifestyle. After watching a video, they pretend they are nomads and must develop a list of items to take along with them. They...

Fifth graders explore communication by analyzing manners. In this social skills lesson, 5th graders review the different forms of communication and how to present yourself in a phone conversation, face to face meeting, e-mail, etc....

Third graders listen to and practice in comprehending airplane announcements. They determine the predictability of these announcements.

Students read "Shooting at School Leaves 2 Dead and 13 Hurt" in the New York Times online. They explore their own thoughts and emotions about school violence in the wake of the March 5, 2001 school shooting in Santee, California.

Students share opinions about measures recently passed in their school, vote on and argue for and against hypothetical school policies, and respond to a "president's" decision to pass or veto the measures.