Expand your knowledge of exponents with an activity that promotes critical thinking and comparison skills. Middle and high schoolers compare numbers written in expanded and exponential form and explain their strategies for solving...

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...

When you come across an unfamiliar word in a text, do you skip it and move on? Practice using context clues to identify words you don't know with a thorough set of language arts lessons. The resource reinforces close reading and critical...

Take a close look at the world around you with an activity that magnifies everyday objects. Five explorations examine items under intense magnification and pose a series of questions that encourage critical thinking and following...

Three mini units make up one large unit designed to explore multiculturalism and encourage cultural identity. Each lesson sparks thoughtful discussion, critical thinking, and are equipped with activities and assignments geared to...

"Clean the data!" "I did not know it was dirty." Introduce your class to the process of cleaning data so that it can analyze it. Groups work through a guide that demonstrates the common ways to filter and sort data. Pairs then...

Socratic seminars are a great way to encourage the development of critical thinking, speaking, and listening skills. And Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol is a perfect text for such a seminar. Use the questions in the packet to...

How do you put something as large as the universe in perspective? Use a series of scale experiments. Classmates collaborate around four experiments to examine the scale of the earth-moon system, our solar system, the Milky Way galaxy,...

Emily Dickinson's "Because I could not stop for Death" provides high schoolers with an opportunity to practice their critical thinking skills. They examine the images, diction, rhythm, and rhyme scheme the poet uses and consider how...

Sweethearts® candies are a beloved Valentine's Day treat—so much so that eight billion hearts are produced every year around the world! Learners use number sense reasoning and critical thinking to solve nine word problems about the...

For 30 years, Long John Silver has sailed the seas. An eBook version of Treasure Island introduces readers to the tales Long John Silver has to tell. This 1883 version of the text includes an introduction to encourage critical...

What do cereal, fog, and space shuttles have to do with newspapers? A collection of science investigations encourage critical thinking using connections to the various parts of the newspaper. Activities range from building origami seed...

Great literature discussions are a consequence of carefully crafted questions, interpretative questions that permit more than one response, and responses supported by specific evidence from the text. The discussion questions in a guide...

Being able to recognize patterns, craft generalizations, and draw conclusions based on information in a text passage are essential critical thinking skills. Encourage learners to hone these skills with a worksheet that asks them to read...

Carbon is in the air; should we care? Teach the class why it is important to pay attention to carbon levels and how the world population and various countries across the globe affect the carbon levels in the atmosphere. High schoolers...

Human geography involves everything from why people build factories along the United States-Mexico border to how land-use patterns and demographics are related. So, how do test-takers put it all together? Focused questions from an AP...

Behaviors are often based on assumptions. That's the big idea in the third lesson of a series of critical think resources. Through a series of worksheets, learners examine the conscious and heretofore unconscious assumptions that...

Sharing isn't always caring. Scholars learn how to reduce the spread of misinformation on the Internet. They take an online quiz of example posts targeted to a specific audience. Using critical thinking skills, they see if they can tell...

There were four key players involved with the Treaty of Versailles. Present information and critical thinking questions regarding Woodrow Wilson, David Lloyd-George, Georges Clemenceau, and Vittorio Orlando. Included also are lists of...

Did your class finish reading about Feudal Japan and the Tokugawa Shogunate period? Reinforce their understanding with three essay questions focused on comprehension and critical thinking.

When explorers set out to discover the world, they opened the world economy through global trade. Read, then use this expository writing instructional activity to answer three critical thinking questions. Each question relates to the...

Learners will explore the collapse of European imperialism. They'll respond to three critical thinking questions in essay form. Topics include Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge in Cambodia, South African apartheid, and the role Nelson Mandela,...

Was Oedipus' destiny determined by fate or by his actions? Using details from the text, ninth graders delve into a critical thinking exercise based on Sophocles' Oedipus the King. Now that Oedipus has learned his true identity, readers...

Newspapers aren't only for reading—they're for learning skills, too! A journalism unit provides three lessons each for primary, intermediate, and secondary grades. Lessons include objectives, materials, vocabulary, and procedure, and...