Here's a resource that deserves a place in your curriculum library, whether or not your school has adopted the Common Core. Designed for middle and high school language arts classes, the packet is packed with teaching tips, materials,...

Questioning a text is a very effective way for kids to develop their reading comprehension skills. Designed to engage all class members, a reading activity prompts pairs to develop and share their own questions about the ending of Neil...

Stage fright? Class members learn strategies to overcome stage fright and develop confidence when giving speeches and engaging in debates.

A comprehensive and immersive series of lessons that examines various aspects of story development leads learners into writing a narrative of their own. Writers develop an understanding of the writing process as they use the learning...

In many places in the world, people go to great lengths to get books to read. This beginning-of-the-year activity uses pictures of people reading in extraordinary situations to stimulate effective listening and speaking using the...

"What do we have to do again?" Chances are you hear this question all the time. Here's a handout that offers scholars tips on how to understand college writing assignments. Class members learn strategies to help them decode assignments...

First graders use cues to identify unknown words. They will learn strategies to assist them in decoding while reading.  Then they discuss how to listen to themselves read in order to decide whether or not the word makes sense in the...

Learners examine how to develop the skill of motivation for learning. The application of this skill can be transferred to other areas of life. The use of print media is part of the instructional activity and students reflect upon the...

A Middle school special ed class uses the acronym SPAM to learn the 4 parts of writing. They employ 4 different colors to help them visually distinguish each part of writing in a given prompt. This lesson is vague and uses a strong...

A visual literary lesson provides learners with OPTIC (Observations, Predictions, Themes, Inferences, Conclusions), a reading strategy to help them understand and interpret visual and written texts. Scholars practice the strategy with a...

Here's a fresh take on those first days of school introductions. Learners use Flipgrid to create a video that introduces themselves to their classmates. The richly detailed and carefully scaffolded lesson provides specific directions for...

"Words, words, words." Despite Hamlet's opinion, words can be significant. In this inquiry lesson, middle schoolers learn how the words in Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, in the view of many, lead to the American Civil War. To...

Dora, Buzz Lightyear, Mufasa. Swiper, Dr. Porkchop, Scar. The six lessons in this unit packet focus on how good and evil, and violence, are portrayed in children's animation. The lessons encourage kids to consider how violence is...

Students use research information to create a story reflective of an individual of the Great Depression. Students use the RAFT (role, audience, format, topic) learning strategy to identify their role as the author, their audience, the...

Students are engaged in cooperative learning strategies and critical thinking activities to introduce topics of analysis, probability, assessment, and management as they apply to environmental risk. They choose a risk from the class...

Students work in cooperative groups to read a book in a day. Each group is assigned a portion of the book to read and uses the jigsaw learning strategy to review the book as a whole class.

Students use a CD-ROM that offers a combination of listening, reading, writing, and speaking activities for the beginner Spanish student using a repertory of learning strategies.

Sometimes it's easier to read one part of a novel when focusing on discussion points. Partners work together to read a few paragraphs of Chapter 5 from Gary Paulsen's Hatchet and discuss the plot and theme of the book.

In this activity on writing a terquain, students draw a picture of a subject matter and follow the directions to write a three-line poem about the topic. Students complete four activities.

The second lesson in a two-part series that prepares high schoolers for a study of Othello focuses on additional pre-reading strategies. Pupils reflect on what they have learned and consider what they would like to learn about the play....

What's the best way to learn the elements of the periodic table? The inventions of Thomas Edison? Patience? To prepare for the performance task assessment on how people learn, class members share ideas about ways to learn in a variety of...

Scholars examine how Brutus and Mark Antony employ ethos, pathos, and logos in their speeches to persuade the angry crowd in Act 3, scene 2 of William Shakespeare's tragedy, Julius Caesar. To set the stage, groups first identify the...

An assessment sheds light on scholars' ability to read, gather evidence, and draft an original written composition. Learners read an informative text twice before taking notes and discussing their thoughts and textual evidence with a...