Explore self and social construction with a hands-on art project. After studying and discussing bullying and other social experiences, individuals create three paper dolls that represent specific social constructions. Included here is a...

As many writers know, you are your own worst editor. The 10th installment in the Writing the Paper series explains that getting feedback from others is crucial to the writing process. The handout highlights the best time to ask others to...

November is NaNoWriMo, or National Novel Writing Month! If your class is participating (or simply doing a narrative writing unit), this peer review lesson is part of a larger unit which can be easily found online. Once your writers have...

Passages from Unbroken and Farewell to Manzanar provide the context for a study of the historical themes of experiencing war, resilience during war, and understanding the lasting trauma of war. Appendices include extension...

Examine human resilience across two texts with a detailed unit. Over the course of a week, learners will conduct a close reading of excerpts from Unbroken and Farewell to Manzanar. The resource includes clear procedures for reading and...

Can budding writers accept constructive criticism? Learners work with their peers to gain feedback about their argumentative essay drafts. Peers give one another constructive criticism to revise their work better. Using a Peer Review...

Read and discuss "The Yellow Wall-Paper" and the gender issues that the story brings up. Use articles from the time period to analyze, complete with specific discussion questions. After two days, scholars write an essay based on topics...

Young writers complete a timed persuasive writing assignment in which they argue for a club they would like to see established at school, and are then provided with real student samples of responses. 

Using the resource, learners share their essay revisions with a partner. Afterward, they participate in a Fishbowl discussion, receiving peer feedback about their editorial essays. 

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 instructional activity,...

Use this well-developed class period to introduce your junior high learners as to how to provide effective feedback concerning their classmates' writing. The plan includes a warm-up, review, introduction, guided and independent practice,...

As part of a media literacy unit, class members establish criteria for good video reporting, and practice giving both positive (warm) and constructive (cool) criticism.

Do research projects at your school look like a class of eighth graders staring at a blank screen? Use the Big 6 research method to guide middle schoolers through the process of finding a topic, searching for and evaluating sources,...

How well can you launch a ping-pong ball? Small groups design launchers that can launch a ping-pong ball 20 feet into a target. The teams follow the engineering design process as they develop a solution that meets the design...

Students research their family history through ethnographical study. They locate information through a variety of sources, interview people, write a report and present an oral presentation to the class.

Students discuss the right to vote and the significance of mid-term elections. They research and discuss mid-term issues and the importance of voting in these elections.

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...

Students are able to evaluate their peers' essays to determine clarity, completeness, and persuasiveness. They are able to revise their own essays for greater clarity and fluency, adding explanation where needed and cutting extraneous...

The Secret Life of Bees provides high schoolers an opportunity to connect the events in the novel to events in America’s history. After choosing a topic from a provided list, individuals research how the event affected the Civil Rights...

What is a Socratic Seminar? Discover this type of discussion and it functions. Split the class into two groups with Group A sitting in an inner circle and Group B in an outer circle. Each person in Group B is assigned to a person in...

Conduct research focused on improving a current technology by having students work in groups to investigate improvements that could be made to a particular piece of technology. They list the current problems and attempt to develop...

Students collect and analyze data based on academic performance. In this statistics lesson, students create graphs and analyze the data they created. They use positive, negative and no correlation to analyze the data.

Aesop's Fables are the focus of this language arts lesson. Young philosophers study and discuss the morals found in the most famous of Aesop's Fables. They write an original fable that teaches a common moral. A "Fable Listening Library"...