Following a brief mini-lesson on using dialogue in fiction, young writers continue day two of their writing workshop. They work on the second half of their Children's Book Storyboards, and then they turn and talk with partners to reflect...

What a load of rubbish! Using the resource, pupils listen to a poem about litter pollution and discuss the poem's language. After completing a worksheet about the poem, they write their own anti-litter poetry. 

Should identifying a tragic hero be based on a universal definition or a definition based on the morals and values of a specific culture? As part of a study of Things Fall Apart, class members read Sylvia Plath's "Colossus" and then...

The twelfth instructional activity of this unit builds on the skills developed in the previous instructional activity, as fourth graders continue their quest to become experts on colonial trade by listening to interviews with historical...

Encourage your class to consider a beautiful short film about a boy named Theo who happens to be visually impaired. Over the course of the lesson plan, pupils work in pairs, discuss their ideas and the film as a class, view the...

Lesson 7 focuses on building academic vocabulary and writing an explanatory letter with supported textual evidence. For the first five minutes of the activity, the educator reminds the class of how to read and refer to the accordion...

Third graders work to determine the main idea, recall key details, and answer questions using an informational text on the topic of animal adaptations. Using the non-fiction text "Staying Alive: Animal Adaptations" (provided) the teacher...

Voices from the past. Young scholars listen to a podcast interview with a historical re-enactor as they continue their research in the eleventh instructional activity of this unit on colonial trade. Applying their close reading skills,...

Fourth graders work in small groups to become experts on different colonial trades in the eighth instructional activity of this unit. Working toward the long-term goal of writing a piece of historical fiction, young scholars read...

In the tenth instructional activity of this unit, young scholars learn to categorize information as they continue researching their colonial trade. During guided practice, the teacher models how to read informational text slowly while...

Fourth graders view examples of help-wanted ads as they plan and create their own writing in the fourteenth instructional activity of this unit on colonial trade. The engagement of the class is captured when the teacher shares an actual...

In instructional activity 13 of this unit on colonial trade, young researchers learn about apprentices as they prepare to write help-wanted ads for the specific trade they have been researching. To begin, the class listens closely as the...

Here is a fine unit of lessons which compare and contrast the culture during the time period of the classic book, Little Women to present day. Topics covered are the family, politics, morality, fashion, transportation, cities, historical...

Learners examine health issues that are associated with our fast food culture, and the advertising of it. They begin with a snack-food survey to assess their own eating habits. Pupils are encouraged to think critically throughout the...

Support your writers! Clear procedures and appropriate support make this a superb resource for elementary writing instruction. Ready your class to compose original descriptive paragraphs inspired by the episode in Roald Dahl's James and...

Instructions for a creative Spanish project are outlined in this colorful presentation. This project requires students to work in groups and create their own PowerPoint or poster about planning a trip to Mexico. It includes directions,...

Practice the preterite form of "jugar" with this useful PowerPoint. There are eighteen fill-in-the-blank sentences for students to complete. Tip: If you are showing this slideshow during whole class instruction, have students write their...

Three types of external conflict are outlined in this PowerPoint, including character vs. character, character vs. society, and character vs. nature. Tip: Instruct students to write a paragraph explaining some kind of external conflict...

Are your intermediate to advanced Spanish speakers learning the subtle difference between hopefully and maybe? After providing some direct instruction on the difference, test their comprehension with these exercises. 

Little ones are provided with all the tools needed to begin segmenting phonemes. There are twenty Elkonin box picture cards, five blank Elkonin box cards, and full instructions on how to help pre-readers practice splitting and saying...

Khaled Hosseini’s video “Using Real People and Events” motivates learners to reflect on their own experiences and to use those experiences as the basis of a graphic novel that expresses a universal truth. The richly detailed plan...

This activity has pupils study the examples, identify patterns, and apply those patterns to new problems. The goal is to recognize and understand how to put regular Spanish verbs in the past tense. There are six completed examples; two...