Scratching your head when it comes to engaging writing prompts? Check out a list of prompts designed for middle school classes, which includes topics for persuasive writing, expository writing, how-to essays, personal narratives, and...

Use a baseball themed color by number instructional activity that focuses on basic division to reinforce those math skills.  After solving each problem, young mathematicians color each square according to the key and...

Learners listen to Japanese folk songs to get inspired to create a writing piece about Japan.  In this writing lesson, students use primary and secondary sources to add information about Japan. 

There are so many things to celebrate in the month of April, like April Fool's Day, Earth Day, and spring! Use these fun prompts to get young writers writing during the month of April.

The puppy is hungry! Give him pieces of dog food with a play dough activity. Kids figure out how many pieces to make with each page, then place them in the dog's bowl.

Pupils listen to a play, or perhaps, take turns reading portions of it aloud. Afterward, they thoughtfully analyze and discuss the components of a well-written play. Next, a theme is assigned, and each person writes a play in conjunction...

How did World War I end? Tenth graders role play as experts from countries that were involved in World War I. They write a treaty to end the war and compare it to the Treaty of Versailles.

Who were some of the popular playwrights of Elizabethan England? Using the provided fact sheets, scholars research playwrights, explore three different types of plays, and learn about censorship in Elizabethan England. 

While the themes of Julius Caesar may appeal to most readers, the act of reading the play can be a challenge. A unit plan related to the popular play by Shakespeare provides lesson plans and activities designed for differentiated...

High schoolers examine the New York Times review of the film adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and explore the elements of scriptwriting. They read the article about the film adaptation screenplay and examine a...

Learners view a slide show featuring famous athletes and educational institutions that have played a part in the history of basketball. They participate in a game in which a basketball is tossed from person to person as facts and...

Watching a theatrical production can profoundly impact a person, but how would one convey the experience in writing? A handout helps readers organize their ideas and effectively write about plays, productions, and performances. Scholars...

A cork, a rubber snake, and a bucket of mud may not seem like the best materials for washing a car, but they are in The Twits. The fifth lesson in an 11-part unit designed to accompany The Twits by Roald Dahl has readers role play...

Start off your day with a study of -ay words. Pupils can practice long a with -ay words by reading the brief poem included here. After they read, class members answer three reading comprehension questions right on the page.

William Shakespeare penned some of the richest and most fascinating works of literature—or did he? Middle schoolers read three brief informative passages and conduct additional research to evaluate the claim that Shakespeare did not...

Enhance a unit on historical fiction with an engaging writing lesson. Learners bring the Industrial Era to life as they compose their own historical fiction pieces based on primary source images of Pittsburgh steel workers. 

Looking for stimulating writing prompts that won't make young writers cringe? A set of five personal narrative writing prompts engages pupils in analyzing, thinking, connecting, and writing about particular topics. Each...

Use drawings as inspiration. Have learners doodle for 10 minutes before beginning the lesson. Then, have them use their doodles to inspire a story. Several writing activities are included here to play with writing. One of my favorites...

Don't just rely on adjectives to describe the nouns in your sentence! Use a handy learning exercise to review prepositional and adjective phrases. Learners read eight sentences and add prepositional phrases as adjectives after either the...

Whodunnit? Find out who killed Mr. Brooks through a logical examination of evidence. Class members fill out a couple of data tables to help them pin down the suspect. After they've figured out just who the culprit is, pupils compose...

Give observational and writing skills a boost with a worksheet that takes scholars on a sight-seeing journey around the school. Learners read sentences and color a corresponding picture, then write their own observational sentence...

Help your pupils find a pattern of direct variation. Young scholars use input-output pairs to find a constant of variation and then write the equation. As they build their equations, the interactive lesson provides feedback.

It's all about location and size. With the aid of the interactive, pupils explore the relationship between the location and size of a circle and its equation. The learners use that relationship to determine the equation of a circle given...