Learning new vocabulary words is best done in the context of an engaging story like David Kirk's Miss Spider's Tea Party. New readers (or almost-readers) focus on any of 12 new words: conceal, courtesy, demand, descend, dread,...

Examine the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. After reading an article from the New York Times and exploring the author's word choice, young readers find the central idea in the text and work on researching...

Running an election campaign takes money. Class groups must effectively budget money in order to design and purchase sufficient advertising aimed at procuring classmates' votes. After completing an online tutorial, they also write and...

Eleventh graders examine the political demands put on one of four groups living in America during WWII. Each class member is asked to research and write a paper describing the homefront experience for women, Hispanics, African-Americans,...

In this necessities worksheet, students choose eight out of ten various necessities to write a definition for utilizing relative clauses. Students read and edit/proof-read an email associated with a party.

To recognize the International Day of Peace, pupils complete activities such as reading a passage, phrase matching, fill-in-the-blanks, correct words, multiple choice, spelling sequencing, scrambled sentences, asking questions, take a...

Determine how African-Americans have broken barriers in this history lesson. Middle schoolers discuss the 15th Amendment and the American civil rights movement prior to analyzing Barack Obama's speech "A More Perfect Union," taking care...

"Come gather round people, wherever you roam..." Bring the voice of Bob Dylan to your class with this lesson plan, which takes Dylan's song "The Times They Are A-Changing" and analyzes both the message and voice in the lyrics. Your class...

Are your AP classes struggling with Document Based Questions? Nip their problems in the bud with this clear and comprehensive presentation, which compares a "dazzling DBQ" to a hamburger, outlining all of the layers therein....

Throughout history, many people have run for president. But, what is that like for the children of those individuals? Kids read a bit about Mitt Romney and his five children, then respond to a writing prompt in a blog post. They describe...

Who cares about manners anyway? According to the New York Times, Mrs. Mason does. Learners read and consider an article which addresses the decline of manners and the impact it has on society. They answer seven critical thinking...

If you're starting a research project, use this guide to help young learners form the inquiry for their research. With steps that outline the entire process, including note taking and gauging the quality of an inquiry question, this...

How do you figure out what word best completes a sentence? The answers and explanations key that accompanies an eight sentence exercise outlines the strategies used to determine the correct response for assessments of this type....

Explore the dancing prodigy and Depression-era African-American icon Bill Robinson as scholars learn new vocabulary words in context. As you read Leo Dillon's Rap a Tap Tap they listen for six new words: clatter, greet,...

Over the course of the lesson plan, your pupils read and analyze a translated eight-line poem from the Tang Dynasty written by Du Fu, a poet caught behind enemy lines during the An Lu-Shan rebellion (755-763). Literary/historical context...

Candide is a dense text. To assist in analyzing Voltaire's satire, groups employ a cubing strategy based on Bloom's taxonomy. Complete directions for the strategy, a template for the cube, a worksheet, and a topic list are included. 

What's theme, and can texts of every length have one? Explore the themes of fives short reading passages with your middle school class. Encourage them to highlight specific places in the text where they recognized the theme. 

Students examine the historical, social, cultural and economic context of Charlotte Perkins Gilman's story, The Yellow Wallpaper. Students determine the place of the middle class woman and her role in society.

Here is a fascintating lesson which relates how the motto "In God We Trust" came to appear on all US currency. It turns out that a man from Arkansas came up with the idea and petioned his congressman and President Eisenhower himself to...

Read and examine primary source material in order to analyze, synthesize, and debate information about the Great Depression. Critical analysts research various source materials related to the Great Depression. They work in teams to...

Twelfth graders use computers and the Internet to research a specified area, word processors to prepare an essay, a digital camera, a video camera gather visuals, and a scanner to add visuals to a PowerPoint presentation as they discover...

Hey Macarena! Third graders keep time while they sing a Latin Folk Song. To practice keeping a steady rhythm and singing in pitch, the class sings the Folk Song together and in a round while keeping a beat. They then learn to do the...

In a single, soundly-designed class period, high schoolers define good character, think-pair-share about thought-provoking quotes on character (More options would enhance the discussion, worth searching online for other quotes to add.),...

Students create a scrapbook of college student life during the 1960's using digital archives and Internet research. They read and discuss the article "What's the Matter With College?" and then compare college experience of today with...