This lesson plan is more of a series of tips for you, the teacher, to implement when standardized testing comes around. The strongest component of this guide is that it invites the teacher to reflect on what worked the best, and what...

Young scholars study the nutritional information on food labels and become familiar with the basic dietary needs of the human body. They write letters to food companies.

Use the internet to research the differences between families in the past and today. In groups, they identify the reponsibilities and roles of each member of the family. As a class, they compare and contrast non-fiction and fiction and...

Students examine the concept of kindness to others. They define kindness, listen to various stories about random acts of kindness, and create an e-mail chain describing their own acts of kindness that is sent around the world.

Young scholars examine examples of writing samples from NCS Mentor and discuss with students what makes each writing piece earn points. They grade a writing sample on the program and discuss various simple machines and their components.

Over the course of a week, class groups interview one another, search for similarities and differences within the group, and then prepare a PowerPoint introduction of their group for the entire class. An interesting way to incorporate...

Students explore the purpose and requirements for a bibliography. They examine where to find bibliographic information in a variety of print and non-print sources on an assigned topic. Students prepare a bibliography online using a...

Students explore interactive web sites to improve their editing and proofreading skills. Using the SMART Board, students identify capitalization and punctuation errors in a given sentence. Students discuss proofreading strategies.

Learners examine the United States at the turn of the century. Using primary source documents, they interpret them within a specific historical context. Using this information, they write a poem with metaphors and a specific meter They...

Fourth graders review a fictional book in which they give an overview of the characters and storyline. Microsoft Word is used to type a final draft of their review and to create a cover page with a picture.

While this focuses on Ancient Rome, the objectives are improved research and information evaluation skills. In one class period, class members narrow their topic, research it, select the best information, log useful sources, and discuss...

Collaborate with another class (or school) and have your learners share ideas about their reading through the use of email. Perhaps you'll create a specific question or a few questions for writers to choose from. Not only will they...

Deepen understanding of email correspondence. Begin by tapping into prior experience with email and word processing. Learners then send emails to one another, practicing attaching images and copying and pasting their work into a word...

Here's an interesting way to incorporate technology into your classroom. Have your young readers conduct an e-discussion of a story they are currently reading. Learners can post and/or respond to the comments of others reading the same...

Emerging poets design a website and then post seven original poems as well as their written critique of these poems. Although the resource mentions Inspiration and FrontPage technologies, any software could be substituted. 

Here's a clever technology twist to writing in the round. Participants rotate through a series of computers adding to stories and editing by keystroke and mouse click. "Locked" forms prevent the loss of stories filled with suspense and...

Students discriminate initial sounds of words and categorize words based on the initial sound. They generate ideas and topics for writing and use prewriting and drafting strategies to formulate text.

Fifth graders brainstorm a list of characteristics people have when they are happy with their career. In groups, they review their material from the previous lesson plan and share their information with the class in the form of...

Sixth graders participate in question and answer sessions and develop a skill-based resume. They identify and explain resume-writing situations in which an ethical dilemma may present itself. Finally, 6th graders identify and project the...

High schoolers assess persuasive techniques in propaganda. They identify and critique rhetorical devices in primary source documents (sources are not specified, but links to sites that contain various documents are included). Groups make...

Students work together to examine the tastiest towns in the United States. After discovering the names of the equipment, they identify the seven continents. They take a survey and locate the cities and states of the foods mentioned.

Students create a cover letter that they can use. They discuss the type of employment they are seeking. Students discuss the parts of a cover letter, body, and closure. They use a template to make their own cover letters. Students go...

Students discuss the life of Louisa May Alcott and create an outline of a biography of her life and times.  In this Louisa May Alcott lesson, students explore the Transcendentalist involvement in the abolitionist movement, relating...

Imagine the surprise when small groups present their Evidence Charts to the class and discover that each group has studied a different version of the Cinderella story. Irish, Ojibwa, Egyptian, Chinese, Korean, Persian, Mexican, and...