After listening to a story about the water cycle, learners create their own versions of this tale. This is a great way to have your class review the concepts of evaporation, condensation, precipitation, and runoff.

Here is a great way to get pupils to express a scientific concept in a fun way. After hearing the story of Walter the Water drop and learning facts about the water cycle, the class will write a creative expository piece describing what...

Help young writers with the daunting prospect of a five-paragraph essay. Using William Golding's Lord of the Flies, learners work through a short process to shore up their brainstorming and prepare to write a longer essay.

Class members are asked to consider how they would respond to situations faced by characters in Great Expectations. After completing one exercise as guided practice, individuals are presented with a second problematic situation and...

What happens next? Work on story sequence with a lesson that prompts kids to put a story back in order. Additionally, they discuss what would happen if one event was missing from the sequence.

A presentation guides a discussion and opportunity for role-playing about identifying and talking about emotions. To begin, scholars share memories of happiness and unhappiness and how they responded to specific feelings. Then, learners...

What do you think? Readers focus on pages 9-10 of The Most Beautiful Roof in the World to form opinions about the difficulty of researching the rainforest canopy. They begin by discussing the skills required to be a scientist and...

How many Calories one needs on a daily basis is dependent on a number of factors including gender, height, and activity level. In the third of seven lessons about energy and food, young nutritionists calculate the number of Calories...

Can dogs feel shame? Explore the anthropomorphic connection between human emotions and animal behavior—or lack thereof—with a lesson about Temple Grandin's book, Animals in Translation. Ninth graders continue a close reading of chapter...

Seems like a fairly simple question—until you begin asking your class! Get pupils acquainted with the characteristics of life through pairs classification, discussion, and scientific reading. The lesson plan, part of the K20 series, also...

We have an appointment! Scholars meet with another discussion appointment to discuss the text structure of the poem "Incident" by Countee Cullen. They use a Note Catcher to guide their thinking and compare the structure to chapter 8 of...

How does one talk silently? Class members participate in a silent communication activity known as a Chalk Talk. During the activity, they answer text-dependent questions analyzing Carlotta’s Journey. They use markers and chart paper to...

A reading of Walter Dean Myers' "Harlem" sets the stage for studying the literature, art, and music of the Harlem Renaissance. The lesson begins with a review of the social, political, and economic conditions of the 1920s and 1930s that...

Suffragette, investigative journalist, and civil rights activist Ida B. Wells is the focus of a lesson that has young historians study the work of this amazing woman. Scholars watch a video biography of Wells, read the text of her speech...

Jane Eyre offers scholars an opportunity to practice reading comprehension skills. Pairs are assigned a word from the text, use their prior knowledge, and consider the context, connotation, and denotation of the word to posit a...

The sound a frog makes lets people know what it's up to. A two-part lesson begins by discussing the life cycle of a frog and the individual stages with drawings. The second part has learners listen to the frogs' different sounds and what...

Earthquakes can be frightening and dangerous, but being prepared can make a world of difference. Perform an earthquake simulation during which the class practices how to drop, cover, and hold on as you read a script...

"If at first you don't succeed, try, try again!" Through this assignment, emerging engineers examine how failed experiments are simply part of the process of an outstanding design. They begin with some reading about the microwave oven,...

The accusations begin in Sophocles' Oedipus the King, with troublemakers and enemies abound. As learners delve deeply into the sights unseen, they review textual evidence from their readings to write about the importance of timing in the...

May I take your order? Scholars read "Ain't I a Woman" and participate in a World Cafe. They work in small groups to discuss text-related questions and then complete a Note-Catcher sheet to organize their thoughts. For homework, learners...

An essential skill for 21st-century learners is to know how to find reliable sources of information. Two activities help high schoolers learn how to determine the reliability of health-related news from websites, TV, magazines, or...

A thoughtful discussion begins a lesson about sports and gender stereotypes. After defining stereotypes, scholars highlight how gender stereotypes often have adverse effects. To break through those stereotypes, the class gets to know...

An engaging video begins a lesson all about the representation of Native Americans in all types of careers. Following a discussion about the video, scholars participate in a gallery walk showcasing various Native American figures. Pupils...

Students develop a variety of reading skills that diagnosis has revealed as lacking. They use this activity to promote pleasure in reading, to emergent readers to travel further into the world of books and begin to comprehend what rich...