Instructors expect great things from a good teacher's guide, and this one delivers. The 48-page guide to Charles Dickens's Great Expectations provides information about plot developments and new characters and places introduced in...

How can you foster a thoughtful learning community for your class? First, the class brainstorms a list of behaviors that will help make the classroom a great place to learn. Then learners group similar ideas together and come up with...

Expect great things from this reading comprehension exercise that asks readers to cite evidence from the provided passages of Great Expectations to support the inference that Charles Dickens' Miss Havisham, and her room, are indeed strange.

Writer's workshop is an idea that's been around for years. Students write, read, and comment on each others writing in an authentic and thoughtful way. Here is a 21st century twist, 6th graders will use the class blog to create a...

What is science? Sitting in a whole group discussion, scholars first share their ideas on science and how to conduct investigations. They learn about the steps for scientific inquiry and experimentation. Once finished, individuals then...

How have educational standards evolved? Educators of adults examine expectations in the 10th workshop out of 15 to better determine how standards have grown. Participants respond to a variety of sample questions to determine how they...

Coldhearted snob or warm and caring? A series of activities prepares scholars to evaluate the main character in Jane Austen's Emma. To begin, class members compare the gender expectations for women in Regency England and those of today....

Young grammarians demonstrate their understanding of the eight parts of speech by creating a scrapbook that uses personal stories and photos to illustrate each term. After defining a term, individuals relate and illustrate a personal...

Introduce language learners to class behavior expectations, and each other, with activities that include greeting and name games, conducting a class survey, and creating a classroom rules poster.

Fifth graders examine text features and create a PowerPoint presentation. In this text features activity, 5th graders go over Kagan Cooperative Learning Structures and text features before they choose one to include in a book and...

With the focus on 21st century skills it is even more important that all teachers incorporate listening and speaking activities into their curriculum. Here's a packet of practical ideas appropriate for any classroom.