The attempts of journalists to verify the events surrounding the shooting of Michael Brown take center stage as individuals analyze three of the initial newspaper accounts of the story. The whole class discussion then focuses...

Can posting art or music online lead to the career of your dreams? Inquisitive individuals consider their social media presence with a lesson from a series focusing on identity exploration and digital citizenship. Pairs put their heads...

Here's a lesson designed to help learners develop their digital verification skills. First, expert groups study specific digital verification skills, and in a jigsaw activity, share what they have learned with classmates. The jigsaw...

Encourage your class to become aware of the violence that is present in children's television programs and how this violence can influence children. Do this by holding the planned class discussion in this lesson plan and providing...

Two compelling texts about tobacco companies' influence over editorial content in print media introduce readers to the concept of advertising censorship. After study and discussion, class members compose a mock "final column" by a...

Who and what can you trust online? How do you know? After viewing a pair of introductory videos on positive and safe online conduct, learners discuss the content and put it into practice during an online search activity about alien...

Are some characteristics more desired than others?Scholars examine attributes of characters in books, models in catalogs, and articles in magazines. Discussion leads to identifying characteristics they see more often as well as...

Widespread video gaming makes this content relevant and high interest. Developing youth awareness about the impact of violence in games is important to promote literacy, critical thinking, health, and consumer awareness. After reading...

Help to create the next generation of friends with a lesson about accepting people who are different. As kids read Stand Tall, Molly Lou Melon, they answer a series of discussion questions and activities about making friends...

Fifth graders explore different kinds of poetry. They work in groups to collect different styles of poetry. Then they use charts to organize the attributes of various poems. Conclude the lesson by having each individual choose the style...

As learners continue to examine a short story of their choice, they take some time to look at analysis completed by others on the same story. In the eleventh instructional activity in a series of fourteen, pupils explore various sites...

Learners create a word tree poster that illustrates the way a root word can serve as the basis for many related terms. Although designed for a Latin language class, the concepts here could be used with any class study of Latin or Greek...

Music theory lessons can be very tricky for some people. Children with a basic understanding of musical concepts take on the task of transposing music and identifying scale sets. This would be a good topic to address prior to discussing...

Th, wh, ch, and sh are only some of the consonant digraphs early readers need to master. Increase skills and digraph recognition with a fun game. Children find words containing an initial or final digraph, circle them, and then write...

Middle schoolers practice their fluency skills. In this fluency lesson, students read aloud stories to their peers and they help to coach one another on their fluency, pronunciation, phrasing, and inflection. They discuss what makes a...

Students play 'telephone' to simulate communication difficulties. In this media analysis lesson, students read and analyze newspaper articles related to religious tensions between the Pope and Muslims. Students  evaluate the...

Seventh graders study how advertisers use techniques to sell their products. In this persuasive media lesson, 7th graders analyze media messages to find the advertiser's purpose. They examine different advertising techniques and their...

Pupils explore the different forms of media utilized by journalism including writing, photography, video, sound and the Internet. For this journalism lesson, students compare and contrast the ways in which information is presented...

Tornadoes, blizzards, and hurricanes, oh my! In this lesson, meteorology majors compare stories of historical storms written by two or more different sources. As a result, they understand how the media portrays such catastrophes and...

Music, culture, social studies, and plant growth all in one! Kids explore the various type of traditional African instruments that are made out of gourds. They then grow their own gourds and use them to create a wide variety of...

This 76-slide presentation on passive forms, passive verbs, and passive tenses is meant to give students a lot of practice in this important area of literacy. There are dozens of examples for students to consider, and an interactive...

A great idea for showing language arts pupils the universality of themes, even in the real world! Have class members choose an idea-noun (peace, justice, war, love, etc.) at the beginning of the year or semester. They complete weekly...

Kids almost always want to share the things that make them special. They create and deliver an autobiographical multimedia presentation using step-by-step outlines to plan their content. This is a great "All About Me" lesson, perfect for...

The class uses Chain Reaction, a magazine, to build a better understanding of Latin and Greek roots found in scientific vocabulary. They use two attached worksheets to help them read a scientific article, using visual clues and their...