After several short 15-minute mini-lessons, your learners will gain an understanding of the characteristics of a non-fiction text. Using the book Map It by Elspeth Leacock, your class will become acquainted with non-fiction terms...

Could a president just ignore election results? In this analysis handout, scholars consider this question as they read background information on the 2008 elections in Zimbabwe. Two political cartoons poke fun at President Robert Mugabe,...

Introduce your class to various reptiles and amphibians. They will meet and identify a representative from each of the four major reptile families, then learn about and discuss reptile characteristics. Next, they will identify and...

Any revolution is going to impact both society and economy. The class works to grasp the effect of industrialization on the environment, government, and politics. They respond to three critical thinking questions which require them to...

Build a historical context for your next lesson on life in the 1800's. This resources shows how leisure activities have changed since the 1800's. The class will see that a trip to the beach hasn't changes all that much, but it sure isn't...

Make your class aware of the difference between media violence and real violence. Using prior knowledge, a video clip, and a worksheet, class members explore and discuss the unrealistic portrayal of violence in the media. Learners...

Does your class love The Simpsons? It might seem dated, but with reruns constantly popping up on television, this show still holds the attention of most of your learners. Play the opening sequence of an episode, and brainstorm any...

Learners determine their perspective on women's empowerment and then compare it to how it is seen in Syria. They watch four documentary clips, discuss what they've seen, and answer two short essay questions. Excellent resource links and...

A perfect resource to guide your young research analysts as they dive into a paper about any one of the major world religions. It includes very basic questions that pertain to the information necessary to compose a good expository paper...

Require your class to look closely at terms by analyzing similarities and differences. The template provides space and sentence frames for writing about similarities and differences.

Analyze the constitutions of five different countries and see how they relate to each country's culture and traditions. Pupils read the preambles to the constitutions of India, Ireland, Russia, Suriname, and the United States. After...

Celebrate your class's diversity with this Venn diagram template. A perfect resource for building a classroom community at the beginning of the school year, pupils are able to learn about their peers while discovering what...

Compare and contrast the goals, types of government, interactions with Native Americans, and other important features of the Spanish, British, and French colonies in the Americas with this graphic organizer.

The California missions were built with the hope of converting the local Native Americans to Catholicism, but exactly how different were their beliefs to begin with? Through analysis of a series of primary source documents,...

The dog is big. The mouse is little. Using vocabulary words introduced in the previous lesson, kids read, or are read, sentences and examine images that contrast big and little.

Wind turbines, daylight savings time, noise pollution, social problems. To develop close reading skills, high schoolers examine pairs of articles presenting opposing viewpoints of the same topics and respond to questions that...

How can you tell when an author is expression an opinion or stating a fact? Use two short reading selections to emphasize the difference between a statement that you can prove and one that you can't. The first passage explains food...

Looking for a resource that helps learners practice identifying fact and opinion? A four-page activity includes two informational text reading passages. Pupils read each passage and respond to four multiple choice and one...

Read about the darnedest can in two fables adapted from Aesop's Fables. Readers answer three reading comprehension questions that prompt them to compare and contrast animal characters in the two stories.

Water covers more than 70 percent of Earth's surface. Scholars learn about both freshwater and saltwater biomes in a simple presentation. They compare and contrast the differences in oxygen levels, food sources, and sunlight to better...

Catch-22, Joseph Heller's send-up of military organizational bureaucracy, provides readers with an opportunity to consider the importance of the anti-hero. Class members fill out a worksheet comparing and contrasting the qualities...

Experience a bit of what life was like at the turn of last century with images of rural and urban life. Learners consider pictures from each environment and then compare and contrast them. Activities include discussing the differences,...

After reading The Mitten by Jan Brett, scholars discuss the author's purpose. Small groups compare and contrast a book written to entertain and a book to inform, then create a T-Chart detailing the characteristics of...

Consider the factors and outcomes of societal changes that occurred during the Japanese Feudal period. Critical thinkers use what they know to answer three short essay questions. This helpful worksheet is a great tool for building...