Provide your class with an opportunity to examine race through a variety of literary works. They read and analyze a chosen poem, interview, speech, or story describing race in America. They then use key words from the original work to...

Learners who struggle with grammar, foundational reading skills, and sentence composition can learn how to write proper sentences using an app that relies on research-based practice. It uses a color-coded formula that had been proven to...

Who is Carl? Carl is a little monster that will help your learners draw and create in any way imaginable. Get those kids to activate creative and imaginative thinking skills with a really fun app. There are endless options that can...

Middle schoolers learn to show, not tell, in their narrative writing. A slide show takes them through the process of choosing strong, descriptive words, and then provides writing prompts for them to use as practice. The first two pages...

The National Women's History Museum provides a plan designed to accompany their online CyberExhibit, Chinese American Women; a History of Resilience and Resistance. After examining a series of primary and secondary source documents,...

As part of their study of Out of the Dust, readers create a biopoem for one of the characters in Karen Hesse's 1998 Newbery Medal winning verse novel.

For many people, Barack Obama's presidency was the next step in Martin Luther King, Jr's dream of America's future. Explore the dreams of Americans past and present, as well as the young Americans in your class, with a set of activities...

Notes of pride and persecution, exclusion and isolation resonate in flamenco. Introduce this musical art form to your social studies or Spanish language classes with a resource that follows a young flamenco guitarist as he...

Bob Dylan's selection as the 2016 winner of the Nobel Prize for Literature, the first songwriter ever to receive the honor, has focused the attention of a new generation on the work of the legendary artist. Class members...

Students explore the writing trait of voice. In this writing skills lesson, students read No, David! and discuss the author's use of voice. Students write a class version of the story called Yes, David! that incorporates an alternative...

Students 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...

Students engage in a lesson that is about searching the attributes of characterization. They practice some of the basic moves involved in acting out a certain character while focusing upon basic skits like "the freeze". The exercise...

This rubric is decent, but it doesn't provide a point allotment for each category. Use this as an outline to create a more comprehensive assessment for your writers' research papers. 

Scholars read Maniac Magee and create epitaphs for each of the major characters using precise words reflecting the individual characters personality and nature. They will learn what an epitaph is and practice writing their own. They can...

Examine the works of visual and performing artists with upper graders. Using the works, they identify the comparisons among the techniques used. They will also review the six traits of effective writing and keep a writing journal...

Students create a movie or slide show depicting a typical day at school through the eyes of a student. Students will use knowledge and experience to tell about events. Students will use multimedia to tell about events.

Do talk back! The transcript of one side of a telephone conversation launches a study of dialogue. Class members imagine the response of the speaker on the other side of the conversation and record these responses on the provided...

Help your class create collective poetry following a simple, engaging model from Teaching Tolerance (tolerance.org). Each young poet writes five things on an index card: sayings from others, favorite sound, favorite place, favorite...

Women and children played key roles during the Civil War, even if their voices are often lost in history. By studying letters and personal testimony from them, budding historians get a glimpse into the day-to-day life of civilians during...

Students analyze Simple Answer, by John Cleaveland, and use this image to inspire a short story. They use both verbal and visual language to help them create the characters and the plot. The lesson plan contains steps that helps the...

Fifth graders listen to a read aloud of Patricia Polacco's, Thank You, Mr. Falker! students examine the use of voice in the book, discuss the writing and theme ideas. They write a thank you not to their hero.

Students watch a movie on religious violence in 16th century Europe and then write a background about a picture they are given on violence. In this religious violence lesson plan, students create the background by making inferences about...

Students assess samples of writing for each trait and discuss rationale for scoring. They comprehend that the traits of writing offer a common language for revision. Students are shown how to asses their writing and what makes good...

Twelfth graders rewrite a story in a different format to understand the effects of the author's style. For this writing style lesson, 12th graders read Mark Twain's "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" and rewrite the...