Third graders work to determine the main idea, recall key details, and answer questions using an informational text on the topic of animal adaptations. Using the non-fiction text "Staying Alive: Animal Adaptations" (provided) the teacher...

Refuse to alienate your scientific-minded young scholars during your creative writing unit. Learners explore how literary writing can reflect observable fact, and be based in actual science. The links include examples of fiction and...

An activity packet explores the concept of time. First, scholars read two stories—The Very Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle and Telling Time: How to Tell Time on Digital and Analog Clocks! by Jules Older, illustrated by Megan Halsey....

Following a reading and thorough discussion of books—Anansi the Spider: A Tale from the Ashanti by Gerald McDermott and The Moon Book by Gail Gibbons—scholars complete three activities. First, they use playdough or cookie dough to create...

What does it take to develop and publish a newsletter? Young academics create a newsletter with original artwork for their school or community. They explore social justice themes and spread messages of tolerance and inclusion. Scholars...

Relate literary works and authors to the major themes of English literature from the Anglo-Saxon period through the 20th century. Working in groups, high schoolers will evaluate period philosophy, religion, and politics that influenced...

Read this twist on Goldilocks and the Three Bears: Dusty Locks and the Three Bears by Susan Lowell. Kindergartners listen, predict, and discuss the story. They then participate in a dramatization of the story and draw a picture...

Prior to reading Unwind, Neal Shusterman's 2007 young adult science fiction novel, class members research the common definition of words drawn from the novel that will come to have a very different meaning to them as they are...

Twelfth graders analyze Ray Bradbury's use of techniques and elements of fiction as well as nonfiction in the novel Dandelion Wine. For this novel analysis lesson, 12th graders analyze the sensory techniques in Dandelion Wine. Students...

Read and discuss "The Yellow Wall-Paper" and the gender issues that the story brings up. Use articles from the time period to analyze, complete with specific discussion questions. After two days, scholars write an essay based on topics...

Imagine using narrative essays to encourage change. This multi-week unit plan does just that. After reading a series of articles from Tyson Miller's Dream of a Nation: Inspiring Ideas for a Better America, class members examine the...

Students, after reading and discussing the two texts by Flannery O'Connor, "Good Country People" and "Greenleaf," analyze the plot, tone, characters, themes and setting in each story. They write their own short stories dealing with a...

Students explore African-American students literature as an integral building block in empowering all students to a better awareness when reading and writing. They use as a productive Social Studies tool for overall understanding of the...

Students write weather shape poems and sing weather related songs. In this creative writing lesson, students read the book, It's Raining, It's Pouring and list weather words they heard in the story. Students use the writing process to...

Do research projects at your school look like a class of eighth graders staring at a blank screen? Use the Big 6 research method to guide middle schoolers through the process of finding a topic, searching for and evaluating sources,...

Need an extra challenge for your best readers? Check out a unit that uses Hannah Webster Foster’s epistolary novel, The Coquette, published in 1797, as the anchor text. The resource is packed with project ideas; each with its...

Fifth graders discuss concepts of diversity, culture, and prejudice, gain understanding of harm caused by prejudice, and demonstrate ability to think critically and a desire to act morally.

Eighth graders discuss invention of bicycle and early obstacles to riding, listen to and discuss short story "Taming the Bicycle" by Mark Twain, define vocabulary words from story, and create and present humorous "how to" project to...

What? A long-lost poem from Robert Frost? Introduce your class to a poem recently found and published from Robert Frost's personal collection. The lesson includes background information on the author, the poem itself, and a list of...

Middle schoolers recognize Theme through the use of simple, short stories. Using Pro Quest, students begin by researching the literary element, theme, and how it can be identified. They then identify the themes in Aesop's...

Students spend some time in the world of marketing and advertising by analyzing and creating slogans and campaigns geared toward adolescents. Students work with a partner to create their design and share with the class

This is a fairly sophisticated series of writing guides. It assumes that users already have a solid grasp of spelling, grammar and mechanics, so it focuses more on organization and types of presentation than on more basic skills....