Explore connections within and between informational texts with this lesson about encyclopedia articles. Middle schoolers write encyclopedia articles focusing on topics in American history. They discuss how to determine credibility...

How have Russian politics affected countries on a global stage? The discussion of the Russian Revolution and World War I begins with an analysis of primary resource letters. Learners finish with a project where they create a timeline of...

Study the impact and possible outcomes of the Exxon-Mobil merger in your language arts, social studies, or economics class. Secondary learners evaluate a series of graphs, write a paragraph interpreting the data, and engage in class...

Play a vocabulary game with words from an article about Savion Glover's contribution to the film "Happy Feet." Then, small groups of learners design and create original movie advertisements using vivid vocabulary to give Glover the...

Discover the environmental and economic impact of global warming. After reading an article, emerging environmentalists identify how different countries are responding to the Kyoto Protocol. They research emission laws and write a news...

Students further their understanding of the United Nations inspections in Iraq. They develop flow charts to organize ideas for interactive scenarios about the inspections in which the choices made determine the outcome.

Investigate the future of the presidency in the wake of the House of Representatives' vote to impeach President Clinton. The class brainstorms both sides of the argument, reads and discusses an article, then analyzes and writes a journal...

Get to you know your new class members with an ice breaker activity that uses their name and creativity. Scholars write their first name in cursive on a folded sheet of paper, cut around the curved lines, open the paper to view its new...

How do local businesses support their state or regional economy? The New York Times has prepared another great lesson for your class. They begin by listing products grown or manufactured in their state or region then write interview...

Have you ever lost someone? Middle and high school learners journal about a time they experienced the loss of someone through death, divorce, moving, or another type of change. They share their responses and discuss an article relating...

Use this economic activity to focus on writing summaries of informational text. First, middle schoolers define common economic terms used to describe news about the economy. They closely read news about the federal budget deficit and...

Enter the fantastical world of  "Dungeons and Dragons" and other role-playing games with this lesson from The New York Times. Middle schoolers create the outline for a role-playing game based on their own community. Then, they...

Middle schoolers study the components of a deck of cards and conduct an initial experiment in the probability of drawing various types of cards from a deck. They play two rounds of poker to discover the probability of drawing several...

Pupils examine how they greet the holiday season and participate in a class discussion to explore the ongoing debate on how best to celebrate the holidays. They read and discuss an article, and write a personal essay.

In this grammar instructional activity, 5th graders create sets of cards which are grouped into 20 parts of speech. In each group there are about 60 cards with nouns, verbs, conjunctions, question words and other categories of words....

Keep your classes climbing in the right direction. Young mathematicians collect data from a video presentation. Using their data, they build an arithmetic sequence and use it to make predictions.

Jan Brett, the author of many beloved children's books, is well worth a study. Try out this winter-themed unit, which covers areas of language arts as well as art, math, science, and social studies.

Young scholars link important individuals who shaped the news in 2002 by playing a variation of a game based on the idea that all people can be connected with 6 or less associations between them. They propose appropriate New Year's...

A lesson plan on the holiday known as Boxing Day is here for you. In it, middle schoolers read a passage about the history of the holiday, then complete some reading comprehension worksheets embedded in the plan to reinforce what they...

Students brainstorm how and why people use writing in their everyday lives and record answers on chart paper. They create a survey of questions in the computer lab then chart the responses they received from the survey then discuss the...

Students analyze the attitudes and hostility given to African-American women within the National Women's Party. They finish the lesson by examining another moment in the party's history and writing about it.

Students consider goods and services that might be at the base of successful Web-based delivery services geared to students their age while they are in school. They act as entrepreneurs to develop plans for such services and create...

Students analyze writings of Mr. Martin Luther King Jr. They read and discuss an article, and in pairs, research and analyze a written work or speech by Dr. King, create a mixed media collage to represent the text, and write an artist...

Students explore the concept of human rights by examining the arresting of prominent Chinese dissidents who are members of the China Democratic Party. They develop and defend their own Bill of Human Rights and write a reflective essay.