Explore how the informality of electronic correspondence has affected communications in the workplace. Writers develop pages for a basic writing guide that contains rules and examples to help correct common writing errors. A great way to...

A Middle school special ed class uses the acronym SPAM to learn the 4 parts of writing. They employ 4 different colors to help them visually distinguish each part of writing in a given prompt. This lesson is vague and uses a strong...

Your birthday can be more than just about presents; it can even teach about absolute value. The class investigates absolute value as the distance from zero on a number line. Plotting birth months and comparing each birth month to July...

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...

Why do people argue?  Use the article "A Holiday Medley, Off Key" to discuss the struggles that interfaith couples face when choosing to celebrate certain holidays. Then, in small groups, encourage learners to write dialogues that...

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...

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...

Can history be rewritten? Or, more precisely, is history documented accurately? High school juniors and seniors compare primary source material with secondary sources. For example, they compare President Roosevelt's December 29, 1940...

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 activity from The New York Times. Middle schoolers create the outline for a role-playing game based on their own community. Then,...

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.

Women were in the workplace long before Rosie the Riveter pushed up her sleeve. Learn about the working options available to women during the Industrial Revolution, the Progressive Era, and the Great Depression with a instructional...

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.

Students write about the relationship between comedy and personal pain in their journals. After reading an article, they examine the Humber College school of comedy. They brainstorm difficult events in their own lives and create...

Students examine affirmative action and study the diversity of their own classrooms and communities, then of a particular college or university. They write essays examining how colleges should increase the diversity of their student bodies.

Young scholars explore how codes of conduct guide our daily lives. After learning about specific codes of conduct, students write articles exploring aspects of different codes and how they affect people in their community.

Young scholars write poetry that captures their feelings about their city or town. After presenting their poetry at a class reading students compare their poetry to the work of published poets who have written about the same city.

Students identify flags by country, then research the symbolism and history of those flags in preparation for writing and delivering oral presentations. For homework, they write essays reflecting on the relationship between flags,...

Students consider different stories and story-telling techniques of animated and live-action filmmaking, write proposals for animated films, and storyboard individual scenes.

Students consider popular trends, such as rock fashion. They create designs for t-shirts that represent current pop culture and write pitch letters selling their ideas to the clothing industry in the year 2030.

Students share opinions about athlete endorsements. They write articles that provide an economic profile of an athlete for submission to their school newspaper.

Students reflect on the lives of older people they know, then research and debate the key issues surrounding scientific experimentation in anti-aging. They write a short story that reflects their own philosophical beliefs on aging and...

Learners research and create a book highlighting significant events and trends throughout the world in the year 2002. Then, through creative writing, they respond to the events or trends themselves and how they affected our world.