Why are our national parks important? Scholars research the national parks and explore the basic ecology of these areas in a differentiated instruction unit on ecology. They learn about ecosystems, food chains, symbiosis, and biomes. The...

It's time to think deep and narrow. Scholars focus close reading on one short text but task take their thinking to a deep level. Readers use a Rhetorical Analysis Chart to analyze The Gettysburg Address and determine how Lincoln used...

Forget Rudolph—Santa's flight pattern depends on you! Holiday gamers click their mouses to collect presents and keep Santa aloft through giant candy canes.

Don't cross the line; just walk along it. Scholars investigate a scenario in which a person starts at zero on a number line, then moves left or right depending on a flip of a coin. They determine the number of outcomes for six flips,...

Human impact on watersheds can make or break an ecosystem. Learners use a game to learn about the impact human choices have on water quality and the organisms that depend on it. The activity includes a game board and game cards that tell...

Here comes the sound. After watching a couple videos demonstrating and explaining the Doppler Effect, learners develop their own understanding of the phenomenon. Scholars draw a sound wave and observe how the perception of the wave...

Help the class uncover the story of Frankenstein. Learners answer questions and complete activities to respond to the text Frankenstein as they read. Scholars learn new vocabulary, respond to personal and text-dependent questions,...

The "Constitution Day and Citizenship Day" law requires schools receiving any federal funding to provide educational programming on the history of the American Constitution. The lesson plans, materials, videos, questions, and activities...

The sky's the limit! Scholars investigate career opportunities within a chosen career cluster. Depending on the pathway they select, they may conduct research, create a presentation, volunteer, or start a campaign ... the opportunities...

Write formulas that depend upon previous terms. Individuals watch a video that explains how to create a recursive formula based on a sequence of numbers. Learners find out how to determine whether a sequence is geometric or arithmetic...

Stretch one's mind about viscoelastic materials. Future engineers learn about viscoelastic materials and how they differ from solids and fluids. They discover how the molecular structures of the materials relate to their properties,...

A pop-up video version of FDR's "Day of Infamy" speech engages scholars in depending their understanding of the attack on Pearl Harbor. After watching the video, class members select five new things that they learned and research how...

How many different learning styles are there? Four? Five? Seven? Twelve? It depends on who you ask. But the point of this lesson is that people learn differently, and most have a way or ways that work best for them. To help identify...

Introduce the project teams to critical skills they will need to successfully complete their Service Learning project. Groups learn how to use a tracking sheet and write a status memo. They discuss the importance of commitment,...

The second lesson in "The Color of Law" shows how government policies supported economic inequality. Scholars read additional excerpts and respond to text-dependent questions from "The Color of Law" text, examine primary source documents...

Stars exist from a few million years to over 10 billion years, depending on their mass. Scholars perform a play acting as stars to learn about their different life cycles. They develop an understanding of many of the fundamental concepts...

Star light, star bright ... just how long can you wish on that star? Well, it depends on its mass. The presentation explains the life cycle of stars based on their sizes. Scholars learn about the life expectancy of a star based on the...

Can your class describe the roles Porfirio Diaz, Benito Juarez, Pancho Villa, and Emiliano Zapata played in the Mexican Revolution? Can they explain why many Latin American economies depend on a single cash crop? If they can, then...

Delve into Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan with close reading and evidence-based, text-dependent questions. Part of a unit series, this well-sequenced, Common Core designed instructional activity draws on material from the...

When your class members have completed the novel Esperanza Rising, they will be ready to write an expository essay on how Esperanza responds to events and what this says about her character. Set your pupils up for success by...

As the final lesson plan in a larger beginning-of-the-year unit to establish routines and teach close reading skills, this plan is designed as an assessment piece. Using the story, The Librarian of Basra, learners independently...

Focus on similarities and differences with a jigsaw activity that requires pupils to compare Waiting for the Biblioburro to other texts they have read. To prepare, class members first respond to text-dependent questions, moving on to...

Continue work with an informational text by following the procedures detailed here. The plan, part of a series, focuses on My Librarian is a Camel. Class members complete text-dependent questions and then prepare for and participate in a...

Delve into Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan with close reading and evidence-based, text-dependent questions. Part of a unit series, this well-sequenced, Common Core-designed activity draws on material from the previous day and homework...