Students read fiction or nonfiction books that stretch their reading levels. They reflect on the books they read with classmates and select a dynamic scene, colorful setting, or appealing characters to illustrate in a visual book report....

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...

In groups, learners design sets for the play, "Shakespeare Stealer." They sketch a scale model of a set and present it to the teacher, who will choose which group gets to design the entire set. 

Bring the fun and creativity of children's stories to your language arts class. Middle schoolers write, revise, and publish an original student book which incorporates the elements of a short story. They put their story in the form of a...

Imagine a learning community committed to using Costa and Kallick's Habits of Mind as the basis of curriculum design. The resource book is packed with lessons that are designed for and identify the standards and...

Students examine the process of designing a book and identify the steps necessary to publish a book. In small groups they analyze ABC books, and discuss the similarities and differences between the books. Students then brainstorm ideas...

Imagine dumping out a milk can and finding letters from one of the darkest moments in history! Scholars use Holocaust Reading Passages and research to discover how people recorded and hid history during the events of World War II. They...

Twelfth graders create a billboard design (on the computer) to promote and increase awareness of a social problem. Students conduct research of public service issues that are of interest to them. They collect photos and images through...

Fourth graders practice calculating area by creating a classroom quilt. Students are given a 6x6 inch square material they design based on a classroom theme. A sample of the class quilt is created using graph paper so students may...

Students measure a cover for a book and design a beautiful and practical book cover. They follow the directions to design a book cover, coloring one side of the paper with Crayola products using traditional batik patterns from various...

An ecosystem is really just the flow of energy through many different living organisms. A study of Rudyard Kipling's The Jungle Book leads to an environmental science activity in which learners study how various factors can affect...

Sometimes engineering problems that seem easy prove to be more challenging than imagined. Present your class with the challenge to build a functional display tower to support a statue using only the supplies available in class while...

Ask elementary students to explore shapes in everyday objects. They will discuss the elements of design and describe the shapes they see in visual images. Students will then design and "build" a new 3D shape. Finally they will show and...

Students investigate the broad range of jobs that can be found in the world of design. Students explore sound design, language architecture, etc. Students design a resource book and post it on a website for others to share.

Have your older middle schoolers assist young children with writing in this community service and literacy lesson. Middle schoolers become partners with a local elementary school. They assist the grade school children in writing a...

Students design and illustrate a pop-up book of their original writing after studying the book, The Jolly Postman: Or Other People's Letter's. They present their book and complete a self-assessment rubric.

Random sampling is as easy as choosing numbers. Teams use random numbers to create a sample of book lengths from a population of 150 books. The groups continue by developing a technique to create samples to compare from two populations...

Young scholars use previously prepared book reports about fish themed books to make a shoebox float that displays the theme of the book. Shoe boxes are decorated colorfully, using dolls or stuffed animals as the book character. They...

Learners explore the concept of design, and identify items in their lives that have been designed. They explore the concept of book design and create and arrange their own page layout.

Students brainstorm a list of personal information based on a variety of categories. After writing positive comments on their classmates, they spilt into two groups with one entering the information into a database and the other...

Students analyze elements of design and compare/contrast elements of price and design. In this design lesson, students consider the differences between high-end and low-end design. After completing an analysis of design in small groups,...

Students observe book ads from Reading Rainbow and decide on a book to write an ad for. They prepare an ad and produce it using a digital camcorder and software.

Everyone learns and experiences life differently. A set of lessons about character intensities encourages middle and high schoolers to analyze themselves, their peers, and characters from a book based on the five listed intensities:...

Students analyze the book jackets of books and then design one based on the typical characteristics of book jackets.