A project-based lesson has pupils create a bulletin board to share artwork, nonfiction articles, and messages based on social justice themes. The finished board is displayed in the community to create a place for discussion. 

How well do your pupils know My Antonia by Willa Cather? Take some time to create questions about the text. After examining a teacher model, individuals write questions that match each level of Bloom's Taxonomy and draft answers to these...

After screening an episode by BizKids, scholars show what they know about business vocabulary, then take part in grand conversations about role models and ethical dilemmas.

A lesson plan instills the importance of locating reliable sources. Scholars are challenged to locate digital sources, analyze their reliability, search for any bias, and identify frequently found problems that make a source unusable. 

Was it the War against Northern Aggression or the War to Unify the Union? Scholars investigate the key battles and strategies of the American Civil War to determine just why the North was victorious in the end.

Do your fourth graders need extra practice with evaluating fact and opinion? An informative resource provides two reading passages in which learners distinguish sentences as fact or as opinion. Additionally,...

Students create a poster which depicts and summarizes Rostow's 5 stages of economic development. They make a list of 8 data measures that help identify which level of economic development a country is at. They gather data and...

Middle schoolers research various events during the War of 1812 and then create magazine articles with supporting illustrations, students are in control of their learning.

High schoolers examine the different ways in which children hid trying to escape the concentration camps. Using journal entries, they put themselves into the role of the children and imagine their feelings during the Holocaust. They...

Seventh graders determine how Kansas become a producer of airplanes. In this Kansas history lesson, 7th graders read selected Read Kansas! cards and articles. Students then discuss the primary sources they read regarding Wichita's growth...

Being able to identify the details that support a main idea is an important skill. Have your pupils practice with this graphic organizer, which includes space for a main idea, three supporting details, and a final conclusion.

Middle schoolers observe pieces of art and look for the principle story the artwork portrays. They compare the techniques artists and authors use to focus on and support these essential stories. They create a piece of art that portrays a...

Connect Martin Luther King Jr's famous speech, "I Have a Dream," to The Cay by Theodore Taylor. Taylor refers to the speech in his dedication, which creates a natural segue into talking about the speech and how it relates to the novel....

Build understanding of theme with an activity designed for The Cay and the Common Core. Small groups or pairs use graphic organizers to determine themes, find and record related details from the text, and formulate theme statements. In...

Look back at the third chapter of The Cay with your class. Pupils will conduct a close reading, taking a second look at a chunk of text and responding to a series of text-dependent questions. Wrap up with an analytical writing prompt...

Building on the previous activity in this series of lesson seeds, this plan focuses on the use of dialect in Theodore Taylor's novel, The Cay. Class members examine specific lines of text, use their reading journals to respond to the...

The second lesson in a five-part poetry unit asks seventh graders to construct a metaphor poem. First, pupils examine Emily Dickinson's "The Railway Train" and identify the metaphor. They then select an object and an animal and craft a...

Milo, a character in Norton Juster's The Phantom Tollbooth, was bored. When a tollbooth showed up in his room, he went through it simply because he has nothing else to do. Scholars read about his adventures and complete worksheets...

What lengths will one go to for love? Louis, a swan in The Trumpet of The Swan, struggles to gain the attentions of a girl because he cannot trumpet. Thankfully, his father creates a plan that may work. Scholars discover Louis's attempts...

Learners follow along as the teacher reads Products of Mining in Canada: From Batteries to Vehicles aloud. They then discuss the meaning of key terms and determine the gist of the text. Pupils do a second read and complete a graphic...

What's the future of biotechnology? Explore a hot topic in the fourth and final unit in a series of Biotechnology lessons. Learners develop an understanding of the many issues in bioethics, then create an argument for or against the role...

Does hard work and determination really pay off? It seems that way for Billy, a character in Where The Red Fern Grows. After working for two years, he finally has enough money to buy the pups he's always wanted. Scholars read about the...

"i before e. . ."  Spelling is easier if kids know the eight basic spelling rules  contained in this resource packet.

Bring the drama of Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea to class with a fun role-playing activity. Given a list of survival items, readers decide which items would be the most necessary for an adventure like...