They sunk our battleship! An engaging activity focuses on the Gulf of Tonkin Incident and the sinking of the USS Maddox. Young historians learn how it increased tensions leading to the Vietnam War and read through a first draft of the...

A richly detailed, step-by-step plan is designed to help high school seniors create a postsecondary plan for pursuing their career goals. Using the template provided by the California Career Center website, individuals complete their...

The third and final lesson in the Reporting series tests young journalists' ability to be objective in reporting contentious topics. After brainstorming a list of contentious topics that interest them, the class selects one, and...

A reading adventure pack, featuring a fiction and nonfiction book focuses on the weather. Scholars read Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett and Seymour Simon and then complete three creative activities. Participants craft...

Three creative activities follow reading a fiction and nonfiction book about heroes. Scholars build hero action figures out of clay for make-believe play, explain in written form how they show bravery, kindness, patience, thoughtfulness,...

A series of four activities focuses young scholars' attention on what it means to be an American. They identify key qualities, values, and virtues they consider shared by Americans. Participants then pretend they have been selected to...

Young historians learn how to make generalizations based on primary sources in a lesson that uses the autobiographies of two women born into slavery. The class watches a historical re-enactment of scenes from the lives of Harriet Jacobs...

To conclude a study of One Hundred Years of Solitude, class members analyze Gabriel Garcia Marquez's Nobel Prize in Literature acceptance speech. After a whole-class discussion of the main ideas in the speech, individuals draft a...

Young environmentalists learn how to craft a persuasive essay about an environmental issue they consider important. After studying the components of a persuasive essay and examining a student model, writers brainstorm possible topics and...

A two-part activity introduces learners to a six-step process for writing and presenting oral reports. Participants learn how to select, limit, and research a topic, how to organize their notes, draft and revise their reports, and...

"Who am I?" is not only a great philosophical question that requires a lot of reflection but is also at the heart of a letter of introduction. The challenge, of course, is figuring out where to start. Middle schoolers get a little help...

"Presenting Yourself," the last lesson in the "Looking to the Future" module, asks participants to review and reflect on what they have learned about themselves in the Overcoming Obstacles course. They review their course folder and...

Scholars of all ages examine Richard Blanco's poem, "El Florida Room." Looking closely at pictures, pupils look for details that stand out to them, then read the poem. A whole-class discussion allows learners to reflect on what they...

Expert groups investigate five teens who stood up against discrimination they faced and then report their findings in jigsaw groups. The class drafts proposals for actions the school could take to stop discrimination.

With descriptive writing, the pleasure is in the details. Young writers learn how to add sensory details to a paragraph about themselves. They read a short paragraph and identify the sensory details used. After revising their draft...

Young orators demonstrate what they have learned about persuasion and persuasive devices throughout the unit by analyzing a persuasive speech and then crafting their persuasive essays. Class members engage in a role-play exercise, use...

Did Smitty do it, or is he a victim? Sleuths apply their observation and reasoning skills to build a case for an argumentative paragraph. Class members closely observe a cartoon, make a claim, cite evidence from the image, and support...

Long before European settlers arrived on the shores of what is now the United States, pre-contact Native American cultures thrived. Young scholars investigate the Spiro Mounds Builders' history and learn how archaeologists put together...

Lines from popular songs are used to teach middle schoolers about conditional and subjunctive moods. Groups engage in a card sort activity to identify conditional and subjective sentences and then partners draft sentences of each type....

The engagement is in the details. Young scholars learn the benefit of weaving descriptive and sensory details into the fabric of their writing through the activities in this lesson. As their hands explore items concealed in bags, a...

As part of a study of crafting compelling arguments, class members tackle the problem presented in Lawrence Kohlberg's "The Heinz Dilemma." After discussing the dilemma with classmates, writers draft an essay with a claim, support...

As part of a study of Spoken Word Poetry, class members watch a series of performance videos and note where poets get their ideas and the performance techniques used by the poets. Pupils then draft and share their poems.

High schoolers examine the four major types of speeches: informative, demonstrative, persuasive, and extemporaneous. Groups then select one type and craft and share a presentation highlighting this format's characteristics. Finally,...

Walt Whitman's poem "A Noiseless Patient Spider" provides high schoolers an opportunity to reflect on the importance of perseverance and fortitude. After drafting a Quick Write about a time they tried and tried again to accomplish...