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...

Middle schoolers write descriptions, narratives, and dialogues based on objects of art and time periods in a museum. They base several writing assignments on art objects and paintings, including a literal description and an emotional...

Students read and analyze a personal narrative written about a Peace Corps Volunteer teaching English in Guinea-Bissau, Africa. They discuss the concept of crossing cultures, analyze maps, complete worksheets, and develop a writing...

Use the Peace Corps to explore a different place and different perspectives. Your class reads the personal narrative "Cross-Cultural Dialogue" by Roz Wollmering, completing an attached story frame sheet in preparation for a class...

Bring a time machine into your classroom with this writing lesson, in which young writers project themselves back in time and have a variety of choices from that point forward. They either write a conversation with a historical figure,...

Take writing prompts to another level in this activity, which allows pupils to create scenes of dialogue based on the 1903 silent film, The Great Train Robbery. Useful for a language arts/history cross-curricular activity, the lesson...

Travel back in American history to the era of slavery and abolition. After reading about the Underground Railroad, young historians examine a painting depicting the event, and write a narrative from the point of view of a person in the...

Students explore play writing.  In this literacy and technology lesson plan, students choose a familiar historical event and write a play with the corresponding setting.  Students write text and dialogue, produce sound...

Students identify geographical features of different regions encountered by migrants on the Oregon trail. Students research how the Oregon landscape may have affected life and 19th century westward migration. Students write a narrative...

What events led up to the Hundred Years War?  In small groups or pairs the class discusses several critical thinking questions and then writes a fictional dialogue that depicts both an English and a French point of view. 

To better understand the role women played in early 17th century US history, class members examine the National Women's History Museum's online exhibit, Building the New World: the Women of Jamestown Settlement. After studying the 11...

A lesson turns young historians into playwrights to understand and speak out against social injustice. Pupils work individually or in groups to write and perform monologues that deliver personal messages on social justice. Writers then...

Students create scripts about California settlers. The document reflects the settlers' fears, expectations, and realizations.

Accompany instruction and the celebration of El Dia de los Muertos with a loaf of Pan de los Muertos. Here, scholars measure ingredients precisely to create tasty bread, write a remembrance for someone who has...

Students research the 1067 Newark riots and examine photographs of the riots for clues as to when they were taken and what was going on. They view different historical perspectives on the riots and then write dialogues based on the...

Learners sharpen their creative writing skills by writing dialogues with unfamiliar objects while visiting local museums. They select an object in the museum, such as a painting, and create conversations between the people or animals...

Students examine the different points of view regarding testing students for drug use. They then work in pairs to create and perform dialogues that flesh out two sides of the argument around this controversial issue.

Ninth graders explore the concept that education is related to freedom. In this human rights lesson, 9th graders read The Narrative of Frederick Douglass. Students dialogue about their readings and education as it relates to human...

Students explore life and language development in the Elizabethan Age. In this English activity students complete web-quests and other activities surrounding Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet.

Students collect examples of local philanthropy and write a news article for a  local newspaper. In this philanthropy instructional activity, students read Helping Out by George Ancona to gain understanding of what philanthropic...

Students, in a high school class for autistic children, take a virtual tour of Boston's "Big Dig" and the artifacts discovered there. During weekly lab sessions, they discover the processes involved in artifact preservation. Using...

Students write an essay. In this comparison lesson, students read about a child's typical day on a fair trade cocoa farm in the Dominican Republic. Students write about a typical morning of a child in the US and make comparisons.

Students experiment with a situation as if they were farmers in a co-op. In this democratic decision making lesson, students role-play as farmers that are members of a co-op and a have a serious decision to make about spreading their...

Students understand that hunger causes many deaths a year and many children are trapped as slaves through watching a video. In this hunger and child slavery lesson, students write letters to call attention to the problems of hunger and...