Use a fun and creative activity to introduce junior high learners to how writing changes for different audiences and purposes. The activity begins with a reading by the instructor where teens visualize a food fight in the cafeteria. In...

Is there value in preserving indigenous languages that are almost extinct? That's the question posed to viewers of a short film about the attempt of one Native American woman who is creating a dictionary for Wakchumni, the language of...

Get your young bunnies crafting and designing cards for Easter as they hunt for eggs, sing songs, and learn prepositions with a sweet activity.

Successful poetry writing requires three P's: planning, preparation, and practice. Pupils read a model two-voice poem and discuss how the author uses evidence to develop the theme. With a partner, scholars use a rubric to analyze the...

After a review of what suffixes are and how they are used, middle schoolers utilize a worksheet that is embedded in the plan to work in pairs to strengthen their understanding and skills in using these very important parts of our...

Media texts convey both overt and implied messages. As part of their study of media, class members analyze the language, form, techniques, and aesthetics in a variety of media texts.

Build vocabulary and get in the Halloween sprit with a collection of festive activities! Here, scholars take part in a holiday celebration, unearth the unknown in mystery feel-boxes, and create monster masks out of paper plates. 

A lesson challenges learners to ask and answer questions about the life cycle of a frog. With a class read-aloud, partner discussion, and notebook reflections, scholars complete a three-page worksheet to prove their understanding of the...

Words, words, words. The function of words in persuasive writing is the focus of a group activity that asks members to analyze how words advertisers use are designed to influence targeted audiences.

To conclude their study of immigration and human rights, class members create a civic engagement project centered on an issue of immigration and designed to influence US immigration policy. They examine examples of attempts to...

Teach your class about Helen Keller and her accomplishments with a reading comprehension activity based on A Picture Book of Helen Keller by David A. Adler. As individuals read, they answer discussion questions about Helen...

The problem with beards is that they collect a lot of food. The first lesson in an 11-part unit related to The Twits by Roald Dahl explores the hairy jungle that is Mr. Twit's beard. A concluding project has learners create their own...

Participate in a scavenger hunt to find objects beginning with a particular letter sound and take digital photos of them with your scholars. Using software, they find word pictures beginning with particular letters and locate picture...

Eighth graders select ordinary objects, determine their uses, and write poems about them. Once they select an object, they create a web about its uses to serve as an outline. Once they have written their own odes, 8th graders meet in...

Students create short stories and make stick puppets to act it out. After editing their stories, they glue used CDs or DVDs to popsicle sticks and decorate them as the story characters. Finally, students present their puppet shows to...

Demonstrate how to engage in a polite and professional conversation with this banking and interfacing lesson. Focusing on explanatory and informaitonal texts, middle schoolers write sentences using banking and finance terminologies....

James Hurst's short story "The Scarlet Ibis" provides eighth graders with an opportunity to sharpen their literary analysis skills. After a close reading of the text, class members highlight and annotate parts of the dialogue and...

Scholars closely analyze the use of rhetorical strategies in several model texts. They work in groups to annotate the text identifying rhetorical elements, and to complete a Rhetorical Analysis chart and guided reading worksheet....

Another awesome ASL lesson! Teach ASL to a special ed class, hearing impaired child, or for your own enrichment. This lesson provides comprehensible ASL language development. Each highlighted blue area links to a video, printable image,...

This lesson has it all, primary source documents, an interactive trade game, clear teacher background information, and sailing to the West Indies chance cards. You will play, trade, and live out the experiences of early colonists in...

Study the impact and possible outcomes of the Exxon-Mobil merger in your language arts, social studies, or economics class. Secondary learners evaluate a series of graphs, write a paragraph interpreting the data, and engage in class...

Analyze the motivation, purpose, and value of letters to the editor by examining letters written in response to the violence at Columbine High School. For homework, middle and high schoolers write their own letters to the editor about an...

Read a short book with your first graders! Anansi and the Tug O' War is the focus of this lesson. After reading the African story together, they complete language arts activities to practice reading comprehension. A stellar...

After reading the book Jack of All Tails, learners complete vocabulary activities, play charades, consider a list of questions, and complete a list of verbs. There are also several suggestions for how to connect this language...