Difficult redistricting concepts are covered in a context that will make it understandable to your government scholars. They begin with a KWL on the term redistricting and then watch a video to answer some questions. They...

Khaled Hosseini’s video “Using Real People and Events” motivates learners to reflect on their own experiences and to use those experiences as the basis of a graphic novel that expresses a universal truth. The richly detailed plan...

Intended for a mature, advanced placement audience, this set of questions accompanies an essay by Fatema Mernissi regarding clothing size and the possible implications for not fitting in with what is considered the norm. A very...

One of my favorite things about this resource is that they use a standardized lexile to help you determine who should be reading what book. I also love this great teacher's guide for the book, The Class Election from the Black...

Two great men, one time period, and one purpose; it sounds like a movie trailer, but it's not. It's a very good comparative analysis lesson focused on Abraham Lincoln and Frederick Douglass. Learners will research and read informational...

While music lyrics are often used to teach literary elements, the richness of this resource comes from the wealth of exercises, activities, and support materials provided in the packet.  Although designed for gifted learners, the...

Kindergartners explore the cycle of the seasons in a 10-lesson language arts unit. Through a series of picture-supported read-aloud activities, children are able to identify the sequence of seasons and the types of weather...

Celebrate the legendary Dr. Seuss on Read Across America Day with a plethora of activities set to five stories—The Cat in the Hat, The Lorax, Horton Hears a Who, Oh, the Places You'll Go!, and Green Eggs and Ham. Activities...

Grab a debatable (or controversial) moment from your current reading, and use this task to progress the persuasive writing skills of your high school scholars. Divide your learners into four small groups and let them collaborate, debate,...

Everyone knows that George Washington was the first president, but do your scholars know why that was so important? The lesson plan, the third in a sequence of three, allows learners to understand how George Washington set a precedent...

Growing writers explore what it takes to develop and support a thesis statement with pre-fabricated ideas provided by the Virginia Department of Education. Learners take notes on what makes a thesis statement and a topic sentence, and...

A delightful lesson on poetry is here for you and your middle schoolers. Learners are instructed to write a Halloween poem. They get to choose the age range for the audience of the poem. So, it may be scary (for older kids), or humorous...

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...

Wrap up an engineering lesson with a worthwhile project. An engineering design task challenges groups to develop a package for a pharmaceutical company given constraints on the volume. Learners then create a presentation to highlight...

After delving into the proper use of conjunctions, learners write their own stories focusing on using connecting words. First, they discuss the different types of conjunctions. Those include conjunctions used to add further information,...

Equip your high school writers for the rigors of timed persuasive writing by employing the preparatory ideas available in this exercise. Learners use persuasive essays, provided by the educator, to acquire how to identify persuasive...

Create an urbane battle royal in class with the old Coke vs. Pepsi challenge that develops upper level high school learners skills in developing counterarguments in essay writing. The educator divides the room according to tastes, and...

Analyze various excerpts from Hamlet and read articles to develop an argument about his sanity. Middle and high schoolers write an argument essay defending whether or not they believe Hamlet is insane. You could modify this assignment...

Tell a story with images. Learners view several photojournalistic photos before agreeing on a message to convey with their own photo stories. In small groups, they take and select photos to include in their final project.

How do you create parallel structure? Here, the first section details parallelism, providing many examples. The next two sections provide your class with practice opportunities. The first one requires learners to identify the sentences...

Show your classes the importance of mathematics in something as simple as bicycle design. The final lesson in the six-part STEM series has each group research a different aspect of the bicycle. Learners use mathematical formulas, linear...

Time for a good old fashioned match game! Readers complete an initial, second, and third read of Plantation Life to gain a deep understanding. After close reading the text, scholars practice identifying paraphrasing by...

Complete a puzzle one piece at a time. Scholars gather in triads to complete jigsaw activities over a monologue from Good Masters! Sweet Ladies. They read as a group and independently and use sticky notes to identify the gist of...

Sentence variety is extremely important when it comes to learning the written word. Add variety to your learners' writing by focusing on clauses and compound sentences. The information provided is followed by a practice opportunity to...