The third activity in a unit that traces the history of African Americans serving in the US Congress examines the period from 1929 through 1970. After reading a contextual essay that details the few African Americans elected to Congress...

Scholars read and discuss an essay by 12-year-old actor Lonnie Chaves about racism, paying close attention to how racism presents itself in interpersonal and institutional ways. Learners reflect on how they experience or witness racism...

The final lesson of a three-part series on Kate Chopin's The Awakening has scholars investigate life as a woman in late nineteenth-century America. They research the role of women in society through the eyes of the characters in the...

Here's a stat for your pupils: 18 percent of the human body is carbon! Part 10 in the series of 12 takes pairs on an adventure through the carbon cycle. After a class reading about carbon, pairs read and choose their own adventure...

For classes tackling To Kill a Mockingbird, this lesson plan sets readers up for discussions or essay writing with questions and prompts. The prompts encourage individuals to explore beyond the novel itself, looking at...

An effective lesson plan truly can make all the difference. Seventh graders read, analyze, and annotate Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken" before writing an essay about what they believe to be the theme of the iconic poem.

After watching the documentary Dark Water about a traditional Chumash ceremony and reading a Chumash origin story, viewers are asked to create a coat of arms and to craft an essay that details a family tradition or their own origin story.

Accompany a reading of Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea with a thorough literature packet. Although the materials are meant to prepare readers for a timed essay, the background information and the activities are...

Everyone has a different point of view, even when it comes to the enormity of the universe. Two separate text passages explain the scope of a galaxy, prompting young readers to write an essay about each author's argument and how the...

How do you assess whether pupils have mastered certain concepts and skills? Designing a performance task that asks learners to demonstrate their skills and providing writers with a rubric that identifies these skills and provides...

Does pride really goeth before the fall, or can it be essential to one's development? Second graders read two of Aesop's fables that refer to pride in their morals, and write a short essay about whether pride is good or bad, based on...

To understand the laws regarding marijuana use in the United States, you can go all the way back to the 1800's to learn about farming hemp, or you can go back to 2018 when California became the sixth state to legalize recreational...

Why are some so resistant to change? The status quo is often to blame for a lack of forward movement in society. Following the events of World War I, women in America suddenly had a voice—and were going to use it. Scholars use the...

How much can opinion influence a news story? A standalone resource discusses the importance of John Brown's Raid through the lens of journalism. Learners analyze two different texts, one from the perspective of the North and the other of...

Understanding how John Brown got his inspiration from the Declaration of Independence helps learners further understand both West Virginia and United States history. The resource, a standalone, uses worksheets, discussion, and essay...

As part of a study of women in Congress, class members read the contextual essay, "A Changing of the Guard; Traditionalist, Feminist, and the New Face of Women in Congress, 1955–1976." Groups then research a woman serving during this...

Twenty prompts reinforce scholars' writing skills of essays and poems. Prompts cover topics such as superpowers, holidays, the weather, and more!

How do Supreme Court justices interpret amendments to the Constitution? The resource helps answer that question by discussing how people use explicit and implicit language to interpret the meaning of the Fourteenth Amendment. Learners...

"No flies fly into a closed mouth." Pupils consider the proverb's meaning as they read paragraphs 20–22 from the essay "A Genetics of Justice" by Julia Alvarez. They also engage in small-group discussions about how the author refines her...

After reading Sandra Cisneros' The House on Mango Street, class members craft an essay in which they use evidence from a variety of vignettes to demonstrate how Cisneros develops Esperanza's character.

How can a gender theoretical lens shape the way Ophelia is perceived in Hamlet? That is the question writers must answer in an explanatory essay to conclude their study of Shakespeare's revenge tragedy.

Dwight D. Eisenhower's message to troops for D-Day is iconic. Individuals examine Eisenhower's words and compare that to historians' understanding of the epic events of that day using primary sources, an essay, and a Venn diagram to...

What does your character reveal about you? Scholars carry out several activities to determine the reveal of character in Flowers for Algernon. Readers answer text dependent questions, complete diary entries, write reflections, and use...

Is it time to improve test-taking skills? The assessment is a copy of a state test for pupils to practice strategies for taking exams. It covers subjects such as the Chinese Dynasty's and ancient Indian history. It is divided into...