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 last instructional activity in this unit about human rights consists of a final assessment. To demonstrate the skills your class has acquired throughout this unit, they will work with a new article entitled "From Kosovo to the United...

Using their notes developed throughout the unit, class members prepare for the end of the unit assessment by writing a formal essay in which they "analyze how the author of The Autobiography of Malcolm X provides a conclusion that...

As a mid-unit assessment, individuals craft an in-class, formal essay response to a prompt that asks them to use textual evidence to identify Haley's purpose, as well as analyze how the structure, style, and content contribute to the...

As a mid-unit assessment of a series of lessons that use Ethan Canin’s short story “The Palace Thief” as an anchor text, writers craft an in-class essay discussing how Hundert's character has developed throughout the text.

As the class concludes its close reading of “The Palace Thief,” groups consider how the narrator's character has changed throughout Ethan Canin’s short story.

To prepare for the unit's final assessment essay, class members collaborate to find evidence that reveals Romeo and Juliet as tragic heroes.

The final session in this 20-lesson plan unit asks individuals to use their Quick Writes, discussion notes, worksheets, and annotated text to craft and support a claim about how Shakespeare develops either Romeo or Juliet as tragic heroes.

Did Bernie Madoff fit the profile of a Ponzi schemer because, as Diana Henrique contends in an excerpt from her The Wizard of Lies: Bernie Madoff and the Death, he “did not fit the profile of a Ponzi schemer”? Huh? Groups begin their...

As part of a mid-unit assessment, class members exchange their draft of a multi-paragraph essay with a classmate, review their partner's writing using the provided text analysis rubric, and evaluate the strength of evidence, the...

After a peer review of their outlines, class members examine a model of an effective, engaging introduction and then craft the first draft of the introduction to their research paper.

Plagiarism is the theft of intellectual property. To avoid this crime, class members learn how to create a works cited page and how to craft in-text citations. After examining a high-performance model paragraph and an example of a works...

Focusing on the consequences of the hunter-gatherer food chain that Michael Pollan discusses in The Omnivore's Dilemma, teams work together to create hunter-gatherer food chain consequences charts. Next, scholars view other groups'...

It's time to gather nuts, berries, and lots of information. Scholars continue on their quest to determine the consequences of each of Michael Pollan's food chains from The Omnivore's Dilemma. Using research questions developed in a...

Class members dig into the expectations for the end-of-unit assessment for A Mighty Long Way by studying the rubric. The Rubric Criteria strips help pairs of readers look more closely at specific rubric points. They share ideas with the...

Read like a writer. Scholars read a model literary analysis in preparation for a similar writing assignment before annotating each paragraph for the gist. Next, pupils devise a list of qualities of a strong literary analysis essay. 

Transitions are the glue that link paragraphs together. Pupils listen to a mini lesson plan on sentence structure and transitions and use what they learned to revise their informative consumer guides. Next, they self-assess their writing...

Analyze, strategize, synthesize! Scholars analyze informative consumer guides to determine what features to include in their own guides. Next, pupils select charts and images to use in their guides.

Not all sandwiches are edible. Scholars use a Quote Sandwich graphic organizer to draft the written content of their informative consumer guides. Additionally, they view a mini-lesson on formal writing. 

Third graders read primary and secondary sources as the study about schools in the early years of Kansas. In this primary and secondary source lesson, 3rd graders examine how historians use primary source documents to tell about the past...

Students create a cookbook.  For this recipe and writing lesson, students brainstorm the skills necessary to follow a recipe, watch a cooking show and write down a recipe used.  Students use a word processing program to write a...

In this grammar activity, students review, define and write each one in a grammatically sound sentence. Students share their sentences with their classmates.

Twelfth graders research historical turning points, gather-data, and extrapolate possible alternate outcomes. They work individually to choose one historical event from Attachment D, Historical Turning Points. Students complete either...

In this reading comprehension worksheet, 4th graders will read a 3 page expository passage about Clara Barton, the founder of the American Red Cross. They will then answer 10 questions based on the passage.