In this representing text in a timeline learning exercise, students interactively answer 10 multiple choice questions about timelines then click to check their answers.

Build creative writing skills through a project centered around a street name. Young writers start by creating a unique street name and brainstorming what life might be like on that street before writing a descriptive piece about this...

Ninth graders identify and recognize characteristics of nonfiction in literary works, explore language and culture of Gullah people, compare and contrast purposes of spirituals and quilts in terms of their relationships to escape from...

Students conduct research on 1830s families and early New England culture. They conduct research on the Old Sturbridge Village website, participate in an online chat with a costumed interpreter, and continue to develop possible plots to...

In these English lesson plans, students use video, the Internet and non-fiction essays to research the history of the English language. They write a short research paper and design a PowerPoint presentation showcasing their findings.

High schoolers discover characterization techniques and methods. In this characterization lesson, students choose favorite fiction characters and discuss what makes a character come alive. High schoolers then describe a family member or...

Students revise writing to improve organization and word choice. They check for logic, order of ideas and precision of vocabulary. Students list different verbs for the word "said." They write dialogue in which the speakers tell a story...

Gulliver's Travels tells the story of a man who goes on voyages and encounters strange people. A unit plan introduces readers to the classic text, as well as excerpts from other examples of sarcasm and satire, such as "A Modest...

Students create a greeting card from one character to another after finishing a novel. Individually, they use their imagination to write the paragraph using the text to support their ideas. They share their greeting card with the class...

Students practice summarization in order to increase their comprehension of non-fiction text. They read and summarize passages by finding the main ideas in passages from a Social Studies textbook. After silently reading the passage they...

Family and friendship are two very important themes of the historical fiction novel The Orphan of Ellis Island by Elvira Woodruff. From video clips and writing prompts to reader's theater and family interviews, this resource...

With the emphasis on incorporating more nonfiction in language arts classes the question arises about how to design activities that motivate kids to engage with informational text. How about an assignment that asks class members to...

Sixth graders explore popular ideas about the Sun and Moon. In this space science instructional activity, 6th graders separate commonly accepted details about our solar system into facts and myths. Students research a...

Fifth graders write a speech.  In this history lesson plan, 5th graders define the word infamy and listen to a speech by FDR.  Students work in groups to summarize his speech and rewrite sections of the speech.

Designed to encourage readers to consider both sides of of the question of whether Ender is responsible for the death of all the buggers, individuals search for examples from Orson Scott Card's popular science fiction novel, Ender's Game...

Middle and high schoolers identify how to discover a word's meaning by exploring context clues and any pictures, diagrams, photographs, and charts that might be included. They continue this process with other examples and locate one on...

Learners investigate the concept of the number one million. In this number concepts lesson, students read the book How Much is a Million? and brainstorm questions, such as "how many leaves are on a tree" and "how many hairs are on your...

Do research projects at your school look like a class of eighth graders staring at a blank screen? Use the Big 6 research method to guide middle schoolers through the process of finding a topic, searching for and evaluating sources,...

The book Good Night, Good Knight is the inspiration for this plan. Learners get into small groups to search for words in books that begin with their names and fill out and illustrate their own personal letter and name pages.

Readers of Neal Shusterman's young adult science fiction novel, Unwind, record what they know, what they want to know, how the will find answers to the questions, on a KWHL chart.

What will that cost in the future? The scenario provides pupils with a growth as a Consumer Price Index. Learners create functions for a given item to determine future prices and graph them. Class members then compare their functions to...

In this resource activity, learners use non-fiction books to research ocean animals. Students discover the many features of non-fiction books and how to use these features to help them conduct research. Learners then categorize...

Students analyze passages by Niccolo Machiavelli and Francis Bacon as an analysis of Renaissance ideas in contemporary situations. In this Renaissance writings instructional activity, students read excerpts from Machiavelli's The Prince...