ELLs are introduced to the experiences of Filipino immigrants to the United States. As a class, they discuss the various waves of immigration to the United States and state the reasons why they would leave the Philippines. They compare...

In order to assess their mastery of the concepts taught in a 12-lesson plan unit study of Christopher Paul Curtis' Bud, Not Buddy, individuals read excerpts from President Barack Obama's 2009 Back-to-School Speech and use the strategies...

Can three works of literature work together to establish and develop a common central idea? Put your thoughts into writing with a final assessment focused on a unit-long analysis of Christopher Marlowe's "The Passionate Shepard to His...

The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan is an illustrative source of rich prose, deep character development, and strong literary themes. Use two of the book's key chapters, which focus on Waverly's relationship with chess and with her mother, to...

Prepare for a mid-unit assessment based on Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club with a brainstorming and discussion lesson plan. Focused on two chapters from the novel ("Rules of the Game" and "Two Kinds"), the lesson plan guides tenth graders...

Clear up the misconceptions about autism and individuals on the autism spectrum with an inquiry-based instructional activity. As ninth graders read the first four pages of Temple Grandin's Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of...

Ninth graders study the study of animals in an informational text lesson plan that focuses on analyzing text structure. As learners continue reading the first chapter of Temple Grandin's Animals in Translation, they form inquiries and...

Continue analyzing literature using textual evidence with a lesson on "I Felt A Funeral, in my Brain" by Emily Dickinson. Ninth graders bring their annotation skills and knowledge of figurative language from the previous eight sessions...

Oedipus may be the king, but he certainly does not rule—or see—all. Analyze his interaction with Teiresias in an instructional activity focused on the central idea of Sophocles' Oedipus the King. As pairs of ninth graders discuss...

Keeping animals relaxed and comfortable has numerous benefits. Explore Temple Grandin's unique perspective on animal behavior with a lesson that concentrates on a central idea within the text. High schoolers prepare for the final...

Explore the concept of ratios, unit rates, and proportions. Learners convert fractions and percents to decimals. They discuss rates and where they can be found in the real world. A hands-on experiment and numerous flash cards and...

Fourth graders complete a two-week unit on the U.S. Civil War and the Underground Railroad. They read the books "Follow the Drinking Gourd" and "Pink and Say," complete story maps, and dramatize a scene from "Follow the Drinking Gourd."...

It's time for scholars to be on their own. Individuals work independently reviewing sources to answer their research questions. Learners read "Are Your Clothes Made in Sweatshops?" to help complete the mid-unit assessment. After...

Practice ratios and unit rates with tracking how long Lin took to ride her bike. Provided with different questions, your mathematicians can assemble their answers using a chart or setting up ratios. The activity is included in a set of...

As part of a unit study of Bud, Not Buddy, readers compare Buddy's list of rules to live by with those that Steve Jobs enumerates in his commencement address to Stanford's 2005 graduating class.

How can you read a character's tone? What about a narrator's tone? Analyze Karen Russell's "St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves" with a lesson that focuses on how word choice can change tone and how tone can affect the development...

Explore using units with scientific notation to communicate numbers effectively. Individuals choose appropriate units to express numbers in a real-life situation. In this 13th lesson of 15, participants convert numbers in scientific...

A great way to practice with unit rates, the activity gives your mathematicians an opportunity to compare different statements and select which are true. They can practice with "choose all that apply" by setting each statement into its...

It's not just any circle—it's the unit circle. The fourth lesson in the series is an introduction to the famous unit circle. While working through a series of activities, young scholars learn the components of the unit circle and how to...

Where to begin? This lesson plan, part of a series designed to help seniors compose a narrative response to a prompt found on the college Common Application, focuses on the techniques writers employ to craft an engaging introduction to...

Prepare for the end-of-unit assessment in a unit focused on Karen Russell's "St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves." As your class continues gathering evidence to support or argue against the success of Claudette's adaptation into...

Can authors speak to each other across works, genres, and centuries? Study the conversation between Christopher Marlowe in his poem "The Passionate Shepherd to His Love" and the responses by Sir Walter Raleigh and William Carlos Williams...

If you've ever wished you could respond to an author's message, an instructional activity that connects three poems with the same concept will appeal to you. Based on the first few lessons' focus on Christopher Marlowe's "The Passionate...

As an end-of-unit assessment, class members complete the final drafts of their Common Application narrative essay and then meet in pairs to discuss the independent reading selection.