Have your class read the story "The Magic Lake," retold by Liana Romulo, from Filipino Children's Favorite Stories. Guide them to identify the problem, solution, and universal theme. They compare the theme of this story to the theme of...

Determining a theme is one of the most difficult and most important standards in the Common Core. Use this plan to help your learners identify the message that an author is sending to the reader. The lesson is based around the book Dogs...

By sharing a summary about their favorite book or movie, your young readers can then discuss the main ideas of their beloved stories. The concept transitions to finding the main idea in poetry. Class members use textual clues in various...

Do your learners need to practice identifying figurative language? This lesson outlines a method for working on that tricky skill. After teacher modeling and think-aloud, fourth and fifth graders identify examples of figurative language...

This useful approach to determining themes based on specific details from a book is aimed at readers of Jerry Spinelli's Maniac Magee. It could also easily be adapted for use with other books or readings. The class identifies recurring...

Examine the connection between descriptive language and emotional impact. For the first few chapters of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis, learners record the descriptive writing the author used to vivify the...

Descriptive language can be used to create a vivid and imaginative setting. Create the chart suggested in this plan to track the descriptive language found in The Wizard of Oz by L. Frank Baum. The class discusses the land beyond...

Groups or pairs choose ordinary objects from a bag and rename them based on traits, so that a stapler becomes a "paper cobra." Then they connect this exercise to the way authors use language to emphasize certain traits through word...

Get your historians to hop into someone else's 18th century shoes with a simulation on rights in early America. Each individual gets an identity card, indicating their race, gender, and status (slave or free). Areas around the room are...

Using the paintings On to Liberty and A Ride for Liberty, 10th graders analyze historical perspectives on life after the Civil War. They attempt to determine what the Civil War meant for free slaves, then read a paragraph highlighting...

How can you create an "English-free" classroom for your foreign language learners? This year, use some of these strategies to maximize your students' opportunity to communicate in the language.

Take your students on a free trip to Athens this year with this presentation, which tours the geography, history, and modern changes in the country of Greece. Clear, easy-to-understand maps and pictures help students to appreciate this...

Using role play, a graphic organizer, and discussion, your class members will compare and contrast the movement of people and goods between countries in the European Union before and after the organization was established. This is a...

One of the negative effects of the Industrial Revolution was the advent of child labor. Discover the good deeds and law making powers held by Lord Shaftesbury. Each slide describes his life and his contributions to child welfare,...

I love these! Print, cut, and laminate any of these sticker cards to help you manage classroom behavior in a positive way. Tape the blank chart on your learner's desk,or reward him by giving a point or sticker in each of the squares....

Just how free is the press? After examining the advertising and propaganda techniques used by advertisers, class members consider the influence advertisers may exert over newspaper content. 

Free speech, privacy, and cyberbullying are the focus of a series of activities that prompt class members to engage in discussions about these interrelated topics. They view a segment from PBS’s series on bullying, read...

Although the title of Elizabeth Kann's story Pinkalicious isn't a real word, the book is an excellent way to explore some new vocabulary in context: acute, mushy, rare, steady, and surrounded. Find the...

Practice distinguishing biography from autobiography through point of view. Tell a brief story of your morning. Have a class member retell the story to you (using second person). And have another retell the story to the class (using...

“People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel." Black Tiger Academy’s martial arts lesson plan five of 20 has a great team building activity in which a small group...

In a detailed, creative writing task, potential poets analyze how race, identity, and society categorize and (mis)represent us. The learning begins with an imaginative anticipatory set where students describe unique situations that...

Shoot Out is a quick-paced practice for shooting baskets. Each team has six players, each with an assigned number. These numbers are used to assign roles during the activity. There are three roles: shooters, rebounders, and scorekeepers....

Here is a fun and fast-paced game of shooting baskets. This game uses two basketballs and a line of players at the free-throw line. Player 1 shoots at the basket and tries to make a basket before player 2 makes a basket. If player 1...

Discuss the balance, color, emotion, and context of the painting Paris Street; Rainy Day by Caillebotte. After a deep discussion, let creativity run free in your class as learners create a dimensional piece that reflects a...