Students investigate the process of making a newspaper using children's literature to create context for the lesson. The readers are asked to predict the events of the story as it is read to them. Then the teacher uses guided questions...

Students investigate the concept of a hurricane by using the cartoon series "The Magic Schoolbus" to simulate the fantasy of traveling through a hurricane. The lesson uses a KWL graphic organizer in order to guide student inquiry and as...

Students explore the history of basketball by reading and listening to a book entitled, "The Young Basketball Player." Afterwards, they create a trivia basketball game and write an interview for their favorite player. As a...

Students engage in a study of apples using children's literature. They conduct research using a variety of resources. Student list facts about apples and compare them while answering some guided questions. They plant some apple seeds and...

After reading The Other Side and guiding children through a picture walk, third graders investigate evidence of the civil rights movement. In the mini unit, 3rd graders analyze photographs of the past and make connections...

Explore Chinese culture and customs with your class and allow them time to connect and compare their own experiences with experiences of character a from the short story The All-American Slurp. They create a short presentation on some...

Students engage in a literature study in order to appreciate the world around them and create an innate instinct of working for the cause of conservation for the environment. They answer guided questions that use the story as a resource.

Let music and poetry collide in this well-orchestrated language arts lesson plan. After studying program music and C. Debussy's Prelude to an Afternoon Faun, view the attached SMART board lesson plan to read through "Fog" by Carl...

Make analyzing the sequence of events in an informational text easy. Ask readers to craft a one-sentence summary of each paragraph in a document and create a text map. To demonstrate their understanding of the process, participants read...

Here is a strategy for groups to contribute to whole class vocabulary development. Teams (based on seating rows) work together to look up dictionary definitions of words from upcoming sections of the book (though previous sections seem...

Students examine different poems from Emily Dickinson. They practice listening for meter in the poems and make connections between the texts. They also practice their own creative writing skills.

Considering adding more research to your curriculum? Check out this idea. The assignment example, which connects to the Common Core, is written for a lesson on "The Scarlet Ibis." However, you could adapt the bigger idea to almost any...

Read various texts to compare the themes across each text. Learners write a journal entry describing the most beautiful scenery they've seen and use a map of the United States to locate the Sequoia National Park and Muir Woods. They then...

Students conduct research about the Civil War and the slavery movement. They examine primary and secondary resources. The use of the internet and web slides are resources made available for students to make cognitive connections.

Scholars read articles and have a class discussion on California's efforts to fight obesity. They will read and discuss the effects of sugar on the body and the soda tax that is being proposed in California.

Use this SMART board activity with any short story in your unit plan. The SMART board file contains a step-by-step guide to plot diagrams, including an interactive practice page and an assignment. This resource is beneficial for language...

A Taste of Honey offers learners a chance to practice with unknown words and context clues. Choose several vocabulary words to focus on as you read the picture book, or use the ones provided here. Pre-teach the words and have...

Prior to reading Fever 1793, class members are introduced to vocabulary drawn from the text of Laurie Halse Anderson's novel with a bingo-style activity. The vocabulary list, a teacher copy with definitions, and the bingo template are...

Fourth graders read and discuss the sun and the energy we use on Earth from the sun. In this sun lesson plan, 4th graders discuss the solar system, planets, and answer short answer questions.

"How are belief systems represented and reproduced through nature?" This essential question guides lesson 6 of this unit on The Odyssey (the rest of the unit is linked). Students first write about a scenario in which they are...

High schoolers examine violence in video games. For this American history instructional activity, students read an article on the link between video games and violence. High schoolers respond to discussion questions and debate the topic.

Choosing an issue from a play or novel, researchers find two primary sources from different time periods to compare how people's views have changed. Many questions are listed to guide young writers. In the end, learners produce a...

Story elements such as conflict, character analysis, resolution, and moral are discussed and charted as elementary children read folktales involving animals. An element of science is also introduced as learners discover what a keystone...

With your middle schoolers, develop concepts such as philanthropy, civic responsibility, community service, and common good. Discuss famous philanthropists and what we can each give of our time, talent and treasure to better our...