Make a study of the First Amendment and its relationship to freedom. Pupils rewrite the amendment and discuss the central idea before focusing on a specific phrase. After discussing, class members write a journal entry about the included...

The activities in a comprehensive teacher's resource guide provides budding psychologists with opportunities to design experiments to study behavior, apply their knowledge of research variables, critique online behavior surveys, and much...

The Great Fire by Jim Murphy provides the text for a study of the Chicago fire of 1871. The plan is designed as a close reading activity so that all learners have the same background information require for writing. Richly detailed, the...

The American Revolution is the theme of a five-week unit that focuses on reading, grammar, morphology, and writing. Scholars read and respond to texts, practice spelling and word work, and write paragraphs. Assessments gauge comprehension.

Learn about Mexican culture while simultaneously strengthening reading, writing and computer skills. In order to get the most out of Esperanza Rising, pupils should have prior knowledge of Mexican culture. Therefore, there are links to a...

The 11 lessons in this educators' guide focus on using newspapers to develop critical reading skills in the content areas.

Middle schoolers complete a writing assessment task to demonstrate their ability to craft a narrative based on a variety of informational texts. They view West of the West's documentary Magic Isle, read three print resources about...

¡Celebramos Kwanzaa! Celebrate Kwanzaa through the fictional story Celebra Kwanzaa con Botitas y sus gatitos to delightfully explain the seven principles of Kwanzaa. Dual language learners participate in reading and vocabulary...

Point of view, purpose, and tone: three concepts readers of primary and secondary source materials must take into account when examining documents. Class members view a PowerPoint presentation and use the SOAPS strategy to identify an...

A lot of secrecy shrouded the creation of the atomic bomb. Readers uncover some of that secrecy using an educator's guide for the novel The Green Glass Sea. Three weeks of lesson plans feature discussion questions and reading...

To understand why the topic of reparations is controversial, young scholars gather background information by reading articles, watching videos, and examining cases where reparations were made. Learners consider the lasting repercussions...

"How did the slavery system undermine the United States' democratic principles?" This question launches a study of how the Preamble to the Declaration of Independence, Article I, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution, and Article IV,...

Imagine dumping out a milk can and finding letters from one of the darkest moments in history! Scholars use Holocaust Reading Passages and research to discover how people recorded and hid history during the events of World War II. They...

Fourth graders describe WWI influence in Indiana. In this guided reading lesson students read about the participation of Indiana citizens during World War I. Students give examples of event that changed life in Indiana during the early...

Students view the AMERICAN MASTERS episode titled ALICE WATERS AND HER DELICIOUS REVOLUTION. They examine their own eating habits and determine how they can eat food that is both healthier and tastier. Through Guided Reading strategies,...

Learning to craft quality questions is a skill that can be taught. Class members use the Question Formulation Technique to learn how to create and refine both closed-ended and open-ended questions. They then view West of the West's...

It's hard to imagine that life on Alcatraz could be dull. A series of intriguing lessons take readers through the novel Al Capone Does my Shirts. Pre-reading questions introduce the text and a range of suggestions, from comic strips to...

The Crusades sounds like a glamorous time period in the Middle Ages full of glory—but was it? Scholars find and review the truth of the Crusades' influence on the world through the resource. The study guides, separated individually by...

Illegal immigration is an ever-changing source of consistent controversy. A reading passage about the rights of undocumented workers and illegal immigrants—and the lack thereof—guides high schoolers into a mock trial activity. Three...

Voices from the past. Young scholars listen to a podcast interview with a historical re-enactor as they continue their research in the eleventh instructional activity of this unit on colonial trade. Applying their close reading skills,...

Teaching tools designed to support student-centered literature study. Geared toward homeschoolers reading Harper Lee's book To Kill a Mockingbird, I would use these in my classroom. The materials are applicable to any text: graphic...

Learners of all ages read and discuss books about Asian America. In this Asian-America lesson plan, different books for every age group are listed and various teaching strategies are suggested. Great tips cover virtually every grade level!

Jewell Parker Rhodes, the author of Ghost Boys, wanted to bring the historical legacy of Emmett Till and the current topic of racial prejudice into today's young readers' mindsets. Use a reading guide and set of discussion questions to...

The construction of skyscrapers is no simple undertaking, involving the careful coordination and planning of many different people. The third instructional activity in this series explores this detailed process by first teaching children...