Artists working in different media often explore the same themes—to model how these same themes weave their way through different forms of artistic expression, scholars analyze images by Dorothea Lange, identifying key themes in her...

Cerebrum, cerebellum, brainstem, pituitary gland, and spinal cord. Prepare your class for a performance task assessment on the brain and how it works with a scripted plan that defines these terms and identifies the functions the...

Don't get caught plagiarizing! Before starting your research unit, use this lesson to help your young writers identify plagiarism. The truth is, many kids don't even realize when they're doing it! They practice citing sources when...

The water cycle, rainfall, and the flow of water into rivers then out into the ocean are the main ideas covered here. After a teacher-led discussion and activity, learners pair off and write a commentary about the water cycle that is to...

What's the best way to learn the elements of the periodic table? The inventions of Thomas Edison? Patience? To prepare for the performance task assessment on how people learn, class members share ideas about ways to learn in a variety of...

Forty percent of food in the US goes uneaten while 14.5 percent of US households lack a secure supply of food. As part of the preparation for a performance task assessment, groups consider statistics such as these about food waste and...

What would you be willing to do to save an animal from extinction? After re-viewing a video about the restoration of the Island Fox on Santa Cruz Island, individuals adopt the point of view of one of the key players in the...

Your class members will feel confident in taking notes during your next lecture with this great note-taking worksheet, through which learners practice activating prior knowledge, recording key points, flagging...

What's that buzzing in your ear? An insightful lesson about genetically modified mosquitoes! Partnered pupils explore the creation, release, and monitoring of mosquitoes designed to reduce the mosquito population. After watching a video,...

Stories contain very specific elements; plot, characters, and key events. Learners use pantomime to retell a key event from the beginning, middle, and end of a story. They discuss setting and character as each group discusses and then...

Step into history and step out with a new understanding of events. These strategies bring a new level of understanding of key events by asking viewers to engage in and respond to projected images. Complete directions for the activity, a...

How do the experiences of animals living in zoos differ from animals living in the wild? To prepare for a performance assessment on this question, class members are introduced to key concepts and vocabulary, and then groups use a Venn...

In the story Suki's Kimono drums are used to show mood. Learners discuss mood in the story after they practice playing a simple 4/4 rhythm on their drums. Each group plays the rhythm using a different tempo. They listen to each...

How do viruses hijack our cells to produce more viral particles? Junior immunologists model how viral RNA integrates into a host cell's DNA using pop beads and use interactive tools to explore a virus' genome. The teacher's guide...

Active listening is key to interacting with others in a way that shows respect. To develop their skill as listeners, high schoolers first play the "Telephone Game" to demonstrate some of the problems that arise in communication. Pairs...

Ideas like this are highly effective for helping build better reading comprehension. The class listens to an excerpt from a grade-appropriate text, and they discuss what clues or words helped them visualize the scene. They then read a...

Get your writers ready to compose a constructed response essay in response to either an informational or fictional text. Pupils note down the big idea they wish to address as well as up to nine examples from the text that they wish to...

A great language arts lesson designed for emerging readers awaits your class. Rhyming words are the focus. Learners play an interactive learning game on the computer that helps them to understand words that rhyme. As with all of these...

There are words in the English language that actually make sounds, such as vroom, and, buzz. Here is a clever lesson which introduces young readers to these sound-making words. They play an interactive game on the computer that has...

Citizenship and basic human rights are the focus of the lesson presented here. In it, learners compile a basic list of human rights, then access a website in order to complete some activities that are based on rights and...

Learners study the growth of the Phoenix area using geographic images, maps, tables, and graphs. They study the idea of community.

Students examine aesthetic movement known as modernism, discover why organizers chose modernism as World Fair's design pattern, interpret photographs of modernist fair buildings and identify artifacts that reflect modernist ideas, and...

Games are great for reinforcing key skill sets and providing fun practice. Here are two games complete with printable materials and instructions. Children will play consonant digraph Jeopardy and digraph concentration using the same set...

Environmental explorers examine the campus and take note of living organisms. Introduce them to the biosphere and the questions of the day: How much water can be found in the biosphere? A slide show helps you along, and even contains a...