Students participate in various shared reading and writing activities related to the book "My Body" by Rhonda Jenkins. They identify and list words that could be used to label other body parts in the book, draw a picture of their face...

Students use reading fluency, comprehension, vocabulary, written expression to write in journals as reading "Holes" by Louis Sachar. Some days are set aside for tests and/or food tasting.

High schoolers examine the experience by immigrants coming to America who are Spanish-speaking. As a class, they define "Gringo" and read poems whose authors first language is Spanish. In groups, they participate in different sections...

Students use a Billy Joel song to write a scenerio about it.

In this word recognition worksheet, students recognize high frequency words. Students read a story and circle all the most common words each time they appear. They also complete fourteen fill-in the blank questions by placing the high...

This resource provides 11 short answer questions and a couple of extension ideas related to part one of Jerry Spinelli's novel about a feisty runaway. Not reproducible, but the questions (which address vocabulary, inference, recall,...

Do your middle school grammarians confuse fewer and less? Whether used as an in-class check or as a take-home assigment for those who need extended practice, the 27 prompts on the exercise sheet will reveal which learners understand the...

Feeling the pressure to confirm is something any adolescent can relate to. Explore an essential theme with a response to literature assessment that prompts learners to identify main ideas with evidence and supporting details.

How do you assess whether pupils have mastered certain concepts and skills? Designing a performance task that asks learners to demonstrate their skills and providing writers with a rubric that identifies these skills and provides...

Demonstrate how to cite information from Internet sources without plagiarizing. If your class is working on an Internet research paper, and you have observed learners cutting and pasting directly from the Internet, the activities and...

Students write their own fables. In this writing fables lesson, students use handheld computers to write a fable. The class designs a spreadsheet to organize common elements of fables. Students also edit each others' work.

Eighth graders write a Compare and Contrast essay comparing the lives of similarly aged students at different Latitudes. They share their essays with epals, via e-mail. They may include digital photographs in their correspondence as well.

To underscore the importance of practicing good listening skills class members engage in a series of activities that model poor listening skills. In pairs and then as a whole group, class members enact different, more positive techniques...

Review context clues with your young readers using this helpful resource. Eight questions contain a missing word that pupils choose out of five options. The sentences provide ample context clues, making the choice more about test-taking...

As part of a study of the Civil War, class members conduct a WebQuest to create a timeline of battles fought by the 10th Alabama Infantry Regimen. They then use Google Earth to pinpoint these battles of the Civil War on a map of Alabama.

Even if your kids aren't reading yet, they can become familiar with words by identifying two that are the same. Youngsters focus on the word same as they examine eight words and match them to their identical spellings....

Jackie Robinson's attempt to earn a spot on the 1946 Brooklyn Dodgers provides learners with an opportunity to examine the Jim Crow laws and revisit issues of segregation and integration. "The Unconquerable Doing the Impossible: Jackie...

Are the lessons of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar still applicable today? Explore themes, characterization, and plot structure with a thorough teacher's guide to the play. The resource covers the entire text and offers rigorous activities...

"Friend, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears..." Those words begin one of the most persuasive speeches in literature. Explore the elements of persuasion in a series of lessons related to William Shakespeare's Julius...

Students examine "masterpieces" and mass-produced objects as they discuss humankind's inventiveness and creativity. They also analyze the role of problem solving in the creation of masterpieces and mass-produced items.

Life is not always fair. Who's heard that before? This same concept moves to a larger scale using prejudice and bias. Pupils discuss where prejudice attitudes derive and how they develop throughout life. Reading comprehension...

Does the use of standardized testing improve American education? Scholars dive into the issue as they prepare to discuss the debate topic with their classmates. After reviewing the pros and cons, they watch videos to help them arrive at...

How many treats do you buy each week? Learners investigate diets and how the media tricks consumers into purchasing unhealthy snacks. They will investigate the designs and logos affiliated with cereal boxes and identify specific phrases...

Sometimes it's difficult to identify the idea that demonstrative pronouns refer to. Polish the use of this, that, those, and these in your class's writing. Several sentences are given, and your pupil must rewrite the sentence to clarify...