Willy Wonka takes center stage in a lesson about direct and indirect characterization. Scholars read a passage from the story about Wonka's Grand Entrance and watch a film clip of the same, noting examples of direct and indirect...

"Yuns betta outten the lights!" Colloquial language is the focus of a lesson that asks middle schoolers to consider the pros and cons of using idioms. They read articles, match expressions with their meaning and place of origin, and...

Clement Moore's "Twas the Night Before Christmas" models the power of descriptive language for middle schoolers. They identify the similes and metaphors in the tale and consider what these descriptions add to the story's emotional...

I came, I saw, I conquered! Parallel structure, employed by writers even before Julius Caesar, is the focus of a lesson that teaches young writers the power of this rhetorical device. Class members analyze speeches by Dr. Martin Luther...

Build a classroom community with a instructional activity that uses character clovers to examine scholars' roles. Following a whole-class discussion, participants list four roles they play and accompany it with the character traits that...

The boarding school era is "a history that all of us need to know about," says Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland. Here's a lesson that examines that history. High schoolers examine video interviews of Native Americans who detail...

Young historians study the Supreme Court case "Worcester v. Georgia"  and note instances where the Justices defended the sovereign rights of the Cherokee. They also examine the actions of President Andrew Jackson and the...

Words carry weight. And some words carry baggage. Scholars learn the difference in a study of connotation and denotation. Individuals sort the cards into three groupings using words from Shakespeare's play. After sharing within groups,...

High schoolers are asked to consider the connections between food, culture, and identity. They read articles and share what they learned in a jigsaw activity, read a short story, and make a claim about the story's theme, backing up their...

Scholars learn how smells evoke early childhood memories and apply that knowledge to a character from F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. After finding a passage from the novel that references smells, they craft a haiku and a...

Two versions of movie trailers for the film Mary Poppins launch a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious lesson about how mood and tone impact a reader's experience of work. Using the provided list, readers identify the words that create the...

Ancient Greeks and Romans have contributed far more to modern culture than mythic heroes and stunning architecture. Greek and Latin roots are the foundation of many English words. Middle schoolers engage in an activity that asks them to...

Spoken word poetry, more than almost any other form, reveals the historical and cultural perspective of the poet. High schoolers listen to various spoken word poems, select one to research in-depth, and then apply what they have learned...

Somebody. Wanted. But. Then. Introduce your classes to the structure that supports stories with a lesson that teaches readers how to identify the four basic components writers use to craft their tales. After identifying these elements in...

The engagement is in the details. Young scholars learn the benefit of weaving descriptive and sensory details into the fabric of their writing through the activities in this lesson. As their hands explore items concealed in bags, a...

Scholars participate in two activities that teach them to identify the main idea and key supporting details in informational text. Partners create a visual that reflects the main idea and key supporting details in an informational text...

Writers examine the elements of an informational essay, identify them in several essay snapshots, and then craft their own to demonstrate what they have learned.

Learners try a variety of reading strategies. In this reading strategy lesson, students read a nonfiction passage and put Post -Its to mark the spots where they are using a reading strategy. They focus on inferring, predicting,...

In this writing worksheet, students read 12 strategies for keeping a writer's notebook. Worksheet is designed to be signed by student and parent when completed.

Learners practice their reading skills. For this reading comprehension lesson, students read articles about fast food topics using the wordstorming strategy described to prepare for reading the text.

In this working backwards worksheet, students review the understand, plan, solve, and look back problem solving strategy to help them work backwards and solve the word problems.

Students discover which learning style works best for them in a math setting. In this math comprehension lesson, students create different combinations of numbers that equal the sum of 11. Students determine if they are better visual,...

Eighth graders explore service learning projects. They work, in groups, to choose a video project. Students collect information and present it in a storyboard. Next, they use music, video clips, and still pictures to create their video...

In this worksheet on writing a terquain, students draw a picture of a subject matter and follow the directions to write a three-line poem about the topic. Students complete four activities.