Six lessons comprise a unit about Roald Dahl's George's Marvelous Medicine. Over time, scholars explore themes such as the power of words, exciting writing, and mixed feelings. They examine the writing's literary devices, persuasive...

Georgia's law S.B. 202 is at the center of a instructional activity that asks young scholars to examine what critics say are Georgia's attempts to limit voting access to Black voters. Groups then investigate the voting laws in their own...

Sometimes you need a map to get to your destination. High schoolers list 10 short and long terms goals and personal assets they have that will help them achieve these goals. They then craft a paragraph in which they reflect on how these...

Responsible speaker + critical listener = effective communication is the equation at the heart of a responsible listening lesson about the power of words. Class members view the clip of the courtroom scene from the film A Few...

In a lesson designed to prepare scholars for taking tests, they begin with a review of how to plan and review notes. They Identify ways to prepare for upcoming tests and strategies for studying and memorizing information. Class...

John Hughes' The Breakfast Club takes center stage in a lesson about annotating nonfiction texts to keep track of evidence that may be used later in discussions and writings. Scholars consider the stereotypes and conflicts presented in...

Don't you wish you could use passive voice? Be careful what you wish for! "The Monkey's Paw" is the focus of a grammar and language usage lesson about active and passive voice. Readers identify examples of active and passive voice in...

The takeaway from the "Playing by the Rules" instructional activity is that it is each person's responsibility to learn the rules in a given situation and that they must accept the consequences if they choose not to follow the stated...

What do Beethoven, Bob Dylan, and Pharrell all have in common? Works by these three musicians are used to launch a study of poetry. Class members listen to passages from the music and craft a quick write about how the music makes them...

The theme of a work is not a single word! Rather it is a statement that reflects what a writer believes or wants readers to understand about a topic or subject. Here's a short, but powerful lesson that utilizes passages from The...

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...

With all the stuff available online, good essays are just a click away. But talk about tracking! Writers beware! New tech can now identify plagiarism, and the consequences of presenting someone else's work as your own are severe. Here's...

S. E. Hinton's The Outsiders allows middle schoolers to reflect on mob mentality. After reading an article and watching a video about herd mentality, class members find examples in the novel of when characters go along with the...

The success of any lesson based on a complex text relies heavily on what instructors do before beginning the reading. Before reading Othello, scholars engage in a series of pre-reading activities, including completing an anticipation...

While wisdom may not be communicated, knowledge of sentence structures certainly can. Teach young grammarians the power of syntax with a lesson that uses Herman Hesse's Siddhartha as a mentor text. Learners first rewrite captions for an...

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...

The second lesson in "The Color of Law" shows how government policies supported economic inequality. Scholars read additional excerpts and respond to text-dependent questions from "The Color of Law" text, examine primary source documents...

William Wordsworth's poem "Lines Written in Early Spring" lets learners sharpen their observation skills. Class members first closely examine the image "Flowers in Front of an Abandoned House in Demerino, Russia," listing what they...

A free write, an image of magnolia leaves, and the Ed Roberson's poem "Once the Magnolia has Blossomed" ask scholars to use their noticing skills to reflect on the lesson beauty teaches about loss and grief.

Finally, a photosynthesis activity that outshines the rest! Young biologists perform an experiment that allows them to observe photosynthesis through the production of oxygen. The lesson, part of the K20 series, also includes a study of...

Don't argue for the sake of argument. Scholars begin their work in lesson plan 13 and continue into lesson plan 14 as they analyze The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Working in groups, learners work toward collecting text evidence and...

Learning to create depth when painting or drawing takes skill and the ability to understand how things should be placed on the canvas. The class will use the Charles Deas painting Long Jakes to learn about composition, sharing...

Is there a correlation between a country's wealth and the extent of its ecological footprint? What exactly constitutes an ecological footprint, and how does one country stack up against the rest? This is a unique lesson to incorporate...

Family and friendship are two very important themes of the historical fiction novel The Orphan of Ellis Island by Elvira Woodruff. From video clips and writing prompts to reader's theater and family interviews, this resource...