Who knew determining author's purpose could be turned into a game? Four teams compete to correctly identify the author's purpose for writing a series of passages.

Lesson five in the series focuses on syntax and the elements that make sentences enjoyable. Learners practice building different clauses and phrases and using figures of speech and rhetorical and literary devices.

If you're looking to set your class up for writing effective arguments, try out this idea. While originally created with freedom as a guiding idea, the activity could easily be adapted for other themes. As a class, create a chart of...

Discuss how diseases have impacted human history. Divide your class into groups and assign each group one of the following: tuberculosis, malaria, plague, cholera, smallpox, and AIDS. They read up on, complete a concept map, and present...

Life science learners read a set of six short Discovery Readings that describe historical events in the field of microbiology. For each, they identify clues about when the event occurred and then they try to arrange events in...

Make a study of Timothy and his development as a character over the course of the first half or so of The Cay. This idea focuses in particular on chapters 10 through 12. Learners start out by working on double-entry journals created in...

Four steps to Open Mic Night! The location, invitations, supplies, and party favors are all part of the process in planning and hosting a fun-filled gathering where scholars read aloud an original poem or one by their favorite author. 

A 12-piece primary source packet sets the tone for a study of the role women played in the origins, development, and impact of blues music. Legends like Bessie Smith, Gertrude "Ma" Rainey, Mamie Smith, and Ida Cox are featured, as are...

Even though readers investigate matters of the heart, this activity promotes the inner workings of learners' brains. The fifth lesson of six has the teacher first model the strategy to the class before having small groups practice. To...

Following directions from a colorful slide preparation card, beginning biologists examine three different live microorganisms: bacteria, yeast, and paramecia. This is not an unusual activity to do with your class, but if you are doing it...

Here learners get to flex some serious algebraic muscles through an investigation of logistic growth. The properties of the constant terms in the logistic growth formula are unraveled in a short but content-dense...

Mini microbiologists play a card game in which they group microorganisms by groups: virus, fungus, protist, or bacteria. Then they identify the roles different microbes play in the natural world and explore how humans effectively use...

Sad, depressed, miserable, inconsolable, forlorn: so many synonyms have a lot of variety with their connotations. Through the guided imagery activity, writers explore the use of connotation and its influence on imagery and description by...

Imagine a list that includes Alan Abelson of Baron's, Bob Woodward of the Washington Post, and Mother Jones. High schoolers select a national columnist, read and annotate five columns by this author, noting the rhetorical...

Draw back the curtain, add a spot of joy to your class, and let learners be lessoned by a close reading exercise that models how to develop an interpretation based on evidence drawn from a text. Robert Browning’s dramatic monologue “My...

Though it isn't a novel activity to prepare onion cell and Elodea plant cell slides as examples of cells in a microbiology unit, this resource will leave you thoroughly prepared. As pupils examine the slides that they prepare, they draw...

Choosing a poet or a theme, eighth graders conduct research in the world of poetry. They conduct Internet research and select five poems that fit their poet or theme, and create a seven slide PowerPoint presentation on their selected...

Eating healthy can be a challenge, especially for people with special dietary needs. After learning about standard nutritional needs for adults, learners take on the role of a dietician and work together to create a menu for one of the...

Explore the relationship between sports and physics in a cross-curricular lesson. Middle and high schoolers prepare a multimedia presentation based on a chosen sport. They answer five physics vocabulary questions about how the laws of...

My name is Bond, Hydrogen Bond. Written for distance scholars working on chemistry at the high school level, the lesson includes eight weeks worth of material divided into six parts: substances you use, mixing it up, your skin, what's...

Happy teens are healthy teens! Pupils embark on a self-reflective journey using a series of assessments and discussions to promote personal development. The lessons focus on identifying low and high self-esteem attitudes and behaviors,...

Students discuss impact of Negro Leagues on society, research Negro Leagues baseball players, paraphrase and summarize information, and present pertinent information in baseball card format.

What experiences lead people to change and how do they do it? After reading about Cole's encounter with Touching Spirit Bear, readers complete the second out of a series of five activities to predict future events in the text. The...

Scholars learn about the Hero's Journey as they read Ray Bradbury's "The Drummer Boy of Shiloh." They analyze the story's structure and narrative techniques. Finally, they write summaries of the text's central idea and use their...