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Conventions - Punctuation Research
Study unusual punctuation marks in this punctuation instructional activity. Young grammarians work in small groups to research one of the unusual punctuation marks (semi-colon, colon, dash, comma, ellipses, or quotation marks) and...
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Comparing Plans
Good consumer practices such as price comparison can make or break a budget. Youngsters research five different cell phone carriers and the plans they offer. They compile their data and determine which plan offers the best value. They...
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Jeffersonianism at the Bar
Eleventh graders participate in a political roundtable discussion. For this Jeffersonianism lesson, 11th graders role play individuals from the 19th century and discuss issues of the Federalist period.
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Pumpkin Science
Fourth graders examine pumpkins and use the scientific method to explore its contents. In this Pumpkin Science lesson, 4th graders measure pumpkins for circumference. Students dress as if they were in a lab and work in pairs to...
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It's Always Great to Hear "Another Book Please!"
Although summer is gone, these tips for increasing literacy can be used year-round.
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Egyptian Mummy Cases
Here is an activity I'd like to do with my class! They researching the ins and outs of Egyptian culture, hieroglyphs, symbolism, and art, then use what they know to create realistic or stylized Mummy cases. These cases need to include...
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The Mystery of History-Original Sources
Students research the events surrounding the Alamo in 1863, and explore the differences between primary and secondary sources of information. They brainstorm lists of items used to research a subject and categorize them as primary or...
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Come Tool Along With Me
Students create metallic Bas-relief scultures using basic art supplies and the technique of "tooling" in this Art lesson with croos-curricular connections in Social Studies and Math. A scoring rubric is included for assessment and...
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What Are The Properties of Sea Water?
Ninth graders conduct research on the subject of sea water. They use a variety of resources to obtain information. There are helpful resource links listed in the lesson. In conjunction with the research students make inquiry of the...
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Easy Access: Creating Annotated Versions of News Articles
How can news coverage be made more accessible for teens? Model for your class how to use technology to annotate news stories containing unfamiliar references that hinder their interest in and understanding of a news story. Use the...
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Take a Deep Breath: Air Today, Air Tomorrow
This is the introductory lesson in a series about air quality. Why is it so important that we breathe clean air? How can we make sure we're keeping our air clean? A discussion is the central idea of the lesson, and example questions are...
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Crocodiles
Work on research procedures in this instructional activity, which prompts writers to collect and evaluate information pooled from a number of sources. They work in teams to collect information about crocodiles from different sources....
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Fact Or Opinion
Groups of junior highers find newspaper articles which contain both facts and opinions, and present examples of each to the class. The focus is on discerning between fact and opinion. Two excellent worksheets are embedded in the plan...
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Food, Glorious Food?
How are the reactions between American and European consumers different when it comes to genetically modified foods? Use the New York Times article "Consumers in Europe Resist Gene-Altered Foods" to inform your middle schoolers...
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Solid Waste and Recycling
Students demonstrate effects of waste on environment and ways of reducing it, observe how much packaging goes into bag lunches each day, and survey their families to assess awareness levels and household recycling practices. Lessons all...
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New Gun Control Politics: A Whimper, Not a Bang
Using an article from The New York Times, students answer discussion questions about gun control. They are divided into four groups to research different standpoints on gun control, including the Executive Office, Congress, Gun...
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Kids These Days!
Young scholars create a scrapbook of college student life during the 1960's using digital archives and Internet research. They read and discuss the article "What's the Matter With College?" and then compare college experience of today...
Discovery Education
Election in the News
Young people are the future voices of the country. In order to be knowledgeable about local and federal elections, future voters must first become aware. Bring an informative lesson plan to your social studies class, in which middle...
Teaching Tolerance
Collage of Concerns
A picture can speak louder than words. An interesting lesson introduces the themes of social justice and diversity to young learners by having them create artwork. Scholars create collages from a variety of sources to showcase what...
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Heroism in Hispanic Countries
Students investigate foreign newspapers written in Spanish. They pick an article to be read and summarized in English. This lesson develops the skill of word recognition and sentence structure.
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Who To Believe?
Learners interpret meaning from opposing views on the same topic, and discuss that there is often so much "spin" and "hidden agendas" in the media.
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County Chronicles
Students review and use the information from previous lessons about their county. In groups, they write articles for various sections of a class newspaper. They review and edit each others work and publish their newspaper using a desktop...
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Working With Writing
Fifth graders research a topic of their choice using the internet, magazines, and books. In this research lesson plan, 5th graders are graded on their research and delivery skills of their presentation.
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What Time Is It?
In this telling time worksheet, students match seven clock faces with the sentence that states the time. On this page there are times shown to the nearest five minutes.