To help learners better comprehend informational texts, they work through a series of activities. They discuss strategies, make predictions, skim passages, focus on key words, and practice taking notes. This lesson focuses on what to do...

Study the eight slides that detail the steps to writing a research report. The steps include brainstorming for ideas, constructing graphic organizers, and writing the final research product. An example of each step is given on each...

Learners discuss their personal connections with stories they've read in the past and identify techniques to connect with more stories. They create illustrations, construct task cards, and complete sentence stems based on books they read...

Explore the theme of release and death in Lois Lowry's The Giver with a K-W-H-L chart. After noting what they already know, kids come up with a list of questions about topics that they would like to know about, as well as how they...

The importance of accepting those who are different is the subject of a service learning project. Upper graders craft presentations for younger learners on ways to include everyone in the school community and to decrease the feelings of...

Math and science come alive in this career-related lesson on sanitation. Along the way, learners explore bacterial growth rates using exponential notation and graphs. A link to a very brief, but vivid video shows just how quickly these...

The lesson plan provides a richly detailed narrative and sample problems for teaching or reinforcing how to work with percentages. In particular, your audience will compute the costs per serving of food and simulate setting menu prices...

Is bigger really better? By the end of this lesson, learners will be able to apply formulas for computing the diameter of tires and wheel assemblies. Begin by showing a slide presentation that will review definitions for radius and...

Investigate a heated topic in environmental science. Scholars team up to play the parts of gas molecules in the atmosphere. As the teacher moves about, acting as the electromagnetic wave, learners react as their molecules would to the...

Shelves filled with heart-shaped boxes of chocolates. Bouquets of red roses. Racks of romantic cards. Stores are preparing for Valentine's Day. Has the holiday become too commercialized? That is the question asked by a lesson plan...

Malcolm X was a complicated man that few in white America understood. After sharing what they know or think they know about this civil rights leader, about nationalism and Black Nationalism, class members view a two-part documentary...

Track the transformation of Malcolm Little into Malcolm X and then into El Jajj Malik El-Shabazz with the second part of Make it Plain, a documentary on the famous civil rights activist. Viewers consider not only how events shaped and...

As part of Black History Month, class members investigate in depth the life and work of an African American musician.

Students read about and discuss the re-opening of the Emmett Till murder case. They research and write about a famous civil rights trial and create a poster highlighting the importance of the trial.

Learners explore the impact of Justice Sandra Day O'Connor on the Supreme Court. They research potential nominees to replace her, in light of her resignation, and write letters to President George W. Bush to share opinions of the...

Students gain a greater understanding of how political borders impact human and environmental development. Then, either individually or as a class, establish a correspondence with a Peace Corps volunteer working in Africa.

Students research the culture of the Mayans. In this early civilizations lesson, students research selected Maya city-states including Tikal, Clakmul, Piedras Niegras, and Uaxactun. Students use their research findings to...

Fourth graders read a nonfiction story that is presented to them with graphic features, and presented to them with only the text.  In this text features activity, 4th graders decide what the benefits of text organizers are and...

Students evaluate nonfiction text. In this evaluating nonfiction lesson students read two pieces of nonfiction text and respond with a short free-writing piece. Students discuss the content and focus on the accuracy.

Young scholars examine the elements of advertising. They analyze the format and structure of advertisements. They develop awareness of advertising techniques and explain that media messages and products are composed of a series of...

Students demonstrate a working knowledge of how to produce bibliography cards using MLA Documentation. They organize information from a variety of sources and credit sources for both quoted and paraphrased ideas.

Students complete an Individual Artist Information Sheet on famous 1950's Rock and Roll musician. They read one of the chapeters on "Elvis Pressley, Little Richard, Chuck Berry, Rockabilly, Jerry Lee Lewis, The Everly Brothers, or...

Learners read "Team Ethiopia Dazzles in Going the Distance" from The New York Times and discuss the impact these athletes have had on their country. Students work in groups to research different African nations that have participated in...

Young scholars examine the concept of nuclear waste storage. In this interdisciplinary lesson, students research Yucca Mountain in order to compare and contrast opposing views regarding the nuclear waste site there. Young scholars...