How do different communities celebrate special occasions? After researching celebrations in their countries, class members investigate other festivals like those associated with Ramadan, Diwali, Chinese New Year, Halloween, Easter,...

Candide is a dense text. To assist in analyzing Voltaire's satire, groups employ a cubing strategy based on Bloom's taxonomy. Complete directions for the strategy, a template for the cube, a worksheet, and a topic list are included. 

Through the journey of four stories of immigration, scholars complete graphic organizers and apply knowledge to create a visual representation of their findings on a large poster. Third and fourth readers write a letter to their...

Eighth graders complete an Interdisciplinary Unit on the Muckrakers and the Progressive Movement. Students describe life in America and how Progressive Reformers changed it. identify specific problems and propose solutions. Students...

Tenth graders review the Energy, Matter, and Organization unit. They have one week to complete an essay. Students must submit a concept map or drawing. The activity is introduces by reading a short story line which presents a simple...

Students examine a piece of art to find objects and symbols used by the artist. In this visual art lesson, students look at Jaun Quick-to-See Smith's, "Trade Canoe for Don Quixote." They look for symbols and items that show the artists...

Hook your learners with a great project. They research the underground railroad and civil rights movement through literature, view the video The Underground Railroad: Escape from Slavery, and read the book House of Dies Drear in...

Celebrate Eric Carle’s beloved children’s books, especially those about animals. Teachers and readers alike engage in Carle’s books as they explore the art and color in each of his stories, and how these elements support comprehension.

Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass serves as the anchor text for a instructional activity on symbolism. Readers use the provided worksheets to examine the symbols in the novel as well as in the world around them.

Identify the different types of graphs and when they are used. Learners will research a specific health issue facing teens today. They then develop a survey, collect and analyze data and present their findings in class.  This is a...

Here’s a fresh approach to establishing classroom rules at the beginning of the school year. Class groups brainstorm what they know about rules for baseball, basketball, and football. They then consider how the games would differ without...

Tenth graders explore mathematics by participating in hands-on daily activities. Learners identify a list of different shapes and classify them by shape, size, sides and vertices. They utilize tangrams and geometric pieces to gain...

Due to vandalism, war, and urban decay, many of the world's great monuments have fallen to ruin. Here is an interesting lesson that increases understanding of the dichotomy between what are intended as lasting tributes, and their...

Examine different types of questions while studying Peter and the Starcatchers. After learning about the different types of questions, pupils read passages from the text, answer the questions, and label each question with its...

How can you tell if someone is happy? The lesson works with elementary and middle school scholars to activate their schema and pay attention to details to make inferences in their daily lives, poetry, and other literature. Cleverly...

Young scholars create a graphic organizer showing the importance of Vitamin D intake. For this Vitamin D lesson, Students list problems with Vitamin D deficiency and create poster boards in small groups. Individually, young scholars will...

Readers of Neal Shusterman's young adult science fiction novel, Unwind, engage in a silent discussion, posting their responses to a series of statements about characters in the story.

Looking to introduce some text-based questions into your ELA lessons? Practice the kinds of skills the Common Core demands with the seven text-based questions and the essay prompt provided here. Designed to be a three-day lesson, day one...

What really knocks me out about this project list is that when you're done reading about the projects, you wish you could do them all. I'm not kidding. There are 16 terrific ideas and that doesn't happen very often.

What are the benefits of using the Euro, the EU's common currency? What are the challenges faced? As their examination of the European Union continues, class members investigate the impact on how the switch to the Euro impacted...

Middle school years can be tough. An educator's guide for the works of Lynda Mullaly Hunt introduces readers to two texts that discuss the struggles pre-teens face during middle school. Chapter-by-chapter questions and activities for two...

Compelling discussions are the result of open-ended, challenging questions. An introduction to Paideia discussions includes explicit directions about how to prepare readers and how to model the kinds of questions they should develop...

Dive into Arthur Miller’s The Crucible and determine what it means to conform in society, and discuss as a group with the thoughts and plans available in these documents. Included are multiple activities and brain targets that form the...

Middle schoolers explore and experience jazz through collage. They listen to improvisational jazz, discuss the origins of jazz, then design and create a collage that shows jazz being played. This project will result in amazing works of...