Great Expectations can prove to be a challenge for instructors who choose to use Dickens's novel as required reading. Here's a curriculum guide that includes lessons that address some of these challenges. The first lesson in critical...

What's the difference between medical marijuana and marijuana bought on the street? Not much. High schoolers learn more about marijuana with an informational booklet that focuses on the medical uses of THC, how marijuana affects the...

Why is voting so important, anyway? Learn more about the importance of exercising a right for which many men and women marched, fought, and legislated with an interactive timeline activity.

First graders read nursery rhymes and celebrate Mother Goose. In this drawing conclusions and predicting activity, 1st graders create new ending for the nursery rhymes. Students gather data and make a graph showing their favorite rhyme.

Kids engage in a series of activities that ask them to consider differences and similarities in characteristics, both visible and invisible. With this new understanding, the class investigates the Special Olympics program and develops...

Examine ways in which historic places and landmarks represent significant themes and events in American history. Then create theme-based travel guides for related historic locations. This lesson requires informational reference materials...

Discover the environmental and economic impact of global warming. After reading an article, emerging environmentalists identify how different countries are responding to the Kyoto Protocol. They research emission laws and write a news...

Imagine being one of the painters in 1910 at the Lyme Art Colony in Connecticut. Using the Florence Griswold Museum's on-line resources to gather information about the daily life of artists at the boardinghouse, learners write a letter...

It's so interesting to see kids respond to articles about education. To start the day, prompt learners to discuss the words colorblindness and diversity. Then, split your class in two and have one side read an article from 2007 and...

Share pupil responses to an interactive slide show about a design initiative intended to help the world's poor. The class works in groups to brainstorm ideas, and then prepares sketches of their own design solutions. Each rendering...

Second graders connect reading to writing by making predictions, completing text to world connections, solving problems, and more. In this reading and writing lesson plan, 2nd graders draw conclusions after reading and write them down.

After reading The Other Side and guiding children through a picture walk, third graders investigate evidence of the civil rights movement. In the mini unit, 3rd graders analyze photographs of the past and make connections...

In the novel, Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan, Percy is faced with a major decision. After reading, chapter 19, discuss the decision-making process Percy took, what he decided to...

We need the help of your history detectives! After giving them a set of questions to answer, reading groups must create their own timeline of the events. Then, as a class, have each group present their timelines. What is different? Why...

High schoolers examine the grid in terms of a method of organization in our society as well as graphic design. In this "Making and Breaking the Grid" instructional activity, students design solutions to common problems and draw...

Students explore the connections between natural disasters and poverty. In this economic lesson students examine worksheets and activities for each level.

Students interact with the strategy of visualization to better understand what is happening in a story. They assess the poem, "Talented Family," and the book, "Sarah Plain and Tall," to visualize and imagine in their minds pictures of...

What are the elements of a personal narrative? Get your class talking by reading "The Necklace" and "A Dangerous Game." The lesson plan focuses primarily on defining certain vocabulary terms (like context clues, plot, conflict, climax,...

Difficulties with brain injuries still continue today. After reading Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True Story About Brain Science, class members read a series of modern personal essays about brain injuries and choose an essay to compare...

What do you see? Young reader tap into the visualization process as they listen to or read a fiction story and fill out a graphic organizer. Model this first with a think-aloud, showing scholars how you visualize a familiar story. For...

As part of a Directed Reading Thinking Activity (DRTA) class members are asked to predict events in Patricia Polacco's Pink and Say based on illustrations in the story, on their knowledge of Steven Crane's The Red Badge of Courage,...

Examine stories with a moral in a character development instructional activity. The class reads a short story written by Benjamin Franklin in which he pays too much for a toy whistle. Individuals then make text-to-self connections and...

Encourage good reading habits with an activity that asks class members to examine the title and cover of Out of the Dust, and then make predictions about the setting of and events in the tale.  

Explore the life inside trees as scholars learn vocabulary through Debbie Miller's informational text Are Trees Alive? Familiarize pupils with the new words they will hear like anchor, disease, awaken,...