Explore informative and explanatory writing with this lesson. Using a cube labeled with directives to describe, analyze, compare, associate, apply, and argue the topic, middle schoolers work individually or in groups to answer questions....

What makes a story interesting? Complex characters! As part of a series of worksheets that prepares middle schoolers to write their own novel, the exercises included explain the role of the protagonist, the antagonist, and the supporting...

Elementary schoolers develop an awareness of the literary form known as the fable. They explore how authors write fables to pass along moral lessons. After reading and discussing many famous fables embedded in the plan, learners attempt...

A quick problem to test your middle schoolers' knowledge of dividing with decimals. Also a good practice of unit rates, they must compute the cost of one gallon of gas when given the total amount for a fill up. Can be used as a preface...

This resource sneaks in the math so your learners will be adding and subtracting positive and negatives on a number line while thinking they are mapping out houses. The activity starts by putting houses the appropriate distance away from...

Middle schoolers read a passage from Lucy Maud Montgomery's Anne of Avonlea and identify three details from the passage that show Anne is nervous as she faces her students for the first time.

Factor in different strategies in a lesson for factoring quadratics. Young mathematicians first create tables and area models to factor quadratic trinomials into two binomials by guess and check. Learners then investigate how they can...

Provide girls with the developmental skills they need with a booklet designed by the non-profit AED Center for Gender Equity. Each section of the mentoring guide includes discussion questions and activities as well as...

Middle schoolers analyze given data on density and diameter of objects in space by graphing the data and then discussing their findings. This ninth installment of a 22-part series emphasizes the Galilean moons as compared to other...

Life in the Florida swamps after the Civil War comes alive in the 1946 film adaptation of Majorie Kinnan Rawlings’s The Yearling. The film of this powerful coming-of-age story, filled with love and loss, can be used with or without a...

Middle Schoolers produce a class newspaper about the American cowboy and the times in which he lived with illustrations, feature stories and advertisements typical of the times. This is an ambitious, yet worthwhile project for youngsters...

Immerse your class in the Middle Ages with a thorough history lesson. After viewing examples of illuminated manuscripts such as the Book of Kells, they discuss how these were the mode of keeping and storing information...

Mark Twain, the famous American author, is often studied in the school system. Use "The Prince and the Pauper" to analyze the differences between the text and its video version.  This lesson includes several culminating project...

Middle schoolers work with a partner to gather information on a question from two sources using a computer program and the Internet. They also write a report with visuals to air on closed-circuit TV for the school. Use this instructional...

A happy discovery occurred in Arkansas in 2004: a woodpecker, believed to be extinct since the 1940s, reappeared! Or did it? Middle to high school ecologists examine scientific evidence and use critical-thinking skills to determine...

Useful for literary analysis, citing textual evidence, or summary skills, this lesson about the Kumeyaay Indians would be a good addition to your language arts class. Middle schoolers read novels and summarize the literature in their own...

Middle schoolers work in small groups to make various geometric solids with Play-Doh. They use fishing line to make cuts and observe the shapes of the cross-sections. Pupils complete an assessment in which they answer questions such as:...

Connect a scene from a class play to events in your middle and high schoolers' own lives. First, they act out a scene from A Midsummer Night's Dream in pairs. They work to role play a scene as an extension of the one they have read,...

Explore how to weigh the value of positive and negative coping skills in life situations with middle schoolers. They will be able to recognize the coping skills that they have used that been negative ways of coping with stress and look...

Explore objective and subjective writing in this interdisciplinary lesson, which brings language arts and visual art together. Middle and high school students examine the sculpture Head with Horns by Paul Gauguin. They then analyze the...

What a scam! Middle and high schoolers pose as journalists exposing consumer fraud. In this lesson, they write an article for a magazine using data collected during previous investigations (prior lessons) to defend their findings that a...

Focus on presentation techniques with this instructional activity, which prompts middle schoolers give an impromptu speech. They practice public speaking by giving a short unprepared speech. Some preparations are made to include an...

Explore genre, subgenre, and author's purpose in this helpful worksheet. Middle schoolers read several summaries of books and short stories, and identify the genre and subgenre. They also determine if the author's purpose is to...

As a writer, if you have a weak introductory paragraph or thesis statement, you might lose your audience! Have your middle and high schoolers practice writing introductory paragraphs that include clear thesis statements in response to...