The broad ideas included here provide clear ideas on how to use brain-targeted learning, what activities work best with Tuck Everlasting, how to apply the knowledge gained from their reading, and ideas for evaluation.  Not teaching...

Kids read the book Boston Tea Party by Steven Kroll and use maps to locate various landmarks. They identify the cause and effect of the events related to the Boston Tea Party, then write a descriptive composition.

To prepare for crafting their own memoir, class members examine poetry by Margaret Atwood, Billy Collins, Robert Hayden, and Claude McKay, stories by Richard Rodriquez and Willa Cather, and Barry Levinson's film Avalon. They examine...

As a class, young writers learn how to develop a strong supporting character. They think and discuss a good friend they know, they use that friend as a basis for a potential supporting character. They create a supporting character as a...

The stories of the Silver People, the West Indies immigrants hired to work on the Panama Canal, come to life in a lesson about the building of the Panama Canal. Groups research why the canal was built, how it was build, the working...

Help your seventh graders relate the ELA Common Core standards to their own learning with these "I Can" statement posters. Each standard has been translated into a statement that pupils can understand and placed on its own page for...

Eighth grades can master the ELA Common Core standards! Show your learners the connection between classroom activities and assignments and the standards with this set of "I Can" statement posters. Each standard has been rewritten as an...

Track your class's progress on all of the ELA Common Core standards with these handy charts. Along the left side, each seventh grade identifier is listed along with the full text of the standard. As you teach, reteach, assess,...

Drag queens in thigh-high shiny red leather boots! Welcome to Kinky Boots, the Tony Award-winning musical about a young man trying to save his family-owned shoe-making business. With an engaging story line and songs by Cyndi Lauper, the...

Don't let the length scare you away. An eBook version of David Copperfield contains all 1,307 pages of the story. This digital version of the classic coming-of-age novel follows the title character from childhood into adulthood,...

Young writers will literally step into art and creative writing as they become the figures featured in the sculpture Mud Woman Rolls On. Begin by showing your class a picture of the sculpture and having a discussion about its most...

Young scholars examine pictures of people who lived during the feudal system. In groups, they research the role and lifestyles of the nobility and commoners. To end the lesson plan, they draw their own fictional person and write their...

Students put writing pieces into categories to show different organizational features in writing. In this writing lesson plan, students are shown examples of speeches, poems, editorials, cartoons, parodies, historical fiction, and more.

Third graders develop basic narratives. They retell a focused story and create a basic publication using available resources (e.g., pictures, colors, computer, copier). They experiment with different forms of creative writing (e.g.,...

Third graders explore the significance of historical landmarks. In this lesson, 3rd graders participate in a class discussion on Kansas landmarks, then complete several activities the reinforce the class discussion, such as writing a story.

Students express the meaning of the Star-Spangled Banner. In this American history lesson, students read through the national anthem and complete an activities from a list of choices. Some choices include: writing the anthem in your own...

Young scholars explore the genre of biography in both its traditional and nontraditional forms. They examine Edmund Morris's unorthodox biography of Ronald Reagan. They conduct research on an historic American and write their own...

Second graders describe the impact of certain figures in United States history, including Meriwether Lewis and William Clark. They describe experiences of early American explorers and compose narratives from the perspectives of others.

Students explore the role of resistance during the Holocaust. Viewing images, they complete a set of notes on the Holocaust and discuss the feelings they get from looking at the photographs. They identify the parts of speech used in...

Students examine the expressive and descriptive language used in the books "Dr. Xargle's Book of Earthlets" and "Planet of the Robots." In pairs they take notes about each other's physical appearance and conduct interviews, identify the...

Fifth graders participate in a discussion about the Declaration of Independence.  In this Declaration of Independence lesson, 5th graders write imaginary stories in the voice of a member of the committee at Independence hall....

Sixth graders examine the use of slavery in the United States. Using a map, they draw the route of the Tecora and Amistad voyages. Individually, they write an essay describing their opinions on whether the Africans on the ships should be...

Students study the feudal system of the Middle Ages. In this Middle Ages lesson, students watch "The Feudal System at War". Students listen to an instructor-delivered lecture regarding the roles of monarchs, nobles, knights, and...

Students consider how cause and effect translate into sequencing in literary works. In this sequencing lesson plan, students read non-fiction passages about Eleanor Roosevelt and Clara Barton. Students complete graphic organizers based...