Various Muslim holidays and their meanings are researched and your students will predict whether or not they should be recognized on the New York City school calendar.  An extension could be to write a letter to the Mayor about...

Should organized prayer be prohibited at high school sporting events? Students explore their own feelings about prayer in school-sponsored events, before discussing the recent Supreme Court decision banning public prayer at high school...

Explore the discrepancies in Florida's vote counting process in 2000 and 2002 with this New York Times reading lesson. Middle schoolers study the viewpoints presented in informational text, paying attention to how word choice can...

Being expressive in a creative, empathetic, or imaginative way is not only fun, it builds good pre-writing and communication skills. Learners with visual impairments have a roundtable discussion session where several sentence frames...

Help develop assertive, critical-thinking skills that enhance growth and change while teaching economics. In groups, select a topic from a list and then discuss the pros and cons of each topic. Debate why advertising is necessary to our...

Students practice critical thinking skills by defending their beliefs orally in a "hot seat". In addition, they communicate their feelings about an inssue in writing.

Learners analyze their own feelings about the death penalty before considering court cases involving the death penalty. They determine what their definition is of cruel and unusual punishment, and analyze how different states handle the...

Young environmentalists use a conference format to reach consensus on ways to slow deforestation and promote sustainable development. Class members are assigned roles to play during the conference, and work on posters and a public...

So many people fought for Civil Rights in the United States. Read about the Civil Rights Act of 1964, and discuss what the act guarantees. Then pass out a slew of magazines and encourage them to observe how often minorities appear in...

Knowing about the hydrologic cycle is the first step to understanding the carbon cycle. Upper graders discuss the earth's water content, polar ice caps, and the concept of the ecological cycle as it applies to carbon, nitrogen, and other...

Investigate the future of the presidency in the wake of the House of Representatives' vote to impeach President Clinton. The class brainstorms both sides of the argument, reads and discusses an article, then analyzes and writes a journal...

Middle schoolers examine a variety of information for New York State including insolation data, and economic or political data, thus incorporating both science and social studies. Encouraging learners to become concerned citizens as they...

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...

Learners explore discrimination by the media. In this media awareness lesson, students examine stigmas concerning mental illnesses as they are portrayed in the media.

Examine statistical data to recognize the relationship of statistics to real-world issues. Pupils navigate e-stat using the Internet and find data about social issues. They complete a worksheet with their data and create an anti-smoking...

It's tough for high schoolers to assess what is a credible resource and what is not. A helpful resource prompts class members to research a particular topic and record two facts—and create one lie—while documenting the sources. They...

Need a journal topic? Whether you use these prompts as part of a persuasive writing unit, or reproduce the download as a one-page handout for your class members, the suggested topics make a great addition to your curriculum library. In...

Speaking of the Internet. The culminating lesson for the unit on the Internet challenges pupils to prepare short, two-minute speeches on an issue facing society. The pupils chose from three topics that connect the Internet and...

Upper graders investigate how the Seventh Day Adventists are objectors to the practice of war. The lesson plan covers the Civil War and examines the church's position about the practice of war. The research extends to modern wars and...

Discuss how diseases have impacted human history. Divide your class into groups and assign each group one of the following: tuberculosis, malaria, plague, cholera, smallpox, and AIDS. They read up on, complete a concept map, and present...

Life science learners read a set of six short Discovery Readings that describe historical events in the field of microbiology. For each, they identify clues about when the event occurred and then they try to arrange events in...

Kids compare what printed text looks like with the naked eye and under magnification. They discuss the extremely small scale that must be used to measure the size. They learn about the micrometer unit, then draw scale models of a variety...

In the preceding lesson from the unit, beginning biologists discovered that microorganisms are everywhere, so the question follows, why are we not sick all of the time? Class members read and discuss an article in small groups about...

Imagine four pages of writing prompts. Although designed specifically for eighth graders, the topics could be used for upper-elementary and high school writers as well.