After making predictions about Janell Cannon's story Verdi, middle schoolers read through the book and make a new list of descriptions, personality traits, etc. They select an animal and write a narrative story about the animal, paying...

Just how alike are some historical documents? Discover the similarities between the Magna Carta and the United States Bill of Rights in a fast-paced activity. Historians learn the importance of both documents and the lasting impact they...

There's nothing like a good theme! After reviewing the story of Cronus, learners participate in a mini instructional activity about theme by pulling papers from an envelope and identifying the writing on it as either a topic or a...

In this listening worksheet, students will complete a chart identifying which of 5 speakers communicated each of the 18 statements. The corresponding radio broadcast can be found...

The engaging story Rain School is further explored in the third lesson of a larger unit that explicitly teaches close reading skills by answering questions whose answers can only be found inside the text. Through teacher...

Go on a walking adventure through Irene Smalls' touching book Jonathan and His Mommy, an excellent resource to practice vocabulary in context. Go over the walking-themed terms (humongous, pace, leap, and zigzag)...

Aid readers in achieving fluency! Hone in on appropriate pacing, accurate pronunciation, and varied intonation through modeling and ample practice. In one-minute bursts, individuals rehearse reading a passage aloud, recording where...

If you're looking to set your class up for writing effective arguments, try out this idea. While originally created with freedom as a guiding idea, the activity could easily be adapted for other themes. As a class, create a chart of...

Practice ratios and unit rates with tracking how long Lin took to ride her bike. Provided with different questions, your mathematicians can assemble their answers using a chart or setting up ratios. The activity is included in a set of...

Word choice can drastically alter the tone of a piece of writing. Ninth graders read Karen Russell's short story "St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves" and use textual evidence to help them analyze how word choice affects their...

Running an election campaign takes money. Class groups must effectively budget money in order to design and purchase sufficient advertising aimed at procuring classmates' votes. After completing an online tutorial, they also write and...

Learn about the government's role in everyday life in a guided reading activity. Groups create a KWL chart concerning the government's impact on the community.

This engaging activity is a great change of pace for the classroom. The activity starts with a simple message on the board “The teacher is angry.”  The instructor is to stomp around, drop books and glare—anything to show anger. The...

The Cay has been criticized by groups such as the Council on Interracial Books for Children because of the way race is portrayed. Explore the argument against the book while taking the author's perspective into account. Class members...

Enthusiastic readers take part in a book club unit that focuses on genre, particularly historical fiction, fantasy, and adventure. Over the course of 10 days, groups read a variety of stories and choose leveled activities from a learning...

Jacksonian Democracy ... a total success or a complete failure? Young academics examine Jacksonian Democracy, including the concept of the supremacy of the federal government and the forced relocation of Native Americans. Scholars...

The amount of energy Americans use doubles every 20 years. The first lesson in a 10-part series teaches scholars about different forms of energy. They rotate through five stations with hands-on activities or experiments at each in order...

Fifth graders explore the Adventures of Don Quixote in a four-week language arts unit. Scholars listen to and discuss a new chapter each day as well as examine vocabulary and practice word work including suffixes, subject-verb agreement,...

Students practice improving their reading fluency and pace. They review the u=/u/ correspondence. Students read "Just My Luck" and discuss what the book is about. They practice reading the story with expression and improved pace with...

Students research and examine trees indigenous to Florida. They develop a table/chart, draw leaves, design a map of Florida, and prepare and give oral presentations discussing the presence or absence of tree growth patterns.

A good complement to any integers unit contains a three-day lesson plan about positive and negative integers, adding and subtracting integers, and how to find the additive inverse. Additionally, it provides all necessary...

When you come across an unfamiliar word in a text, do you skip it and move on? Practice using context clues to identify words you don't know with a thorough set of language arts lessons. The resource reinforces close reading and critical...

Before there can be peace, we have to understand conflict. Introduce the concept of conflict through a two-part activity that combines discussion, collaboration, and writing. The first in a 15-part series examines the multiple meanings...

Everyone knows that George Washington was the first president, but do your scholars know why that was so important? The lesson plan, the third in a sequence of three, allows learners to understand how George Washington set a precedent...