As part of a unit study of The Hobbit, class members engage in an activity that asks group to practice the skills needed to reach consensus in a discussion.

It's all in the presentation. Readers take a look at author's presentation in the article Rachel Carson: Sounding the Alarm on Pollution. Scholars work together to complete a Comparing and Contrasting Authors’ Presentation graphic...

Invite your young writers to take the reins with writing dialogue. Using two characters of their own creation, kids work with partners and then individually to write short conversations.

Uncover the exciting world of the Roaring Twenties with The Great Gatsby study guide. Individuals become critics as they write a review of the production. Scholars also read historical information and analyze the differences between the...

Can science ever go too far? Learners explore this topic with the Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde study guide. They read about the connection between scientific experimentation in fiction and real life and then compare a scene from the novella...

Art can enhance the understanding of history. That's the big idea in a instructional activity that has young scholars read Randall Jarrell's poem "The Death of the Ball Turret Gunner" and an excerpt from John Hersey's...

A parent's influence on a child is one of the most formative factors in developing life. Discuss the importance of the parental relationships in Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club and H.G. Bissinger's Friday Night Lights with a written...

Which character bears responsibility for the tragedy in Shakespeare's Macbeth? Scholars participate in a gallery walk and complete a Quick Write to support their claims about which character is to blame.

Put yourself in my shoes! Scholars work through the Outline Tool from the previous lesson plan to develop a claim before developing a counterclaim about selling human tissue. Learners also create supporting claims using an outline tool....

How does a soliloquy differ from a monologue? Scholars read the first soliloquy from Shakespeare's Hamlet and compare it to Claudius's monologue. They also engage in a group discussion about Hamlet's character development.

Let's get to the gist! Pupils work in research teams to gather information about specific refugee experiences from Bosnia, Afghanistan, and Kurdistan. Scholars then try to find the gist of informational texts about their topics,...

Young researchers create a class Cascading Consequences chart to see how the industrial food chain affects people, animals, and the environment. They also work in teams to complete a Stakeholders chart for the industrial food chain model...

While an interesting activity idea involving the exploration of a story about an Asian American boy named Imduk, a teacher would need to have assess to the Scott Foresman reading program to make this work. If not, a teacher could use...

Seventh graders complete a visual acts project that focuses on eye level, center of vision, station point, cone of vision, vanishing points, true height, and drawing a box in two point perspective. They work on a number of still life...

Using a digital camera, Photoshop, and a desktop paint program, learners will explore perspective techniques. They apply perspective techniques to develop depth illusions within a scene. The lesson plan employs both traditional art and...

Learners read several magazine articles on the same topic written from different political perspectives, paying particular attention to the diction, syntax, and arguments presented in support the point of view expressed. They then select...

Pupils examine and discuss author's purpose and the influence of an author's perspective in his or her writing. In groups, they read scenarios and respond to them from the perspective of a designated character. Materials are attached.

Eighth graders read and discuss a variety of children's books that deal with feelings, self-concept and how they affect a person's perceptions of themselves as well as their world. They also tie in interrelationships of visual and...

Fifth graders examine excerpts from a diary of a Confederate soldier and his experiences in a Union prison camp. After receiving character cards, they write diary entries from the perspectives of their Civil War identity. As an...

Your developing literary critics discuss 'perspective' and discuss how the same occurence can be interpreted by two different people in two different ways. They read Ryszard Kapuscinski's untitled poem, infer meaning of the poem, and...

Young scholars analyze poetry. In this cultural perspectives lesson, students read the poem "Soccer Until Dusk" by Mark Brazaitis. Young scholars analyze the poem and consider the cultural perspective it reveals.

As your class reads Gary Paulsen's Canyons, challenge them to assume the perspective of a character to write a letter. The plan suggests learners pair off, one person assuming the voice of Coyote Runs, and the other assuming the voice of...

Students discover how moods and perceptions can be affected by colors. As a class, they create their own color wheel and identify primary and secondary colors. They draw their own cool and warm color mosaic and discuss how each one of...

A close study of two works of art provides the introduction to this cross-curricular writing assignment. After comparing the clothing, facial expressions, body language, setting, and color in the two 19th century paintings Tissout’s...