Jane Eyre offers scholars an opportunity to practice reading comprehension skills. Pairs are assigned a word from the text, use their prior knowledge, and consider the context, connotation, and denotation of the word to posit a...

Can you identify mutations just by viewing DNA sequences? Scholars apply prior knowledge of DNA sequences to do just that in an engaging activity. They transcribe and translate genes, thus identifying the locations of mutations. Then,...

Delve into Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan with close reading and evidence-based, text-dependent questions. Part of a unit series, this well-sequenced, Common Core designed instructional activity draws on material from the...

Explore multiple perspectives through a jigsaw activity that will improve your pupils' understanding of the characters in Esperanza Rising as well as their understanding of strikes and human rights. Tapping into prior knowledge, and...

Delve into Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan with close reading and evidence-based, text-dependent questions. Part of a unit series, this well-sequenced, Common Core-designed activity draws on material from the previous day and homework...

Individuals build on prior knowledge to order a set of rational numbers from least to greatest or greatest to least. As part of the lesson, they order rational numbers written in different forms.

It's time to change up your evolution lesson plan! What better way than with an impactful game that immerses learners in a tiny bacterial world where they influence the characteristics of generations to come. An innovative activity from...

How do you make a prediction? Practice active reading comprehension strategies, like making predictions, with your readers. Learners make predictions during the independent reading of Dogs Don't Tell Jokes by Louis Sacher. They observe...

Ah, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer! Before your class reads this classic novel, encourage them to activate prior knowledge and build interest in the book with the KWHL strategy. Directions for walking your class through this strategy are...

Help your learners identify the inferences they make every day with this SMART board lesson. With a comic strip in the first presentation slide, they make inferences about the situation. A discussion addresses what type of prior...

Students will be using Inspiration, which is a graphic organizer computer program, to create their own model community where they will label the community parts with the corresponding organelle. They will have prior knowledge of cell...

Young chefs follow the set-by-step instructions of a recipe and use their prior knowledge of the body parts of a spider to make edible spider cookies.  After completing a pre-writing graphic organizer they then write a "how to"...

Children explore the life of an octopus. They listen to a story, answer prediction questions and share their prior knowledge of animals. Students observe the defense mechanism of the octopus. They create an imaginary defense mechanism...

In this earthquake exploration worksheet, students complete 3 prior knowledge questions, then use "Eclipse Gizmo" to conduct several activities, completing short answer questions when finished.

Here's a strategy that can be used with any narrative, whether read by the instructor or as independent reading. At the end of each chapter, learners predict, using prior knowledge as clues, what will happen in the next chapter. Readers...

Seventh graders apply their prior knowledge of the Principle of Balance to create a paper mola. Students examine a variety of molas, which are fabric works of art made by women in the country of Panama. To arrange the composition of the...

Have your U.S. history class engage in pre-assessment activities at the beginning of the school year. They activate prior knowledge to answer questions. They also use information about particular topics to fill in a graphic organizer....

In this earthquake exploration worksheet, students complete 2 prior knowledge questions, then use "Building Topographic Maps Gizmo" to conduct several activities, completing short answer questions when finished.

In this earthquake exploration worksheet, students complete 2 prior knowledge questions, then use "2D Eclipse Gizmo" to conduct several activities, completing short answer questions when finished.

After introducing the concept and formula for finding the area of a square, try this lesson. Fifth graders will use their prior knowledge to break apart various shapes in order to determine area. This lesson includes several examples,...

Model for your class members how to use a definition map to make connections between new words and prior knowledge. Although the strategy is designed for social studies classes, the approach can be use at any grade level and in any...

Students explore food webs. They identify any misconceptions of producers, consumers or decomposers and their relationship within a food web. Students draw an example of a food web for each of the examples that are given. They address...

Young people are the future voices of the country. In order to be knowledgeable about local and federal elections, future voters must first become aware. Bring an informative lesson plan to your social studies class, in which middle...

The study of the life of Julius Caesar can be divided into three parts: his early life and military successes, his reign as dictator, and the rise of the Roman Empire after his death. Young scholars demonstrate their mastery of the facts...