After reading a series of primary source documents detailing the teachings of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X, class members craft newspaper columns assessing the strengths and weaknesses of each man's vision, and present their...

Though the movement for Women's Suffrage stretched over several decades and across two centuries, the final few years were the most difficult hurdle in many ways. Use a document-based question writing exercise to make inferences about...

Why did Stephen Douglas support the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854? Why did Abraham Lincoln oppose it? Young historians examine how the Kansas-Nebraska Act of 1854 affected the political balance between free and slave states and explore how...

Kindness and empathy can be as important as reading comprehension skills, especially for younger learners. Reinforce both with a lesson based on Rolling Along: The Story of Taylor and His Wheelchair by Jamee Riggio Heelan. As...

Poetic language is abundant in Natalie Babbitt's beautiful novel, Tuck Everlasting. Learners note the examples of similes, metaphors, and personification they find as they read, and illustrate how the language creates a sensory...

Guide learners through a discussion about Natalie Babbitt's Tuck Everlasting with a helpful graphic organizer. As they read through the novel, individuals note their reactions to statements about the book's themes, and fill out...

Send your young life scientists on a plant webquest that has them reading case studies to decide if seeds are seeds and plants are plants. 

The titular Matilda from Roald Dahl's famous novel adored books above all things. Discuss why it is important to read stories from across cultures and around the world using the first chapter from the ever-loved story Matilda.

Use a set of quick and easy to use literacy centers at the beginning of the year as you start to assess your students. The 13-page packet provides writing and reading activities with simple directions that allows new class members...

This instructional activity on metaphors is your ticket to better writing! As learners read ten sentences, they underline the metaphor and circle the two objects of comparison.

Hook your class into an exploration of and discussion about violence in video games with a cute animal clip and a video game trailer. After a quick discussion about how media can affect mood, class members read a related article and...

Peruse a workbook for every system in the human body. From cellular makeup to the integumentary system to human reproduction, the 300-page workbook features informative reading passages, guided practice, and humorous comic strips to get...

A reading of Patrick Henry's "Speech in the Virginia Convention," Henry David Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience," and Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail" launch a discussion about the price one is willing to pay to...

A lesson in personal finance can be the most valuable part of a high school education. Connect the basics of banking with informational reading skills in a lesson that prompts teenagers to answer a series of questions based on...

The California Gold Rush was not just an opportunity for the male gold miners sifting for shiny nuggets. Small groups read accounts of the ways women took advantage of the influx of workers to run hotels, bake pies, and wading out into...

The I-STOP law was designed to regulate the distribution and tracking of prescription drugs. After reading an article about its signing and implementation, middle and high schoolers work together to come up with their own ideas for an...

When is civil disobedience acceptable? Class members read examples of Jim Crow laws, an excerpt from Dr. Martin Luther King's "Letter from a Birmingham Jail," and a newspaper article and then consider the factors that make a law just or...

Don't just read a poem, recite a poem! Add speaking skills to a poetry unit with an activity that promotes successful poem recitation. Scholars choose a poem then recite it with the help of several tips and videos. 

Reinforce research skills, close reading, teamwork, and biographical writing skills with one collaborative lesson. Groups create slide shows detailing the elements of a biography through a presentation on a famous American person. Based...

Promote critical thinking and literary analysis with a short activity. Readers of Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart respond to a series of questions modeled on Bloom's Taxonomy.    

Promote reading comprehension and practice naming parts of the human skeleton with this online interactive worksheet! Scholars read about the functions of the human skeletal system, then work online to label a diagram by filling in 18...

Recording the key elements of a story (title, setting, characters, problem, ending) on a story map graphic organizer provides primary readers a chance to practice identifying these elements and promotes reading comprehension. The...

The second Saturday of September is recognized annually as World First Aid Day. In this First Aid Day worksheet, students read or listen to a passage, then match phrases, fill in the blanks, choose the correct word, unscramble words and...

Eager readers have waited a long time, very patiently, for a set of literary analysis lessons that connect text structure to the work's central idea. As ninth graders continue reading "The Tell-Tale Heart," they focus on the central...