Help learners examine racial profiling of Arab-Americans and Middle Eastern Americans in the wake of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. They will be asked to look at beliefs, actions, and behavior towards this group of people...

Geology whizzes observe the effects of change within a model of a watershed. They place replica waste dumps within the models and note the path that the waste takes as water passes through. This detailed lesson plan provides teacher...

Synthesizing information from a PBS documentary Ralph Bunche: An American Odyssey, its companion website, and several other resources (links to which are provided), high schoolers evaluate whether Bunche did all he could to advance the...

Redecorate a classroom on a budget. Middle schoolers rebuild a classroom after a disaster. They conduct Internet research to determine construction supplies needed and the most cost effective way to reach the predetermined results. They...

Pose the question to your historians: who really freed the slaves? They critically assess various arguments, using primary sources as evidence. In small groups, scholars jigsaw 5 primary source documents (linked), and fill out an...

Discuss classical appeals of rhetoric through the speeches of Winston Churchill and FDR. Learners read, annotate, and analyze the speeches by the men before using a graphic organizer to track the use of ethos, pathos, and logos. 

Poor Joe is all in pieces, and he needs students to learn the Latin words for his body parts so that they can put him back together! Learners work as a class first to perform whole-body reconstruction, and then individually. In addition,...

Help your middle and high schoolers reflect on the responsibility of newspapers to act as a vehicle for 'everyday citizens' to voice their opinions. Then, using an article about the first day of the Senate impeachment trial of President...

Discuss and share opinions on violent computer games. After reading an article, your class will discover the controversy surrounding online games. They analyze the suitability of computer games and write their own letters to a developer...

Learners understand the importance of punctuation in a sentence. For this codes lesson, students write a pen pal letter using codes for the punctuation. Learners send a key to break the code if needed.

Budding historians read six documents related to grievances that led to the writing of the Declaration of Independence. They then craft an essay in which they discuss the perspective of both the colonists and the king. This DBQ could be...

Break the content and theological barriers of C.S. Lewis’s The Great Divorce with the ideas and suggestions available for analysis and discussion using an easy-to-understand study guide. This stupendous resource introduces Lewis’s...

In a mock senate hearing regarding the development of ethanol as a fuel source, each person in the class is assigned a role to play and must uphold the stance of their character. Once the senate hearing is complete, each person writes a...

Financial literacy is generally focused on personal spending and saving, but consider an opportunity to talk to your pupils about how charitable giving can also factor into money management and how it can enhance life for both...

Real or fantasy? Dogzilla, the Giant of Barletta, the Garden of Abdul Gassazi. To enrich their understanding of incredible stories, teams create a mouse newspaper and report on the invasion of Dogzilla, craft folktales, and draft a...

A hot-button topic in schools today is bullying, and although there is heightened awareness of this problem, information about specific steps schools can take to combat the problem and create a positive environment is difficult to find....

Teach young readers how to compare two texts and select passages that exemplify a specific theme with Lesson 6 from Unit 3. Begin by modeling how an expert reader selects examples from a text, performing a think aloud on how Article 2 of...

Does history really repeat itself? Encourage your middle and high schoolers to answer this age-old question by reading the attached articles on the Cuban Missile Crisis of 1962 and the Iraq Crisis of 2002. How similar or different are...

Knock, knock, knock...Creep out your class with a critical thinking lesson focused on word relationships in Edgar Allen Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart." They investigate  the relationship between word choice, mood, and interpretation of...

Engage critical and social thinking by exploring the value of language and word choice. The class considers the article "The Silence of the Historic Present" and analyzes several presidential speeches. They engage in class...

"Without concerned citizen action to uphold them (human rights) close to home; we shall look in vain for progress in the larger world. . ." Eleanor Roosevelt's comment is used to set the stage for the conclusion of a five-lesson unit...

Celebrate inventions such as lightning rods, bifocals, and stoves with a Ben Franklin Day. Young historians conduct research and write a paragraph about an accomplishment of Benjamin Franklin including an illustration...

Students study the Dominican Republic through watching and discussing a video about the country and its people. They explain life in the Dominican Republic and describe the emerging picture of the Dominican Republic as viewed through...