Eighth graders analyze the Native American's viewpoint of the Homestead Act. Using one Native American group who lived in Nebraska, they write a letter to the editor of a local newspaper discussing the Homestead Act and how it affected...

Students explore reading fluency and reading with expression. They discuss four books and complete four different activities for each of the books discussed. Students read each book and act the story out using puppets, perform a reader's...

Students practice reading fluently and expressively through the use of various strategies. After reviewing chunking, decoding, and rereading, students complete an initial read of a novel text. They create a deck of expression cards to...

In this Julius Caesar worksheet, students determine character traits of Julius Caesar and Brutus from quotations given.  Students are given 13 quotations about or by Julius Caesar and 8 quotations about or by Brutus.

High schoolers consider different statements based on the themes from Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun, and decide what they think of the statement. They share their ideas as a class and discuss all sides to a idea. 

Encourage your class to use a variety of strategies to learn and retain vocabulary words. The plan suggests that near the beginning of your reading of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead pupils should find words in the text that are...

The events of the Holocaust in World War II would never happen again, right? Scholars research the current genocide taking place in Darfur. Using video and Holocaust Reading Passages, they analyze the horror of this forgotten part of the...

Former President Barack Obama reformed the United States' health care system with Obamacare, but is the new legislation good for America? Scholars read a historical timeline about the passage of health care reform laws and compare United...

Understanding the ways a fire will act is a key factor in fire safety and fire prevention. Young campers focus on how the weather and terrain can affect the behavior of a fire with topographic maps and different...

President John F. Kennedy bought 1,200 Cuban cigars the night before he enacted the Cuban trade embargo in 1962. Should the United States maintain the embargo? Using the website, pupils explore the topic to prepare for a class debate or...

This comprehension worksheet provides readers with an article about basic matter and then asks them to use this information to respond to a series of comprehension questions.

No one will be saying "Not I" with a lesson that combines The Little Red Hen with the life cycle of a wheat stem! After reading the story in your class, pass out wheat stems to your learners and have them examine the plants closely,...

The Emancipation Proclamation: one of the most important primary sources for studying American history! An interdisciplinary resource includes a reading of Abraham Lincoln's seminal speech quoted directly. Following the reading, pupils...

Your intermediate or advanced thespians choose dramatic scenes to perform in duos, small groups, or solo to demonstrate vocal and physical characterization. Use class time to prepare and rehearse. Detailed rubrics work for peer assessment.

Some fish contain proteins that act like antifreeze in order for them to live in the frigid waters of Antarctica! High schoolers determine how much antifreeze a fish needs to lower its body temp to -2.5 degrees. Teachers act as a...

Native American Nations ... sovereign entities or removable tribes? A thought-provoking instructional activity explores the relationship between Native American tribes and the United States, including forced assimilation and removal from...

Proficient reading of informational text, especially primary source documents, requires practice. This message from Thomas Jefferson about the Louisiana Purchase offers readers a chance to develop these comprehension skills.

If you are reading Judy Freeman's Oh No! or your class loves animals, use a reader's theater exercise to bring the story to life. After assigning 12 parts to your young actors, have them act out the story with a script that will be...

Scholars demonstrate what they know about the separation of powers through role play. Two individuals act out a skit as the remaining class members discuss and decide whether the interaction they observed is an appropriate example...

Should driver's licenses be granted to unauthorized immigrants? That is the question class members grapple with in a lesson plan that asks them to first read a fact sheet that details the arguments for and against...

Is it illegal to lie about military service? Discuss the ways the First Amendment affects the Stolen Valor Act with a lesson that focuses on the Supreme Court case U.S. v. Alvarez. As high schoolers learn more about the history of the...

A common complaint among physics scholars studying Newton's laws of motion concerns drawing free-body diagrams. To practice the required pre-requisite skills for free-body diagrams, individuals identify which forces act in specific...

Challenge readers to read closer in an activity based on the Socratic questioning strategy. As kids read Antoine de Saint Éxupery's The Little Prince, they use sentence starters to ask deeper questions about the text, and...

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...