Students determine what grammar is and how they have learned it. For this creative writing lesson, students read "Style' Gets New Elements," and respond to the discussion questions. Students then present grammatical rules to one another...

Third through fifth graders discover the importance of reading and plan a service project to provide books to children. First, they read the book The Important Book and then they brainstorm about the importance of reading. Afterward,...

"It is my lady, O, It is my Love!" Provide class members an opportunity to develop their skills reading difficult text with an exercise that focuses on the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet (Act II, scene ii). Using the provided...

Why did the United States choose to invade Cuba in 1898? As part of a 3-day lesson, your young historians will first develop working hypotheses to answer this question, then work with a variety of historical primary source documents that...

Strap on those backpacks, it's time to travel through history with this literature unit based on the first four books of The Magic Tree House series. While reading through these fun stories, children create story maps, record...

Eager ecologists explore ecosystems through video and photographs of a Mangrove. They discuss the animals in this habitat and how they interact with each other after reading and discussing "The Sea, the Storm and the Mangrove Tangle."...

Over the course of a 12-lesson language arts unit, young scholars analyze a variety of poems taking a close look at figurative language and tone. They learn to compare and contrast, improve comprehension, and identify settings. To...

Kids love working with their peers. Get your class into small literature circles and have them complete weekly assignments. Before beginning this week's activity, have each learner write a letter from Esperanza in California to Abuelita...

Nine historical documents, an interactive online notebook, and a fantastic opportunity for historical inquiry await your pupils in this 5-day lesson plan. Class members identify and discuss various causes for the Spanish-American War...

“An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge,” Ambrose Bierce’s short story, is used to model how structural moves, the decisions an author makes about setting, point of view, time order, etc., can be examined to reveal an author’s purpose. Groups...

What are the strengths and weaknesses of American individualism and independence? Explore these principles through a close reading of Jack London's To Build a Fire, and engage in high-level discussion with your class by analyzing the...

An Online NewsHour article about scholarly ethics launches this study of plagiarism. Since historians are supposed to bring original ideas and perspectives to their publications, they must give credit to the ideas of others. After a...

Young scholars use maps to locate the countries of Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia. In groups, they compare and contrast the three countries in regard to their culture, morals and values. They read various examples of folktales and write...

High schoolers write their thoughts about the value of reading and of Akron launching a city wide reading campaign. Students also research literacy in their own community, finding out how it compares to Akron's statistics where it has...

Second graders participate in guided reading and writing experience in this set of five lessons. They complete a picture walk of Michael Rosen's, We're Going on a Bear Hunt before listening to the story and retelling it. Working with a...

Students investigate the life of an animal and how it responds to winter. The lesson's focus is on reading and research skills using pictures to assist in the understanding of the information presented.

Use this resource as an evaluation tool, or have your class assess their own letter writing skills. They will use a checklist that they create during some interactive writing sessions as criteria for their self-evaluation. Teachers can...

Before reading The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis, take part in this thought-provoking, pre-reading activity that invites discussion about the story's theme using universal adages.

Fourth graders combine listening and writing skills in this lesson. After listening to Up North at the Cabin, Students are asked to write a piece from a specific viewpoint about a place that they like to visit.

Students read and write journals to relate to events of the past, in this case the Oregon Trail travels. They watch a video and read journal accounts dealing with the trip to the West as they attempt to keep a journal of what the trip...

For this Silver Blaze and Other Stories reading and study guide worksheet, students respond to 8 multi-step short answer, multiple choice, and graphic organizer questions. The questions are designed to be answered before, while, and...

Young scholars read a brief text detailing a conversation between two children about building a snowman, then show what they know by way of four reading comprehension questions.  

After identifying the parts of a persuasive piece of writing, young writers explore different prewriting activities for the persuasive essay. They have the option to write a news article, personal narrative, or persuasive essay to...

Through grand conversation, help scholars identify issues that harm the Earth and find solutions on how to solve them. After voting—on what your class deems the most important problem—stretch writing muscles with a problem-solution...