Ninth graders identify and recognize characteristics of nonfiction in literary works, explore language and culture of Gullah people, compare and contrast purposes of spirituals and quilts in terms of their relationships to escape from...

Elvira Woodruff's The Orphan of Ellis Island: A Time Travel Adventure is the core text in a interdisciplinary unit study of immigration at the turn of the century.

Second graders listen to and dicuss the story Where the Wild Things Are. They play a pantomime game and act out various feelings so their classmates can guess. They listen for the frequency of certain words, and record their findings on...

Third graders engage in a lesson which addresses their curiosity about some of the outstanding people-made landmarks of the world. They explore the geographical themes of location and place through literature.

Students examine the topic of subsistence farming. They research the future of subsistence agriculture, identify the types and locations of subsistence agriculture, and write about subsistence farming in regards to developing nations and...

Fifth graders explore the concept of waste management. In this recycling lesson, 5th graders discover the history of waste management and discuss how the U.S. should respond to the issue of ever-increasing waste.

How can something be true even if it didn't happen? Invite your classes to investigate the truths found in the world of magical realism as they analyze short stories, poems, informational texts, video, and art from this genre.

Encourage readers to determine if Hamlet's madness is actually divinest sense. Class members analyze the words of the play before studying related texts, including T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," scenes from...

Fourth graders examine the myths of King Arthur. They compare/contrast versions of the story, The Sword in the Stone, write a letter, identify and analyze characters, sequence events, and write observations and answer questions in a...

Who was Walt Whitman, and what link does he have to president Abraham Lincoln?  After Lincoln's assassination, Whitman wrote "O Captain! My Captain!" This poem and "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd" are the focus of...

Students explore early 20th century steel making.  In this U.S. history steel making lesson, students view and describe a postcard and a picture depicting exaggerated aspects of the steel industry.  Students listen to a poem...

Middle and high schoolers identify how to discover a word's meaning by exploring context clues and any pictures, diagrams, photographs, and charts that might be included. They continue this process with other examples and locate one on...

During this lesson, which is all about making connections, learners watch a documentary about the teenage brain and connect it to Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True Story About Brain Science, their own lives, and the world.

Do research projects at your school look like a class of eighth graders staring at a blank screen? Use the Big 6 research method to guide middle schoolers through the process of finding a topic, searching for and evaluating sources,...

Learn more about maps by examining Christopher Columbus's voyage to the New World. Kindergartners will learn about basic map skills and how to identify the compass rose, oceans, and land masses. They will also discover the purpose of...

One of the most difficult parts of getting a job, is the interview. Learners are each given a card with personal experience and information on it. They respond to an advertisement for a chef position at a Korean restaurant. Each person...

Young scholars utilize several different sources to research wolves, after completing the K-W-L process.

Students compose a thank you letter and a time line about the history of wheat. In this wheat lesson plan, students learn and discuss the origin of wheat, and the differences between einkorn, emmer, and wheat.

Fifth graders explore the elements of theatre. For this dramatic performances lesson, 5th graders discuss the structural elements of theatre and dramatize "The Origins of the Season," an explanation myth.

Fourth graders combine geometry and language arts skills while examining quilt-making. After identifying the geometric shapes contained in quilts, they write stories to encompass the quilt border. Students conclude by creating and...

Second graders examine graphs and charts from their local newspaper. As a class, they discuss what the data means and how it relates to the article. In groups, they are shown two sets of graphs or charts and they practice explaining...

Second graders create a Reader's Theater script. In this reader's theater lesson, 2nd graders create their own script of a story in groups. They make props and act them out on FlipVideo and voice thread.