In this desert plants worksheet, students read five passages about desert plants and answer the five comprehension questions that follow each one.

High schoolers complete a unit focusing on the creation of a student-generated website. They read and evaluate articles about business ethics, critique websites, and develop a student-created webpage.

Study and research the American Civil War in this explanatory writing lesson. Middle schoolers complete six activities to learn about the American Civil War and soldiers' views of the war. The lesson includes several options to complete...

How do authors convey their points of view? Using the resource, scholars read an excerpt from a primary source document about the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. Then, they complete graphic organizers to analyze the author's point of view.

After analyzing newspaper articles portraying different perspectives of the explosion of the Battleship USS Maine, your young historians will take a stand on which position is the most believable in both discussion and writing.

Bring language arts and U.S. history together in this instructional activity, which prompts middle and high schoolers to gather biographical information about Abraham Lincoln. They compare and contrast information written about his...

Introduce primary graders to the writing process. After reviewing the steps, they practice using the process by writing a book report. Before writing the draft, they complete a graphic organizer. The completed draft is reviewed by peers....

Looking for a way to bring prewriting into your informative writing unit? Use this lesson to reinforce writing skills in your eighth grade language arts class. Young writers use a web graphic organizer as a prewriting tool for expository...

High schoolers assess persuasive techniques in propaganda. They identify and critique rhetorical devices in primary source documents (sources are not specified, but links to sites that contain various documents are included). Groups make...

Plan on using Gone with the Wind as a reading selection? Here's a packet of prompts for activities and assessments.

Bring writing to life with this lesson in which elementary and middle schoolers create a display of the imagery they identify in a series of Gary Paulsen books. They read the suggested materials, identify imagery and descriptive...

Students conduct research on issues and interests by generating ideas and questions and by posing problems. They gather, evaluate and synthesize data from a variety of sources. In this lesson the issue is minority graduation rates.

How do you choose a research topic? This helpful graphic organizer is provided to aid middle and high schoolers in organizing their initial thoughts and choosing a topic. They have to narrow their topic by culture, time frame, event,...

A reading of Pat Street's There's a Frog in My Throat launches a study of figurative language. Using a pocket chart, display one phrase containing figurative language. Class members choose the best explanation from three...

Originally designed to be used along with a text that is not included, this plan contains a graphic organizer and word guessing game to help readers use decoding strategies to gain new vocabulary. A set of questions relating to community...

Meet with the school library specialist and work together to plan a visit and presentation on figurative language. After defining and examining examples of targeted terms, the class travels to the library where the SL has collected...

Model for your class members how to use a definition map to make connections between new words and prior knowledge. Although the strategy is designed for social studies classes, the approach can be use at any grade level and in any...

Sixth graders read and utilize the facts from the story "Abd al-Rahmen Ibrahima" by Walter Dean Myers to analyze the main character's life which is ruined by conflict, jealousy, and greed. Journal entries are created in response to the...

Students identify the various forms of fresh water on the earth. They observe a demonstration aand read articles that show them the importance of water conservation. They write a journal about their opinion regarding paying for water.

Bring the enjoyable story of Anansi and the Moss-Covered Rock by Eric A. Kimmel to your young readers. After reading the story as a class, students answer questions about a reading and make a graphic organizer.  They make...

Readers of Freak the Mighty employ a KWHL strategy to explore the topics of bullying and friendship prior to reading Rodman Philbrick’s story that is “like truth serum. . . whether it really happened or not.” Research could be extended...

If you're short on time and need a quick graphic organizer to help your learners connect history to the present, check out this resource. This worksheet can be useful for a visit to a museum or in conjunction with a reading assignment,...

Students analyze a research report and the list of components needed in a research report and then identify those components based on a set of standards using the scientific method. They collect data which can be used for a graphical...

Third graders use a variety of resources to do research on an animal. Their final project is a graphic organizer for display and an informative multimedia slide show.