Study cause and effect in both literature and informational text with a lesson designed for several different reading levels. After kids review the concept of cause and effect, they read an article or story and note the causes and...

Figurative language is the focus in the book Teach Us, Amelia Bedelia. After reading Peggy Parish's book, class members dramatize idioms from the text, using dramatic strategies such as characterization, exaggeration, and...

Ideas like this are highly effective for helping build better reading comprehension. The class listens to an excerpt from a grade-appropriate text, and they discuss what clues or words helped them visualize the scene. They then read a...

Your young historians will read excerpts from three parts of the United States Constitution—Article One, the Thirteenth Amendment, and the Fourteenth Amendment—and discuss how they each address the issue of slavery. 

Explore making predictions as a reading strategy. As a class, read "Blue Light, Green Light," stopping to make a prediction. After recording a prediction on the graphic organizer, discuss the thoughts behind your idea. Then, continue...

What kinds of questions could be asked with different pieces of literature? Use QAR questions to help your middle schoolers develop the skills to find information in a text. Thorough directions, a text excerpt, and a set of reading...

Scholars become detectives in a lesson that focuses on primary sources. Learners practice their observational skills by examining the teacher's artifact and visiting the Show and Tell Museum that highlihgts items from peers and...

Victor Laredo's painting "On the Beach" and Ella Wheeler Wilcox's poem "Thanksgiving" allow young scholars to use their noticing skills. Class members identify elements of the painting the artist uses to create the feeling of...

Readers practice gathering textual evidence to support their understanding of character point of view in A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park. Working with partners, they complete a Gathering Evidence graphic organizer and engage in...

What's the best way to evaluate a source's accuracy and credibility? Pupils discuss the question with a partner and then share their ideas with the class. They also conduct Internet research, looking for an article that answers a chosen...

It takes time to discover what makes a source accurate and credible. Using everything they've learned about source credibility, scholars begin researching supporting questions about how industry and agriculture manage water. They select...

Point of view, purpose, and tone: three concepts readers of primary and secondary source materials must take into account when examining documents. Class members view a PowerPoint presentation and use the SOAPS strategy to identify an...

Every little penny counts, especially when it comes to saving for emergencies or long-term goals. Pupils evaluate different saving and investment strategies, such as a CD or money market account, through worksheets and by...

Should identifying a tragic hero be based on a universal definition or a definition based on the morals and values of a specific culture? As part of a study of Things Fall Apart, class members read Sylvia Plath's "Colossus" and then...

It's never too early to start saving for retirement. In fact, the earlier one starts, the better! Use this retirement planning activity to teach the importance of a retirement strategy and why to start at a young age. 

HIgh schoolers respond to a persuasive article on using animal research. In this english lesson plan, writers listen to a conversation, and discuss the point of arguments. They write a critique on a certain film and share it with their...

Your learners will be tantalized by this inquiry-based, collaborative activity as they discover how to write an equation that represents the height of an ice cream cone. Given the scenario based on the poem, "Eighteen Flavors," and...

Here's a must-have resource for anyone reading To Kill A Mockingbird or using Harper Lee's award-winning novel in a classroom. The packet contains Miss Hollace Ransdall's first-hand, factual account of the trials of the Scottsboro Boys,...

It's no myth: this packet on Greek mythology is an excellent addition to your social studies curriculum. With writing activities, such as short answer responses and biopoems, and reading activities, which include creation stories and...

How difficult was it for everyone to get voting rights? Understanding voting rights and the fight to get them for everyone in the United States can be tricky for some learners. However, they are clarified after engaging in the...

Victor Martinez's Parrot in the Oven: Mi Vida is used in an activity that models how to develop questions to aid in comprehension of a text.

Readers of Robert Cormier's Tunes for Bears to Dance to are asked to consider the morality of the central character's actions

Fourth graders investigate visual imagery to aid reading comprehension. In this reading strategies lesson, 4th graders discover how visual imagery helps in comprehending a story. Students use a reader's notebook to record connections.

Assist your pupils with literary analysis by discussing and exploring theme. This plan, the twelfth in a series of fourteen, builds in some time to explore theme as a class. Learners also blog about the main event in their stories and...