Third graders develop their reading superpowers in a lesson plan on fluency. After first listening to an audio recording or teacher read aloud, the class works together identifying criteria for fluent reading, focusing on phrasing, rate,...

Look back at the third chapter of The Cay with your class. Pupils will conduct a close reading, taking a second look at a chunk of text and responding to a series of text-dependent questions. Wrap up with an analytical writing prompt...

How significant was the Cold War during the 20th century? After reading and analyzing speeches by Ronald Reagan and Mikhail Gorbachev, learners consider the historical context of foreign policy decisions made during the Cold...

After reading Elvira Woodruff's George Washington's Socks, young readers and writers embark upon writing their own historically based story, with a focus on developing ideas and details throughout the piece. In small groups, class...

Take your guided reading lesson plans to the next level with a collection of printables, templates, and reference tools equipped to support the reading needs of your readers. Included is a detailed information page, grouping sheet,...

Cultivate the tree of knowledge using diagrams with two stages. Pupils create small tree diagrams to determine the sample space in compound probability problems. The instructional activity uses only two decision points to introduce tree...

What can layers of rock teach us about the climate? Young scientists solve a mystery about who stole a cookie by applying the law of superposition. Then, they apply the same concept to solve a more difficult mystery, trying to determine...

Accuracy, phrasing, flow, and pace, the four traits of of oral reading fluency, are the focus of a series of exercises that are designed to help readers develop these comprehension and literacy skills.

Considering using The Josefina Story Quilt in your classroom? Check out this sample teaching guide for a list of pre-reading activities.

Seamounts in the Coral and Tasman Seas are home to more than 850 different species. Groups explore hydrothermal vents, researching the organisms found there and their energy source. They also learn about seamounts, exploring their unique...

Jack the Ripper terrorized London in the late 1800s. An educator's guide for the novel The Name of the Star places the historical figure in a modern context. Readers complete a pre-reading activity before answering a series of discussion...

Incorporate technology into a literature lesson with an innovative language arts lesson. Middle schoolers read an electronic version of original stories or fairy tales, and after determining the point of view, rewrite the tale from...

Help young writers with the daunting prospect of a five-paragraph essay. Using William Golding's Lord of the Flies, learners work through a short process to shore up their brainstorming and prepare to write a longer essay.

Discover an important property of linear functions. Learners use the slope formula to calculate the rates of change of linear functions. They find that linear functions have constant rates of change and use this property to determine if...

Who is telling the story? Readers take a look at the text Eight Days to determine if the story is told in first or third person. They then discuss in groups and complete a shared writing activity to describe how the narrator's point of...

Young mathematicians learn how to solve problems involving stratified sampling. They review concepts of sampling and proportionality by watching a video and then they complete a worksheet of questions on this topic.

Judy Clocks are a great invention. Here, learners review telling time to hour and half hour on Judy clocks, begin telling time to quarter hour, use clock stamps to practice, and play computer games using Trudy's Time and Place House...

At over 450 pages, John Steinbeck's Pulitzer Prize winning novel The Grapes of Wrath can be a challenging choice for full-class, book circle, or independent reading. The activities in a 10-page sample The Grapes of Wrath...

Provide pupils samples of different types of poems including haikus, narrative, nonsense, shape, and rhyming poems. In groups, class members read the poems, establish their general meaning, identify poetic devices, and rate the poems,...

Is DNA still present after picking fruit or cooking vegetables? Biology scholars extract and collect DNA strands in an impactful lab. Working groups prepare their samples and compare their results to negative and positive standard...

Practice reading with fluency by blending words together. To start, prepare flash cards with pseudowords on them (words that can be pronounced but have no real meaning), and work with the class to sound out the words using known...

Silver: more than jewelry, it's also a natural antimicrobial agent. An inquiry-based lesson asks collaborative groups to design and implement an experiment to test this property. Using samples of silver nanoparticles and a strain of...

A released Advanced Placed exam provides scholars with an opportunity to practice their English language and composition skills. After reading two passages about Florida's Okefenokee Swamp, they write essays analyzing how the distinctive...