Teach class members how to use comparison in their writing to clarify and enrich ideas. Referring back to the brief description and the sample paragraph, writers develop a paragraph that uses comparison effectively. More scaffolding and...

Focus on logical paragraph writing and ask your class to write cause and effect paragraphs. To get started, learners read information about the format as well as an example. While there is some basic information about how to structure...

There is nothing more frustrating than discussing theme in literature, and now the Common Core requires that your learners determine two or more, and discuss the development of it throughout the text. This is crazy, but manageable with...

All the Common Core standards are important, but they all build off the ability to cite textual evidence to support analysis. See how to scaffold this standard into three steps of development, along with assessment ideas with the ideas...

If you allow the space for your class members to be creative with technology as they make a presentation, they will make you proud with their inventiveness. The resource suggests an open research project for which pupils look up...

Using Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, guide your class in the process of identifying unknown terms using context clues and formulating text-based answers. The lesson plan includes a useful worksheet incorporating scaffolding questions on an...

Students research art analysis by creating a mural in their class. In this artistic expression lesson plan, students research the work of Keith Haring and discuss his personal style and how it reflected body movement. Students...

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...

Encourage your learners to examine the setting in Theodore Taylor's The Cay. Pupils work in small groups to put together a description of the setting before reading two more chapters of the book. They use their double-entry journals to...

Building on the previous activity in this series of lesson seeds, this plan focuses on the use of dialect in Theodore Taylor's novel, The Cay. Class members examine specific lines of text, use their reading journals to respond to the...

Use Langston Hughes's poem, "Words Like Freedom," to explore the concepts of freedom and liberty. Learners read the poem, determine the theme, and use the provided graphic organizer to examine the connotative and denotative meanings of...

Describing a line using an algebraic equation is an essential skill in mathematics. The previous lesson in the series challenged learners to determine if segments are perpendicular with a formula. Now they use the formula to...

If you can multiply multi-digit integers, you can multiply polynomials. Learners use an area model to compare multiplying numbers to multiplying polynomials. They progress to using the distributive property. 

Build a true understanding of division of polynomials. Learners use their knowledge of multiplying polynomials to create an algorithm to divide polynomials. The area model of multiplication becomes the reverse tabular method of division.

Patterns in math emerge from seemingly random places. Learners explore the patterns for factoring the sum and differences of perfect roots. Analyzing these patterns helps young mathematicians develop the polynomial identities.

Five out of four people have trouble with fractions! After comparing simplifying fractions to simplifying rational expressions, pupils use the same principles to multiply and divide rational expressions. 

How many of the pupils at your school think selling soda would be a good idea? Show learners how to develop a study to answer questions like these! The lesson explores the meaning of a population versus a sample and how to interpret the...

Class members perform complex operations on a plane in the 17th segment in the 32-part series. Learners first verify that multiplication by the reciprocal does the same geometrically as it does algebraically. The class then circles back...

Use 2x2 matrices to move along a line. The second day of a two-day lesson is the 28th installment in a 32-part unit. Pupils work together to create and solve systems of equations that will map a transformation to a given...

Should matrices be allowed to commute when they are being multiplied? Learners analyze this question to determine if the commutative property applies to matrices. They connect their exploration to transformations, vectors, and complex...

Investigate the components of vectors and vector addition through geometric representations. Pupils learn the parallelogram rule for adding vectors and demonstrate their understanding graphically. They utilize the correct notation and...

Connect linear equations, proportionality, and constant rates of change to linear functions. Young mathematicians learn how linear equations of the form y = mx + b can represent linear functions. They then explore examples of linear...

Challenge the class to prove that the dilation properties always hold. The instructional activity develops an informal proof of the properties of dilations through a discussion. Two of the proofs are verified with each class member...

Discover how trend lines can be useful in understanding relationships between variables with a instructional activity that covers how to informally fit a trend line to model a relationship given in a scatter plot. Scholars use the trend...