Having goals is important. The opening, two-day lesson in the Goal Setting module teaches middle schoolers the importance of setting meaningful, realistic goals. Through a series of activities, participants practice setting personal...

September's "Banned Books Week" brings attention to the number of books that are challenged, censored, or banned each year. After watching a video about banned book week, reading articles about the history of book banning, and examining...

Through thoughtful discussion and a read-aloud, scholars challenge gender role stereotypes. Pupils examine pictures and collaborate with their small groups to debunk stereotypes. They explain what gender role stereotypes they know of and...

A instructional activity examines gender stereotypes and how they relate to career choices. Small groups look closely at job titles, identify gender bias, and brainstorm ways to add inclusivity. Individuals reflect on their interests and...

Choose your words wisely. Scholars examine word choice in an excerpt from The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Learners work in pairs and groups to discuss how the author's choice of words creates a deeper connection between the reader...

Four lessons make up this unit on self. Learners research and discuss the significance of their given names and examine their perceptions of astrological signs and horoscopes. They explore objects in the paintings of Canadian artist...

Fourth graders conceptualize the value of respect for self, and give examples and non-examples. They describe how things could have been done differently within the family or the community for non-examples. Students conceptualize the...

Students examine the concept of multiculturalism. In this Teaching Tolerance lesson, students consider their self concepts and world views as they participate in an activity that requires them to describe themselves as well as major...

Students analyze the effects of damage to the nervous system by examining four fictitious patient cases. They discuss one case together and then individually write essays about the remaining cases

Introduce your class to the techniques of proper writing. In groups, they brainstorm their ideas on family structures and discuss the importance of having a male figure in their lives. After listening to an African-American poem, they...

Blow their minds with a instructional activity on the search for life outside of our planet! A brief video proposes the question of how to define life. A couple of articles investigate the possibility of alien existence. Finally, the...

Seventh graders examine their school performance through self-assessment of strengths and weaknesses. They construct a line graph, plotting all courses and achievements. Students use graph paper and colored pencils for each activity. If...

As an introduction to literary criticism, class members recreate I.A. Richards' close reading experiment. Individuals select a poem, paraphrase the story, focus on the imagery used, consider what the imagery adds to the tale, and...

What are employers looking for in prospective employees? Career-minded high schoolers examine their strongest technical skills as well as important 21st century skills, including leadership, empathy, clear communication, working well...

Geology scholars test their rock identification skills in an interactive that examines the rock cycle from the three main nodes of rocks. Other topics include visual clues to rock identity and the conditions needed to make rocks change...

"First Appearance," Mark Twain's tale about overcoming stage fright, serves as a model of a personal narrative and gets young writers thinking about milestones in their own lives. After examining student models and considering the...

This activity may have writers evaluate short compositions, but their subjects are quite tall: great Americans. Pupils read one another's compositions and closely examine how specific phrases and diction contribute to shaping American...

Writing is a process, and lesson planning is, too! A personal narrative unit stresses the writing process to pupils, who first examine various stories and poems as a model of autobiographical writing and then write their own stories....

With its focus on nature, individualism, imagination, and rejection of traditional authority, Romanticism has great appeal to young high schoolers. After examining classic paintings and poems as well as current works, class members...

An interactive resource teaches readers how to annotate all kinds of texts. After reading an introduction that stresses the benefits of text annotations, users examine several models and then demonstrate what they have learned by...

Vivid quotes and strong sensory language compose Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club, bringing the women to life as they navigate through issues surrounding identity and maternal relationships. Examine Waverly's relationship with her mother...

Find the value in analyzing data values. Statistics is the focus of the fifth of seven installments of the 6th Grade Math series. Individuals learn to examine dot plots, histograms, and box plots by considering the shape, mean, median,...

Indigenous Land Guardianship, Settler Colonialism, Racial Capitalism. While the terms may be new to some, they feature in a lesson plan designed for Indigenous Peoples' Day. Young scholars investigate four concepts: Land...

Young scholars examine the life of Frida Kahlo, a Mexican artist known for her self-portraits. After discussing her works and life as an artist, students use mirrors to examine their faces and begin drawing their own self-portraits.