To conclude their study of James McBride's The Color of Water, class members create their own memoir, focusing on a family member who help shape their life.

Moving along the line. Class members research how a conveyor belt works in order to gain background information. Groups then design a conveyor belt that will carry a piece of candy four feet and along a 90-degree turn. The groups...

What was life like for women in Colonial America? What restrictions were placed upon them and what opportunities were they afforded? A case study of Elizabeth Murray offers high schoolers a chance to investigate primary source...

Looking for a way to introduce class members to the concept of symbolism and multiple levels of meaning? Readers examine two different passages about the beach and consider how the writers use concrete objects, and places to...

As part of their study of the 1963 March on Washington, class members do a side-by-side comparison of the original text of Martin Luther King's "I Have a Dream Speech" with a transcript of the speech he delivered. The take away from the...

Class members listen to a passage on Rosa Parks, examine images of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and respond to questions based on the text. They then craft a free-verse poem that recounts her achievements and reveals why she is considered...

Scholars take a popular song or nursery rhyme and make it their own as they write a fractured nursery rhyme. Writers seek out a nursery rhyme's rhyming words and change them to create an original poem.  

An engaging video featuring William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is accompanied by six activities designed to reinforce vocabulary, story elements, and comprehension. Scholars match words to pictures, place events in sequential order,...

A 10-page packet delivers a plethora of information about Kwanzaa—a week-long holiday that celebrates African American people and their heritage. Each page consists of informational text and an opportunity to respond to through pictures...

In this word problems instructional activity, students read word problems about one person telling the truth and one telling a lie and they figure out which is which. Students complete 4 problems.

Build conversation skills for your English language learners in this spoken language development lesson. In it, learners listen to descriptions written by the teacher prior to the first day of class which include predictions about the...

Teaching grammar can be so difficult! Help your class master how to use hyphens correctly. The first page details different places one would use a hyphen. On the second page, learners are introduced to two practice activities. In the...

Readers draw connections between Bud, Not Buddy and Steve Jobs' 2005 Stanford University commencement address and cite evidence from the two texts to support their analysis.

To prepare for an assessment of how well individuals are progressing with their ability to identify and analyze figurative language and its effect on tone and meaning, pairs work through Chapter Four of Christopher Paul Curtis'...

Letter by letter, sound by sound, monitor the growth of your emergent readers with these assessment templates. Adaptable to the needs of individual students, these one-on-one assessments focus on children's ability to identify...

Learn the ins and outs of hurricanes through a series of lessons answering, "What is a hurricane? How does it travel? How is one formed, measured, and named?" Information is presented through informative text and images, while...

Readers apply Sigmund Freud's theories of the unconscious mind and the psychological approach to literary criticism to analyze and evaluate the relationship between two characters in A Separate Peace.

After completing three body paragraphs of an argument essay about life's rules to live by from Bud, Not Buddy Christopher Paul Curtis, it's time to begin writing the introduction and conclusion. Independently, pupils draft the final two...

Take the last step in writing a literary argument essay using Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis in an activity focused on feedback. Using the stars and steps revision method, pupils consider teacher and peer feedback to revise...

How do writers develop a central idea in a text? How can readers identify this central idea? These are the challenges class members tackle as they continue their analysis of "Letter One" from Rainer Maria Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet.

What happens next? Use a Valentine's Day writing prompt to encourage kids to create a story that identifies the secret admirer who has left a gift on the doorstep. What is the gift and who is it for? 

Channel the masters with an interactive music composition activity! Learners use the online tool to create their own masterpieces one measure at a time.

Mythic heroes, gods and goddesses, and epic tales come alive as young artists craft their own graphic novel or mind map for classic epics, including The Odyssey, Beowulf, Harry Potter, and Star Wars, identifying the...

Liliana Heker's "The Stolen Party" and Martha Salinas' "The Scholarship Jacket" provide sixth graders with an opportunity to identify key scenes that authors use to develop their themes.