Patriot or traitor? Scholars debate the line between patriotism and treason in a short activity. Academics analyze a political cartoon and discuss varying viewpoints between different groups living in the American colonies. The activity...

Have you ever wondered where the money comes from to pay for your school, teachers, supplies, and building? The 1989 Supreme Court case Edgewood ISD v. Kirby lays a framework for open discussion on the funding of public schools. Using a...

Generating a system of shapes. Groups work together to create a number system using three different shapes as symbols. The groups should come up with the rules that generate all the possible permutations of the three shapes.

Explore the excitement and ethical challenges of CRISPR and genetic-editing technology. Participants engage in do-nows, view a slideshow, and collaborate on scenarios about genetic editing. Group members analyze scenarios to generate...

Three for three. Groups of three complete Analysis note catchers that cover excerpt three of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. Before beginning, learners discuss group work by looking at the excerpt analysis role document...

Refresh my memory please. Scholars quickly read over the Myth of Cronus to refresh their memories of the story. They then get in groups and write parts of the myth on sticky notes that relate to the elements of mythology, sticking their...

Focusing on the judicial branch of government, the fourth lesson plan in this series explores the structure of the US courts system. Beginning with an engaging activity based on the short story The Lady or the Tiger,...

Four short answer questions make up a worksheet created to reinforce reading comprehension skills. Scholars read a brief passage about two boys picking apples then recall the story's details answering who, what, where, and how questions.

Does trauma have a lasting effect on people's lives? Scholars dive into the topic as they read paragraphs 9–11 of "A Genetics of Justice" by Julia Alvarez, in which the author describes her family's return to the Dominican Republic....

Good verses evil. Scholars make inferences after taking a close look at the short story, State of Affairs, in which Daniel Defoe goes back and forth comparing good and evil thoughts through his writing. After reading the text,...

A timely lesson uses documentation from the Spanish influenza pandemic of 1918 to compare it to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Scholars watch a short video, analyze sources, complete a worksheet, and write a claim with supporting...

It's "Green light, go!" with this lesson! STEM classes are illuminated with the history of traffic signals and how the engineering design has improved over time. They also learn about patents for new inventions. Finally, they research in...

From their sweat to the water vapor in their breath, astronauts recycle every possible drop of water while in space. After watching a short video describing the different ways materials are recycled and reused in space...

Reflect on your reading with a book review form. After finishing a novel or short story, kids choose the correct genre and discuss their favorite part. They also decide which part they would change, and whether or not they would...

Interestingly enough, movement is not a characteristic of living things. The first activity in a series of 20 introduces learners to the concepts of living versus non-living things and then focuses on biologists and what they study....

No, you can't actually smell these 13 scratch-n-sniff stickers. But you can group them into equal groups of four, with one sticker remaining. Using that information, learners create a mixed number based on the improper fraction, 13/4.

It is not as difficult as herding cats. The short interactive provides a group of kittens to sort according to their colors. Pupils determine the mode of the number of kittens by color. The questions continue with other numbers of...

During his first few games as the first black player in Major League Baseball, Jackie Robinson proved that he could withstand the wily curveball of Johnny Sain as well as the racial epithets shouted from opposing teams' dugouts. A short...

Pupils read a short biography of Walt Whitman and a portion of Whitman's epic poem "Song of Myself." Readers then respond to a series of comprehension questions.

Speech, speech! Analyzing speeches is no easy task. High schoolers learn the important process of annotation as they work together to analyze Lincoln's inaugural address. Then groups of four work to annotate a second speech at a more...

It's time to think deep and narrow. Scholars focus close reading on one short text but task take their thinking to a deep level. Readers use a Rhetorical Analysis Chart to analyze The Gettysburg Address and determine how Lincoln used...

Let's go for a run. Small groups determine a way to collect data to determine the time it would take to run a set of stairs. After creating a plan, teams collect data and graph their results, calculating the equation of best fit and...

Encourage scholars to better understand and express their feelings with an activity designed to boost self-awareness. Scholars read several statements that challenge them to showcase how their body moves when they feel certain feelings....

Learning to read body language, especially facial expressions, is the focus of a mini-lesson. Young learners examine a series of photographs, identify the emotion being illustrated, and then discuss the cues that revealed the emotion.