The Battle of Fort Sumter was both the first and the least deadly battle of the American Civil War, with no soldiers lost during the lengthy bombardment. Learn more about the first shots of the Civil War with a short reading passage and...

Considering using Julia Alvarez's In the Time of the Butterflies? Here's a resource designed to be used before and during a reading of her powerful story of the murder of the Mirabal sisters. Included in the packet is a vocabulary...

Can a cat have 2,000 descendants in 18 months? To determine if this claim is realistic, individuals must take different pieces of information into account when justifying their responses.

Valleys, mountains, and plateaus are just a few geographic landforms on our Earth. Read about these types and more in a brief landform passage. After reading, learners respond to six short answer comprehension questions.

What kind of cookies is Greg making? Can class members identify the order in which each ingredient is added? After reading a brief passage, pupils respond to four short answer comprehension questions.

Why wouldn't the chickens cross the brook? Find out in a short reading passage about a mother hen and her babies' daily walk. Second graders answer four comprehension questions after they finish reading the story.

Malala Yousafzai has become the face of social activism. After watching He Named Me Malala and short student-made films about what young people can do to become instruments of change, class members reflect on what it means to be an...

While Thirteen Days is a fantastic film to use in the classroom in reference to the Cold War and the Cuban missile crisis, it is important to take care to effectively and properly incorporate its contents into your curriculum. This...

Some words are best left unspoken.  Words matter, according to Benjamin Zander, conductor, teacher, and lecturer. To illustrate his point, Zander recounts a story told to him by a survivor of Auschwitz. As a result of her experience...

Young scientists get to the heart of the matter with this comprehensive review of the circulatory system. Addressing the different anatomical structures and processes involved in pumping blood through the human body, this worksheet...

Is it possible for an equation to be a function and not a function at the same time? By completing a short assessment, young mathematicians answer this question. Class members provide an explanation on how an equation represents a...

Discussion doesn't always need to be spoken. Before you begin The Tempest by William Shakespeare, have kids connect their ideas and experiences to central questions of the play with a silent discussion activity. Once they have...

Help young biologists piece together an understanding of cell structure with a comprehensive review worksheet. Tasking students with describing the function of the organelles found in cells and their relationship with one another,...

Target, bystander, or bully? Class groups watch a short student-produced video about cyberbullying and then devise and script their own drama to encourage discussion about this hot button topic.

Life science learners read a set of six short Discovery Readings that describe historical events in the field of microbiology. For each, they identify clues about when the event occurred and then they try to arrange events in...

How is religious freedom connected to the conflict between China and Tibet? After reading an online passage of background information, your learners will divide into groups and both read and view an interview with the Dalai Lama. They...

What would you ask Abraham Lincoln if you had the chance? Class members draft interview questions for the 16th U.S. President, and imagine what his responses would be.

"Dun dun... dun dun." A shark! After second graders read a four-paragraph passage about sharks, they respond to four reading comprehension questions that use the text as a basis for the answers.

Need an a-maize-ing lesson to show your class how regulatory genes work? If you use the well-written resource, they'll be all ears! Biology scholars discover the gene responsible for the evolution of the modern-day corn plant through a...

Who has the final say in matters dealing with the rules under the United States Constitution? The case Marbury v. Madison brings to light the issue of judicial review. Learners investigate the Supreme Court's opinion in the case with a...

Ethos, pathos, and logos. After reading a passage about Aristotle's, three basic tools of persuasion, individuals answer a series of multiple choice comprehension questions and craft responses to three short-answer essay prompts.

As a reading comprehension exercise, kids examine a short article on the apprentice system, and then use information found in the text to respond to a series of comprehension questions.

Examine the introduction to Our Islands in Their People, written by Major-General Joseph Wheeler. The excerpt, which is about two-and-a-half pages long, is included here along with six questions about the text. Pupils can learn about the...

Get your class up and moving with these engaging hands-on-activities that target their five senses. Children explore four different work stations that require them to look, smell, hear, touch, and taste as they record their responses...