Three wonderful questions will help your middle schoolers better understand the Byzantine Empire. They construct short essay responses to each of the three prompts, discuss the schism between the Greek and Roman Catholic church, the...

Help your learners work their way through a reading assignment for informational text. Using context clues, they answer five comprehension question based on a short passage about the three levels of government: local government, state...

Help your class prepare for the upcoming state testing with this resource. A short text is accompanied by five multiple-choice questions. An answer key provides detailed answers, even describing where one could find the answers in the...

Ah, the City of Brotherly Love! Do you know which city I'm talking about? It's Philadelphia. Read this short passage on the city, and have your class complete the questions that follow. Use this to prepare for state-wide testing. 

Make an impression with a reading comprehension assessment based on Claude Monet. After reading a short biographical paragraph about the famous French painter, readers demonstrate their comprehension skills by drawing inferences,...

Bike taxis are all the rage! Environmentally sound, this type of transportation is becoming popular across several countries from the United States to France. French pupils read the short passage and complete two brief exercises....

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....

The New York Times article “Lessons in Internet Plagiarism,” launches a look at how the Internet has increased the prevalence of plagiarism. The richly detailed lesson includes warm-up and wrap-up activities, discussion questions,...

Elementary schoolers observe and demonstrate a variety of strategies for reading with expression. They listen to the teacher read A Fine, Fine School with and without expression and discuss the differences. Then in pairs, read the...

Explore carbon and bonding with this instructional activity. First, class members read a short excerpt about carbon and its characteristics. In response to the reading, they draw an electron dot diagram of carbon as well as diagrams of...

Here is a vocabulary worksheet in which your scholars determine the meaning of 10 words using context clues from short readings. They choose from among four words and write their answers on the blank lines at the bottom of the page. They...

A real find for a U.S. History teacher, this presentation could supplement many class sessions about the Civil Rights Movement. Pictures of events, major figures, and "Whites Only" signs are striking and effective for even your most...

This versatile resource from The New York Times website provides a short opinion piece on smart phones and the amount of time we spend playing games on them as well as several possible writing prompts pupils could consider in response to...

With this New York Times "Learning Network" exercise, high schoolers read an article about the death of Maurice Sendak, author of Where the Wild Things Are and then respond to several prompts that require them to shape their own opinions...

As part of their study of the influence of TV and films, class members consider how music, lighting, costumes, camera angles, etc. are used to influence the response of viewers.

Did you know that an acre of trees can absorb as much carbon dioxide as a car emits in 11,000 miles of driving? Such fun facts abound in a short reading comprehension passage detailing the benefits of parks and rooftop gardens. After...

The power in this worksheet is in the detailed answer sheet that explains precisely why one answer is the best response to the question. There are explanations that serve as models for how to approach sentence completion exercises. The...

What a great beginning-of-the-year activity! Get your class to identify their values through a three-page worksheet (included). Each speaker will craft a two-minute description that includes their story and how they can help their...

Stress the importance of the different types of pressure our mind and body experience in a lesson about how certain types of stress are actually necessary and good for our bodies. As astronauts and people with injuries can attest, not...

Use a activity to cover different types of conflicts from El Bronx Remembered, a series of short stories by Nicholasa Mohr. The questions address "A Very Special Pet," "Shoes for Hector," "Mr. Mendelsohn," "A Lesson in Fortune-Telling,"...

Young scholars reach out into the community and learn about different environmental science careers in this inquiry-based instructional activity. Beginning with a short research assignment, children gain background knowledge about...

Should primary graders have their own computers? Should animals be kept in captivity? Young writers learn how to develop and support a claim in this short unit on persuasive writing.

Young scientists find out what makes amphibians such unique and interesting animals in this simple life science instructional activity. After looking at pictures and discussing the characteristics of amphibians, learners...

How was Edgar Allan Poe able to create "intriguing, memorable, and lasting literature"? To answer this question, learners analyze the syntax, diction, and characterizations in Poe's poems and short stories and compare the impact of these...