To begin a study of Walt Whitman's poem, "Election Day, November 1884," learners first call out a word or two that describes their reaction to the recent presidential election. They then read an encyclopedia entry about the Presidential...

Divide and conquer factoring. Learners see how dividing polynomials is similar to long division of numbers. Pupils learn how to use long division of polynomials to help find factors of higher degree polynomials. They then use their...

After researching statistics about their community in local census reports, young journalists interview a resident about their interests and then analyze a local newspaper or homepage to see how similar the stories are to the residents'...

A word splash activity introduces scholars to the activity's theme—cultural characteristics. First, in examining Little Red Riding Hood by The Brothers Grimm, learners highlight the cultural characteristics and then spot the...

What do the myth of the phoenix bird and Ada Limón's poem "Instructions on Not Giving Up" have in common? Young scholars create a list of what they notice about both the myth and poem, then consider what the similarities might indicate...

Don't be chicken to try a lesson plan that compares the anatomy of birds to humans. Read the background information so you don't have to wing it when it comes to the anatomy of a chicken. Prepare cooked chicken bones by soaking them in a...

Working in pairs, class members use the provided narrative writing rubric to assess the effectiveness of dialogue, pacing, and description in two model paragraphs with similar content. Writers then use the insights they have gained from...

To prepare for the end-of-unit multi-paragraph essay, class members review Rainer Maria Rilke's collection, Letters to a Young Poet, and David Mitchell's Black Swan Green and identify central ideas in both texts. Writers then formulate a...

As the first in a two-part, end-of-unit assessment that encourages readers to synthesize the unit's main ideas, class members review their notes for each of the three texts they read and develop three open-ended discussion questions...

Water is life! Using the informative resource, scholars first read two informational articles about water management in agriculture. Then, they use a Venn diagram to contrast the different types of evidence authors use to support a...

Scholars complete a Venn diagram to compare and contrast Cronus and Shrouded in Myth. Learners work in their triads to write similarities and differences on sticky notes. They then take a look at the text The Key Elements of...

Is there a connection? Scholars work to make connections between Myth of Cronus and The Key Elements of Mythology. First, they circle important words in the text and look for similarities. They then revisit the concept of theme and...

How is a poem similar to and different from a news article? Pupils use a graphic organizer to compare and contrast the two genres. Also, as part of a mid-unit assessment, scholars participate in small-group discussions based on poetry...

What's the difference? Scholars analyze the similarities and differences between introductory and concluding paragraphs. Then, using a model essay as a guide, they write their draft position papers. 

Solve the world's problems. Class members move on to section two of Investigating the Scientific Methods with Max Axiom Super Scientist and complete a similar activity as in the previous lesson. Next, they carry out a first read to...

Full of problems with polygons, angles, lines, and triangles, your learners get a multi-page packet that provides all they need to know. It contains many of the standard problem types as well as some more challenging questions. 

Practice writing algebraic expressions from written phrases. The objective is to consider two seemingly similar phrases, write them as algebraic expressions, and then simplify using the order of operations. Learners are challenged to...

Students examine how migration waves impacted Native American history. They listen to a lecture and take notes, read and discuss handouts in small groups, and create a group table that illustrates the differences and similarities between...

Students, after reading Chapter One in the book, "The American Colonies' Sense of Who They Were," analyze the actions of the colonists as well as compare the similarities between the protests of the colonists and protests of today. They...

On a topographic map, young scholars identify the scale bar, north arrow, and contour interval. They then locate a hill on the map and make note of the contour lines. Students then locate other places with similar contour line patterns....

Just like sports, different words have different features that help us understand or spell them. Learners categorize various sports based on their similarities and differences, then they use that strategy to categorize various words....

Students research volcanoes on the Internet to compare/contrast the volcanoes on Earth to the ones found on Io, a moon of Jupiter. Students list the similarities and differences in science journals, and illustrate pictures of the volcanoes.

Practice the skill of compare and contrast. First, show learners the different pairs of artwork in the project packet (included). Then, each learner chooses one of the pairs and finds the similarities and differences between the...

Use this instructional activity to focus on a compare and contrast writing structure in your middle school language arts class. Here, young writers compare and contrast two texts using graphic organizers. They use a double bubble format...