A lesson challenges scholars to identify life stressors and list ways to cope. Learners create a "Coping with Emotions" book detailing the importance of responsibly working through our feelings.

Give this skills-based assessment halfway through your unit on Esperanza Rising. After a brief review, class members take the test, which asks them to show that they know how to analyze the novel independently. They are asked to...

Engage further in Esperanza Rising with a focus on close reading and metaphor. Class members zero in on the tenth chapter, examining characters and big ideas. Pupils discuss the text in small groups and as a whole class, and...

Begin class with a short comprehension quiz and review and then move into a new genre: two-voice poems. The activity provides information about this type of poetry as well as a video example made by eighth graders that you can show your...

Come up with a list of requirements for this expository essay on Esperanza's character in Esperanza Rising as a class and use the list to guide class writing. Here, learners will complete the first paragraph, discuss their notes for the...

Focus on similarities and differences with a jigsaw activity that requires pupils to compare Waiting for the Biblioburro to other texts they have read. To prepare, class members first respond to text-dependent questions, moving on to...

Connect with the text using helpful annotation strategies. As your class reads the first section of Karen Russell's short story, "St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves," they note important passages that establish character...

Finding the central idea in a text is equally important in fiction and nonfiction. Work on analyzing a piece of writing for the central idea with Karen Russell's "St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves," complete with supporting...

It may not be 4 o'clock in the morning when you have ended these labors, but it's still time to work on textual analysis. Study the resolution of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" through the thematic lens of guilt and confession,...

Virginia Woolf didn't believe a woman could have written Shakespeare's works. Using the resource, scholars engage in a silent discussion to analyze how Woolf uses rhetoric to convey her point of view in A Room of One's Own. Pupils write...

Get hooked! Reel in and hook scholars to the unit with a slide show, text-based activity, and reading exercises. To increase curiosity, learners read only small pieces of Panic Rises in Saigon, but the Exits Are Few. Readers use the...

Why is reading a text closely a helpful skill? Using the 13th of 20 lessons from the Grade 8 ELA Module 1, Unit 2 series, scholars continue reading the informational text "Refugee and Immigrant Children: A Comparison." They work with...

What does it mean to mourn something? Scholars continue reading paragraph four from "Refugee and Immigrant Children: A Comparison" to better understand the mourning process for refugee children. Working with a partner, pupils then read...

Time for intermission! Scholars take an intermission break from learning in the unit to work on a mid-unit assessment independently. Readers answer questions about Lyndon Johnson's Speech "The Great Society" to demonstrate the knowledge...

Pretty ugly, jumbo shrimp. Oxymorons are awfully good! Scholars reread Act I, scene 2 from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream while participating in a drama circle. Next, they begin working on anchor charts to dissect Shakespeare's...

Young researchers create a class Cascading Consequences chart to see how the industrial food chain affects people, animals, and the environment. They also work in teams to complete a Stakeholders chart for the industrial food chain model...

Eye contact, volume, pronunciation. Working with partners, scholars practice presenting their speeches about the best food chain. Additionally, they choose a visual component to support their end-of-unit speech.

Using the Jigsaw protocol, scholars study chunks of text from a speech given by former US presidents following a devastating 2010 earthquake in Haiti. As they read the speech in small groups, they build background knowledge and share...

Code red! Learners read an informational article about the Red Cross, discussing the gist of the text in small groups. On a three-column note catcher, pupils take notes to show how the Red Cross functions as a multinational aid...

Students define "group" and list American social and political movements throughout history. They examine one model of a successful team and positive group mentality by reading and identify the traits of a successful group and those of...

In this body systems lesson, students work in small groups conduct research to become an 'expert' on one of the 7 body systems. Students present their findings to the class via power point, poster, or song.

Middle schoolers explore career opportunities in the nonprofit sector. In this career exploration lesson plan, students listen to guest speakers who work for nonprofit organizations explain their jobs. Middle schoolers also examine the...

In small groups students examine the Senate plan and four sample plans from individuals. Clarify vocabulary as needed. Students discuss good and bad points in plans.Students create a group budget plan.Student groups send their plans to...

Students explore mantid eyes and human eyes. In this mantid eyes and human eyes research lesson, students work in small groups to gather information. Students read books, observe mantids, and do experiments. Students then present their...