Thinking about introducing your middle schoolers to reading log journals? Try the approach suggested by this resource. After reading to the class an article or portion of a novel, demonstrate a Think Aloud and then model how to transform...

Students recognize the elements needed to create a comic strip. In this comic strip lesson, student understand that comic strips need words and pictures. Students find differences and similarities in comic strips. Students describe how...

Third graders observe and create a record of seed growth over time. After planting a seed, 3rd graders record their observations of the seed's growth over a three week period. Upon conclusion of the experiment, they write a paragraph...

Students examine the topic of abstinence. They discover aspects of the topic from a global to local level. They participate in a debate to share their opinions.

Fourth graders exercise the strategies of silent reading and summarization to acquire new and important information from a text. They silently read and summarize page eighty-two in their "A History of Alabama" books. A review of...

How easy is it to live off the land? Scholars read Minerals and Metals in Your Life and discuss how Canada's natural resources meet the needs of the people. Pupils watch a brief video and discuss the gist of the text and video. They...

Not only do extracurricular activities look good on a college application, they can foster important life skills. From sports to volunteering to employment, extracurricular activities can inform your learners' experiences...

How is a movie theater like a desert biome? Compare systems to ecosystems with a set of activities that focuses on accessing multiple intelligences and building upon knowledge. As learners discuss the ways elements of an ecosystem depend...

Determine how cup stacking relates to linear equations. Pupils stack cups and record the heights. Using the data collected, learners develop a linear equation that models the height. The scholars then interpret the slope and the...

Fifth graders investigate the qualities of a good reader by participating in a role play with the provided scripts. They focus on the five main strategies of good readers -- predicting, clarifying, questioning, summarizing, and...

Young scholars identify and interpret the function, usefulness or utitlity, form, beauty or aesthetics, and meaning, context or story, of objects and how they learn new skills and make things that they learn traditionally, by observation...

Students listen to the song "Scarecrow" by Melissa Etheridge and draw what they think the song is about. They discover the song is about a man who was attacked. They again express their feelings about the song through drawing. Finally...

Young scholars practice a summarizing strategy in this lesson. They are given a copy of a "National Geographic Kids" article and are encouraged to read it silently. They then use the steps provided to write an individual summary of the...

Learning to recognize the importance of the features of information text (i.e., titles, subtitles, endnotes, sidebars, etc.) is the focus of a reading activity designed for middle schoolers. Learners examine how these text features...

After reviewing their resources from the unit, scholars participate in multiple group discussions with a World Café activity. During the discussions, they share ideas about their focus questions pertaining to Canada's natural resources...

What makes a culture unique? Learners research life in the Appalachia region of the United States. Poetry, music, and oral history create Affrilachia, the term used to describe the lifestyle of the area. African-American mountain culture...

Sediment samples from the ocean bottoms tell scientists about climate change, pollution, and changes in erosion for the area. Groups of learners focus on sediments and their movement through water. During a hands-on activity, they...

What can you contribute? Scholars read text to determine how ants contribute to the rainforest. First, they categorize and sort facts gathered from reading. Next, readers focus on specific terms in each paragraphs of the text Ants by...

Students examine the process of summarizing text. They participate in a class discussion, and read an assigned passage from their textbook, highlighting the main points of the text. Students then write a short summary of their...

First graders practice summarizing with the book Sheila Rae the Brave by Kevin Henkes. In this summarizing lesson, 1st graders read the story over 3 days and answer comprehension questions. They write a summary about what they book was...

Students use their critical thinking skills to write about historical events. In this historical perspectives lesson plan, students read documents about historical events and make annotations and marginal notes. Students then respond to...

Amazing! Any 5th grader would be more than willing to participate in this project. Students are broken into groups, each group reads one book from a list of five. They use their book as the basis for choosing an animal and environment to...

Students discover what summarization is and why it is important. They focus on the five steps used to summarize and observe as the steps are used to summarize the article "Ghost Tigers of the Rain Forest" out of National Geographic Kids...

Students practice the note-taking skills of Pocket Note Taking, Outlining, and 2 column note taking. They use pocket notes, outlining, and/or two-column notes to summarize information taken from web sites or other sources. Afterward,...