Modern Jewish holidays have ancient roots with many connections to today. Using photographs of primary sources, such as fragments of a shofar, as well as texts, such as the Hebrew Tanakh, learners explore how Jewish holidays reflect...

Learners study the decisions and solutions involved in winning the right to vote. After reading background information on the fight for women's suffrage, including one woman's story, and its eventual success in the United States and...

George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, published in 1949, can seem strangely prophetic when compared to modern news events and politics. Readers of Orwell's dystopian classic sharpen their critical thinking skills by engaging in...

It is entirely fitting and proper that Wilfred Owen’s powerful “Dulce et Decorum Est” is the poem used for an exercise in close reading, discussion, analysis, and argumentative writing. Class members discuss focus questions in pairs,...

What better way to learn about plant life than by creating a class garden? Young botanists start with a brief discussion about radishes before planting seeds and watching them grow. To determine the importance of water,...

Determine the better deal. Pupils write the equation for the cost of printing tickets from different printers. They compare the costs graphically and algebraicaly to determine which printer has the best deal based upon the quantity of...

It's easy to miss the beauty of nature when one's focus is on technology. Don't make that mistake with help from a two-page reference sheet that provides eight tips for staying present when exploring the world around you.  

Dora, Buzz Lightyear, Mufasa. Swiper, Dr. Porkchop, Scar. The six lessons in this unit packet focus on how good and evil, and violence, are portrayed in children's animation. The lessons encourage kids to consider how violence is...

The historical background for Fever 1793 is the focus of a pre-reading strategy that has class groups rotate through a series of stations stocked with photographs, articles, and other texts that describe the Yellow Fever outbreak of...

Looking to introduce some text-based questions into your ELA lessons? Practice the kinds of skills the Common Core demands with the seven text-based questions and the essay prompt provided here. Designed to be a three-day lesson, day one...

Looking at literature through a critical lens helps readers connect the text to the larger world. An essay examining the theme "There is no ill in the world without a remedy" forms the main part of a sample comprehensive English...

Keeping readers focused during literature discussion circles can sometimes be a challenge. Check out this worksheet that ensures accountability by establishing six very specific, very different roles for group members: facilitator,...

Students, while reading a novel together in class, jot in their journals any connections to their own lives they can make between the text and self, text to text or text to the world. Various themes are connected to open more doors to...

Here is a rather esoteric resource that presents the archetypes found in “The Epic of Gilgamesh,” and would be appropriate for a college-level psychology or literature class, or as a teacher resource. Considered the “world’s oldest...

In the novel, Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan, Percy is faced with a major decision. After reading, chapter 19, discuss the decision-making process Percy took, what he decided to...

“Be glad that all things sort so well.” To make text-to-self connections to Shakespeare’s play, class members engage in a guided imagery exercise prior to reading Act IV, scene i of Much Ado About Nothing (the wedding of Claudio and...

How do your learners react in conflicts with authority figures? Help them begin Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club with an activity about different conflicts that kids can run into with their parents. Each scenario prompts learners to rank...

How is a stereotype defined, and what are some mechanisms we can use to combat negative stereotyping? Your young historians will discuss how and why stereotyping occurs, as well as consider the roots of modern conceptions of...

We take a steady shower stream and clean drinking water for granted, but in many countries around the world, the lack of water or a clean water supply is responsible for higher sickness and death rates. Taking a closer look at the water...

When it comes to rating educational calculators, this calculator is always near the top of this list. Now it's available as an app. There is a lot of calculator power wrapped up in this app. Not only is this a fully functioning...

Get high school historians to step outside their own shoes by responding to JFK's inaugural address from the perspective of a civil rights activist, a soviet diplomat, or a Cuban exile. After a class discussion about the address,...

Should identifying a tragic hero be based on a universal definition or a definition based on the morals and values of a specific culture? As part of a study of Things Fall Apart, class members read Sylvia Plath's "Colossus" and then...

How far would your pupils go to be able to have access to books? Revisit Heather Henson and David Small's That Book Woman and challenge class members to take on the role of Cal or the Book Woman. By putting themselves in someone else's...

Visit 19th century Grand Isle, Cheniere Caminada, and New Orleans! Meet the inhabitants, learn about their history and culture, and view landmarks and industries! After reading Kate Chopin’s The Awakening, class groups research the...