Some things are beyond comprehension. Scholars read an excerpt from "Comprehending the Calamity," a primary source text about the 1906 San Francisco earthquake. After identifying the gist, pupils complete anchor charts to analyze how the...

In a hands-on learning activity, pupils read about and recreate the experience of Harriet Jacobs, author of one of the most famous slave narratives of all time in which she describes her years of hiding from her master in a confined...

Who were the candidates in the 2008 US Presidential election and where did they stand on important issues? Use a resource that offers an opportunity to go back in time and examine candidates and issues involved in that election year.

Jell-O® can help model the transmission of light through fiber optic cables. Young scientists use the jiggly dessert to make a waveguide to transmit a laser beam from one point to another. Their models help them learn the function...

Can a state government tax the federal government? The Supreme Court case McCullough v. Maryland explores different governments in the United States. Scholars research the court's decision with a video and discussion. They formulate...

You walk each day over 20 blocks to school as a 9-year old because the color of your skin does not allow you to attend a school in your own neighborhood. Scholars use the 1954 Supreme Court case Brown v. Board of Education to investigate...

Everyone's heard the popular slogan reduce, reuse, recycle, but there may be a better way to talk about sustainability. Using the second lesson plan from the five-part WE Are Innovators—High School Modules series, learners explore issues...

What does it mean to have an innovative mindset? Pupils think outside the box with the first of five lessons from the WE Are Innovators—High School Modules set. Scholars read articles and watch videos about sustainable innovation, such...

Your class has just begun reading Jacob Have I Loved, and they're coming upon the fifth chapter. Pause their reading and have them complete a KWHL chart (not included) to detail what they've learned from the novel's beginning. An example...

To launch a reading of The Dark is Rising, the second novel in Susan Cooper's award winning contemporary fantasy novel sequence for young adults, class members engage in a guided imagery exercise that asks them to visualize the...

Students develop a strategy list for problem solving by working with different types of problems. They recognize problems that may be solved using deductive reasoning and solve deductive reasoning problems.

Examine the power of persuasion and have learners consider how it influences events in their own lives. After reading and analyzing informational texts to understand the author's purpose, class members take a written test and craft a...

Sixth graders read and utilize the facts from the story "Abd al-Rahmen Ibrahima" by Walter Dean Myers to analyze the main character's life which is ruined by conflict, jealousy, and greed. Journal entries are created in response to the...

Readers will read a text and fill out a character map based on the characters in that text. They will explore different qualities of each character for their map. this can be modified to support younger learners. They will learn about...

Add to the narrative writing experience. Elementary or middle school writers listen to the teacher read a descriptive passage, then reread the same passage silently. They highlight sensory details and figurative language, then orally...

To demonstrate their understanding of the relationships in Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo, readers are asked to assume the voice of one of the characters and draft a letter addressing another individual in the story.

Are you teaching a high school language arts class and stumped for writing topics? Five pages of writing prompts for all kinds of writing should help you out. Many of these prompts refer to texts that are not included in this resource,...

Students read and respond using appropriate reading strategies.

What fun! As part of a vocabulary exercise designed for Victor Martinez's Parrot in the Oven: Mi Vida readers create word trees with the trunk representing the root word and the branches representing prefixes that can be added to the...

Here is a terrific lesson on teaching homophones to your upper graders! In it, homophone word cards and homophone bingo cards, which are embedded in the lesson, are used in a game format which reinforces this important part of speech....

Students grasp how to read from text and retain it. They use reading comprehension strategies specific to the Internet. They search for answers to questions related to the Civil War.

Students read books with younger children, incorporating context clues and vocabulary aids as reading strategies to help the younger children learn to read. They discuss the concept of community capital and how this activity relates.

Students, while using reading and writing strategies (subheads, prediction, skim, details, drawing inferences, etc,), solve math problems that involve gathering and representing data (addition, subtraction, multiplication). They practice...

Students view the AMERICAN MASTERS film "Muddy Waters: Can't Be Satisfied" and research him using the Guided Reading strategy. They examine the influential musician's childhood and trace his journey from the Mississippi Delta to...