Distinguish between passive and active voice with a grammar worksheet. It contains three exercises in which pupils turn direct speech into indirect speech and create new sentences using passive voice. 

What skills do storytellers employ to bring to life the characters and events in their tales? After listening to a recording of a Haitian folk tale, class members consider how tone of voice, pace, and gestures can be used to enliven a...

To gain an understanding of how images and sounds are used to influence viewers, class members analyze these features in Presidential campaign commercials from 1952-2012.

Get young people thinking about their lives and current topics of social justice, advocacy, gender, race, and identity. After examining several works by Barbara Kruger, participants select a tag with one of the questions printed on it,...

Put on your pirate hat and get ready to teach r-controlled syllables. Learners practice using words that contain ar, or, er, ir, and ur. Instructors model how to decode words to isolate vowel teams, as well as combine r-controlled sounds...

Professional or unprofessional? That is the question addressed by a lesson on workplace attire. Class members examine images posted on job search sites like Linkedin and those posted by celebrities. They consider the implications of...

A thorough set of activities, articles, and reference material can enlighten your class about the history of whaling in New England. Kids travel back to a time when whale products were valuable and hunting whales was a way to help the...

Christopher Columbus: hero or villain? Prepare class members for the debate with activities that asks them to think critically about how history is reported.

Keep students with autism on track learning sight words with the Sight Word Train. Complete directions, and a video demonstration are all part of this clever resource.

The final activity in a unit study of immigration and human rights asks class members to design a project for their school that builds support for immigrant classmates. To prepare for this project, individuals use what they have learned...

Take a journey with your class as they explore the different settings from Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech. Middle schoolers write postcards in first person as if they were the characters of the story.  

Challenge scholars to plan a vacation with a $5,000 budget. Learners review costs of transportation, meals, and entertainment while considering the number of people and destination. Worksheets provide information and...

What does an ad reveal about a culture, or about the values of its intended audience? Class members examine a series of runaway slave ads—one of which was written by Thomas Jefferson—and consider what these primary source documents...

Explore voice in writing with the story Chess Rumble. After examining the character's voice to understand the character better, sixth graders analyze and discuss the dialect, tone, and descriptive language used. A good way to focus...

In this ESL passive voice worksheet, learners fill in blanks in sentences, choose correct words/phrases to complete sentences, and rewrite sentences using passive voice.

Students record themselves saying basic biographical facts about themselves: : what their names are, where they live, how old they are, what languages they speak, and what activities they like to do. They practice their presentational...

Keep your class in conversation with others across the country or across the sea by writing letters to pen pals. The activity calls for students to be pan pals with pupils in Africa; however, the listed steps could be used for any...

High schoolers conduct research about the Civil War and the slavery movement. They examine primary and secondary resources. The use of the internet and web slides are resources made available for students to make cognitive connections.

High schoolers complete the writing process. They present final drafts of essays that include thesis statements, appropriate paragraphing, elaboration, and style. They participate in a peer editing activity that requires them to use...

Students explore the words of Abraham Lincoln. In this Abraham Lincoln lesson, students analyze segments of "The Gettysburg Address," his annual address to Congress in 1862, and his letter to Mrs. Bixby. Students conduct further research...

If you're looking to start a unit based around narrative writing, make sure to consider this resource while you're planning. This book covers five topics: writing personal narratives, writing narratives about others, writing...

To celebrate National Poetry Month, young writers focus on the role letter writing has played in the development of poets. They begin by journaling three to five associations to a writing prompt that requires them to identify their...

Get ready for a musical story time! First your young musicians review musical dynamics as they listen to and discuss the pitch and sound of each instrument you play for them. Then they talk about special words (mostly verbs) in the book,...