After reading El Bronx Remembered by Nicholasa Mohr, learners complete a KWL graphic organizer based on vocabulary from the novella. A SMARTboard presentation is a good resource for reviewing the vocabulary, as well as the triple-entry...

Conduct a close reading of chapter 9 of The Cay. Read the chapter again and ask pupils to respond to a list of included text-dependent questions. Finish the class with the provided writing assignment, which asks learners to use textual...

Take a break from literature study to address some grammatical concerns. Using a text you've already read in your class, show how to analyze pronoun use. After watching the master, pairs analyze a short excerpt on their own, identifying...

Characters often change over the course of a story or novel. Use the sample graphic organizer provided here to track how the narrator has responded to the sequence of events in chapter four through six of The Cay. In addition to this...

Students explore and examine how maps have been used in navigation. They research how travelers collected observations to keep track of their positions and plotted information on maps. Each student then makes a Mercator projection...

As a practice writing test, fourth graders use the West of the West's documentary Lone Woman of San Nicolas Island and two print resources as source materials for an informative article that identifies information that is...

Here's a must-have resource. Whether your focus is racism, the Great Depression, the "Scottsboro Boys" trial, or part of a reading of To Kill A Mockingbird, the information contained in the seven-page packet will save hours of...

Writing a paragraph from details found directly in a text is the central focus of this thorough and explicit lesson plan. Using the stories Nasreen's Secret School and Rain School, third graders are lead step-by-step...

Having read and discussed Bullfrog at Magnolia Circle, third graders demonstrate their bullfrog expertise by writing informational paragraphs. Building on the note-taking and paragraph planning from the previous lesson plan,...

Reading, writing, and rings! A lesson from NASA combines space science with authentic reading and writing tasks. Included in this lesson are pre-reading activities, four mini informational booklets on Saturn, a structured...

A fabulous lesson which combines mathematics with space science. Middle schoolers work in cooperative groups in order to research early astronauts and their accomplishments. They look at a variety of rocket and space shuttle designs, and...

W.H. Auden’s poem “Refugee Blues” launches a study of the problems of refugees. Background information about the poem and general information about Jewish refugees from Germany and Austria are provided, as are discussion questions and...

A series of maps depicts pre-WWI to post-WWII Europe for your geographers. They use reference materials to help them correctly fill in the countries and the borders as they changed through time. A great resource for a history lesson, or...

"Words, words, words." Despite Hamlet's opinion, words can be significant. In this inquiry lesson, middle schoolers learn how the words in Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, in the view of many, lead to the American Civil War. To...

A guided-inquiry lesson asks seventh graders to research the compelling question, "What does it mean to be equal?" Guided by three supporting questions, researchers complete three formative performance tasks and gather evidence from...

The lessons in this learning guide are designed to increase youngsters' awareness of the impacts of marine debris and to teach them about pollution prevention techniques. This fabulous, 30-page packet is chock full of important...

For this ninth lesson plan in a larger beginning-of-the-year unit, close reading skills are used independently to find the gist of the story That Book Woman. Rereading for important details is the targeted skill to unlock a deeper...

Lesson 7 focuses on building academic vocabulary and writing an explanatory letter with supported textual evidence. For the first five minutes of the lesson, the educator reminds the class of how to read and refer to the accordion...

Are you a koalafied biologist? The lesson begins with research about human survival and our ecosystem. Then, an online training module simulates the effects of changes to the plants and animals in an ecosystem. Finally, scholars research...

This second lesson in a larger unit is perfect for the beginning of the year because it explicitly teaches 3rd graders how to use close reading skills by identifying unfamiliar words, figuring out the gist, and defining important...

Third graders read excepts from the story, Thank You, Mr. Falker in order to gain practice in understanding an unfamiliar story by focusing on the details. They use a worksheet, embedded in the plan, which directs them to certain...

High schoolers investigate the symptoms of autism spectrum disorders, and compare expected child development with development that may indicate a diagnosis of these disorders. The final project for the lesson is the creation of posters...

Examine the different perspectives on the future of United States Navy bombing exercises taking place on Vieques, Puerto Rico with this lesson from The New York Times. Here, young learners read "Islanders to Vote on Vieques Bomb Drills,"...