Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail" serves as an exemplar for a mini-lesson on semicolons. Working alone or in small groups, class members first circle all the semicolons in the letter, and then consider how this...

Dear Nancy, how do you analyze a letter? Love, Trez. Dear Trez, you use a Letter Analysis Worksheet. Love, Nancy. This richly detailed activity provides multiple questions that lead researchers step-by-step through the process of...

Here is a fine activity on reading and understanding expository text designed for 4th graders. With a partner, learners read a passage of text about a machine called a wheelright. This machine was commonly used in the colonial...

This worksheet provides a wonderful scaffold for those learning how to analyze art in a critical and thoughtful way. It describes what art historians do, then requires learners to view and analyze one of the listed works. Twelve...

What role did yellow journalism play in bringing the United States into war with Spain? As part of their study of the Spanish-American War, class groups examine newspapers of the times and other texts and then produce their own...

Marine invertebrates offer us many new options for developing pharmaceutical drugs, such as w-conotoxin MVIIA, which is extracted from the cone snail and is a potent painkiller. The instructional activity encourages scholars to research...

Picture this. Class members follow in the footsteps of W. Eugene Smith, Dorothea Lange, James Nachtwey, and Lewis Hine by creating their own photo essay about a local event or issue.

Students determine what factors effect the period of a pendulum.  In this pendulum lesson students complete a lab activity and report their findings. 

Middle schoolers create a KWHL chart as a pre-reading strategy. In this graphic organizer lesson, students communicate their background knowledge before reading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Middle schoolers continue to construct their KWHL...

Students consider how African American responded to social injustice. In this social injustice lesson plan, students compare and contrast the visions of Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois for obtaining civil rights for African...

Students compare and contrast the visions of W.E.B. Dubois and Booker T. Washington. In this African American history instructional activity, students read biographies about both men and create a Venn diagram about the men.

Students acquire a working knowledge of the geographical concepts: absolute location, relative location, longitude and latitude. They analyze primary sources that shows the physical and human characteristics of the places along the 1899...

High schoolers start by drawing Mr. Essay Man, who is supposed to illustrate the different parts of an essay. After discussing what each component should contain, writers start their essay, guided by the teacher and class discussion....

Designed to be used with a showing of the 1951 version of The Red Badge of Courage staring Audie Murphy, this learning guide includes discussion questions, suggestions for activities, and topics that can be discussed with parents.

Seventh graders, after completing a warm up on if you have three more diamonds than two times what Jon has, and you have 17 diamonds, how many diamonds does Jon have?, generalize a method for solving algebraic equations to model a given...

Help young researchers find credible sources online. Modeling with a Google search for information about Shakespeare’s Macbeth, use a computer projector or Smart Board to show class members how weak the top three search results are....

Have you just visited an art museum? Or can you create a gallery in your classroom to visit? Pupils create an original drawing that reinforces what was learned in a visit to the art museum. They will view original art work and verbally...

Through a series of activities, learners are exposed to how artists use symbolic imagery to create the narrative of a subject’s life. They study The Birth of Alexander and some manuscripts kept at J. Paul Getty Museum. They then draft...

Class pairs select a prompt from a provided list and tell (and record) their story to their partner. They then examine linguist William Labov's model for natural narratives, and apply his model to their tale. Next, class members watch...

The class examines the new tax cut plan proposed by President Bush. They practice calculating income tax rates and interpreting the data. Then they research topics that are of interest to them related to taxes.

Students research emperor Justinian I in this lesson. They identify the contributions of Theodora to Justinian's rule, and the expansion of the Byzantine Empire during this time. They then analyze the contributions of Byzantine on...

Third graders engage in an enrichment lesson exploring the concepts of area and perimeter. They construct new pentominoes that are 3 times the size of normal ones and then identify the area and perimeter measurements. They then create a...

Here is a quick puzzle-style worksheet for your aspiring astronomers. A code is printed at the top of the page and learners use it to fill in the blanks describing different phenomena or objects in outer space. The material does not even...

In this waves worksheet, students define 23 vocabulary words associated with the different types of waves and how waves are measured. Students complete 23 matching terms with definitions and draw the superposition of two waves shown.