Silly journal and essay prompts may be fun to write, but they don't model the kind of writing needed for college papers and standardized tests. The 15th part in a series of 24 covers the concept of reading to write—during and after...

"Who am I?" is not only a great philosophical question that requires a lot of reflection but is also at the heart of a letter of introduction. The challenge, of course, is figuring out where to start. Middle schoolers get a little help...

Students write a scene.  For this creative writing lesson, students read The Lightning Thief and discuss the sentence fluency and word choice in the writing.  Students complete a writing assignment where they create an...

Ask class members to reflect on their year-long writing experience by creating a portfolio of their work. Here's a resource that details what should be included in such a portfolio, and provides a rubric that can be used to assess...

Wondering how to respond to the age-old question when will I ever use this? The answer is very simple when discussing technical writing. Teachers and administrators gain an understanding of using technical writing in the classroom....

Readers of Solomon Northup's brutally frank slave narrative Twelve Years a Slave examine passages that support the argument that slavery "undermined and corrupted" the institution of marriage. Background information is...

Writers continue looking at the rubric for their A Long Walk to Water essays. This time, they analyze the demands for the introduction and conclusion paragraphs. Pupils compare the rubric to the opening and closing of the model...

Ask learners to focus on one scene in Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer in order to write an analytical essay about Twain's ideas surrounding childhood. The final assignment in a unit, this writing prompt requires learners...

Rhetoric is the key to character. Scholars work through four activities using documentary films to complete rhetoric analysis. Learners participate in writing a note to a friend and then analyze their own writing. They also view clips...

Exposing learners to the power of words in poetry is a stimulating way to learn languages. Songs, haikus, rhyming words, and narrative works are all employed in a resource for teaching English as a Second Language.

Having prepared for an analysis essay about one of the characters from The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan, tenth graders demonstrate their understanding in a mid-unit assessment. They focus on either Jing-Mei or Waverly in an informative...

What were the driving forces behind American expansion in the nineteenth century, and what were its effects? Scholars watch a video, read biographies, engage in discussion, write journals and poetry, draw, and create a multimedia...

Twelfth graders examine two pieces by Lu Xun to show his importance as a revolutionary of 20th Century Chinese society and literature. They explain the aspects of Lu Xun's life. They summarize "Diary of a Madman" for form and content....

Having a hard time defining bullying with your seventh graders? Discuss the different types of behavior one would see in a bullying situation with a series of lessons, worksheets, and group activities.

Learners gain insight into how songs and poems express feelings of injustice. They also learn about literary devices and types of poems and make a personal connection when they write their own free verse poems about injustice.

Students examine how citizens can influence legislation. They watch a video, develop a list of how citizens can influence legislation, answer video discussion questions, conduct Internet research, and write a recommendation for change to...

It takes courage to stand up to bullies. Two sample lessons from a complete Bully Free curriculum, "Courageous and Brave Bystanders" and "Assertiveness Skills for Bullied Students and Empowered Bystanders" provide participants with...

Two sample lessons from a curriculum unit on bullying provide high school seniors with an opportunity to assess their online and cell phone behavior and to consider how they can offer support to bullied students. Each plan includes an...

Whether you need a new textbook for your health class, or a few exercises and passages for your lesson on nutrition, you'll find what you need with a thorough nutritional science resource. With 15 chapters that cover elements of...

As the saying goes, you are what you eat. A useful set of lesson plans encourage young readers to take a second look at their eating habits. Pre- and post-reading questions bring in reflective writing and discussion while extension...

Focus on synonyms, antonyms, and context clues with a vocabulary instructional activity. Kids study ten words and match them to their definitions before putting the words in context.

Thanks to Gary Paulsen's Hatchet, teen readers now know it's possible to survive in the wilderness. A study guide for the novel discusses common topics and vocabulary words found within the text. Additionally, readers get the chance...

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...

An upper-level treatment of what is often presented as a basic concept (the right angle of an inscribed circle on the diameter), this activity really elevates the mathematical thought of the learner! Expected to develop formulas...