Travel back in American history to the era of slavery and abolition. After reading about the Underground Railroad, young historians examine a painting depicting the event, and write a narrative from the point of view of a person in the...

Brad Manning’s essay, “Arm Wrestling with My Father,” is used as the basis of an AP Language and Composition exercise. Readers identify the purpose of the essay, analyze the essay structure, evaluate the diction, and unpack the analogies.

Teach your class the basics of narrative writing! The resource first describes the Common Core standard for narrative writing in-depth, and then moves into how to apply the standard. Show your class the example essay and quiz them...

Twenty insightful questions follow a read aloud of the story, Amos and Boris by William Steig. Scholars then show what they know through completion of a cause and effect chart, reading fluency assessment, and a written...

Learn about the ancient Near East through a close examination of ancient artifacts. Lead your class into analysis by first observing an artifact as a class. Pupils can then work in pairs to analyze the other artifacts and compile a list...

Explore ethnicity and identity with a research and writing assignment. Class members conduct online research, looking in particular at images and carefully noting down their sources on notecards. They read about identity and compose...

Conduct a close reading of George G. Toudouze's well-known horror story "Three Skeleton Key." This plan breaks up the reading into several steps and provides text-dependent questions to ask along the way. Learners will have the chance to...

Working in pairs, class members use the provided narrative writing rubric to assess the effectiveness of dialogue, pacing, and description in two model paragraphs with similar content. Writers then use the insights they have gained from...

What was life like for civilians who were home during WWII? The lesson plan uses a PowerPoint presentation with photos to explain life on the home front was like during World War II, including shortages of food, collecting scrap metal,...

Use a handy concept analysis guide as you begin your unit on William Shakespeare's The Tempest. With character descriptions, literary themes, and anticipated affective issues, the guide can help those new to using The Tempest craft...

Ninth graders explore civil rights by reading several biographies. In this Nelson Mandela activity, 9th graders discuss the trials and tribulations Nelson Mandela had to face in South Africa and how they were similar to the problems...

Students describe the sensory elements of musical selections (i.e., tempos, dynamics, and articulations). They write an essay evaluating Saint-Saens' effectiveness in using sensory elements in both selections. They describe the...

Seventh graders examine life at the Jamestown settlement. In this colonial America lesson, 7th graders visit the noted Web site to analyze artifacts from the settlement. Based on their findings, students write descriptive pieces about...

Studets research a health issue. They write an essay about the health issue. The create a public service announcement.

Students survey college students.  In this lesson, students explore typical costs.  They examine education loans.  Students complete a FASFA form and write an essay describing plans for obtaining money for college expenses.

Growing writers explore what it takes to develop and support a thesis statement with pre-fabricated ideas provided by the Virginia Department of Education. Learners take notes on what makes a thesis statement and a topic sentence, and...

Using a set of primary source documents, such as descriptions of climate phenomena and images of weather events, pupils consider how climate shapes history. A second essay prompt and multiple-choice questions with documents engage...

Students research an event or a person from a decade in American history when the civil rights movement was an important focus. They create a multimedia project based on the research.

For this "The Tell-Tale Heart" worksheet, students write an essay about how Edgar Allan Poe keeps the reader in suspense. The worksheet helps students construct the essay through eleven different scaffolding steps.

Students listen to the song "Scarecrow" by Melissa Etheridge and draw what they think the song is about. They discover the song is about a man who was attacked. They again express their feelings about the song through drawing. Finally...

Students explore "summer songs." They compose a list of songs that they would put on a summer CD and write an essay that explains the images they would choose for the cover for this CD. They also create collages that represent their...

Students research the bubonic plague including disease facts, the time frame of outbreaks and the impact it had on society. They examine the work of Edgar Allen Poe and write an essay explaining why the plague was a subject of interest...

Students identify significant events that helped shaped 2006. Completing a news quiz, they discuss the importance and impact of each event mentioned. They create their own news quizzes to be used as a class. They create a poster...

In this creative writing worksheet, students read about finding a ring with magical powers, write a description of the ring and its powers, and tell the who, what, where, when, and how details. Students write 1 essay.