A fun, modern twist on journaling! Instead of responding to prompts in their composition notebook, writers use the Internet to complete blog entries. A sample blog (with prompts) is shown here, and writers are assessed on conventions and...

Use the Schoolhouse Rock episode, "Rufus Xavier Sarsaparilla," to introduce a study of pronouns. Learners consider antecedents, cases (nominative, objective and possessive), as well as types of pronouns, and then craft sentences using...

Pair the famous poems "I Hear America Singing," by Walt Whitman, and "I, Too, Sing America," by Langston Hughes, with a more recent poem by Elizabeth Alexander called "Praise Song for the Day" to demonstrate a theme and introduce your...

What is Internet fraud? Explore Internet ethics and engage in a collaborative discussion. In order to create a Guide to Internet Honesty, learners read and discuss the article "A Beautiful Life, A Tragic Death, a Fraud Exposed." Then...

Study opposing viewpoints with this instructional activity, which examines President Bush's September 2004 address at the United Nations. Middle schoolers study the text of the address, and then stage formal debates arguing for or...

For those seeking a spiritual education this lesson on God's plan for humanity may be highly beneficial. Each group will read a story then discuss the qualities of each story that show the manifestations of God. This lesson includes...

Develop a world-wide, email chain on which class members can showcase their acts of kindness. After defining the meaning of random acts of kindness through discussion and through a reading of Random Acts of Kindness,...

Give each learner a newspaper for this instructional activity! As a group, read select editorials and discuss them with your class. Are these articles informational or persuasive? Cut out select editorials and have learners identify the...

Analogies demonstrate how words relate to each other and crafting analogies is a good way to encourage learners to develop their understanding of the layers of meanings in words. This instructional activity provides pupils practice...

Young community members explore philanthropic foundations. They discuss the work of community foundations, and then they listen to a guest speaker describe the vision and activities of a local foundation. Is there a way they can join the...

Readers are introduced to some of the conflicts that arose over land and resources in the Americas in a two-part cross-curricular comprehension worksheet that asks kids to study the article and then to use information provided to...

Here is a fantastic poster that you can easily and frequently reference in your class whenever you are asking your young writers to cite their sources. Using the acronym ICE, learners are reminded to introduce, cite, and explain...

Honing reading and communication skills through the theme of farm animals is the focus of this instructional activity. Students read a book about Scandinavian farm animals and complete prediction journal activities. They complete a...

Young scholars create a nature journal for an imaginary trip around France. They Identify animals and plants that live in France and describe its landscape. In addition they research a period in France's history and prepare a brief...

Students explore birds, their territory, breeding, and seasonal movement. They research and collect information on birds through writing letters to ornithologists, reading in books, comparing web sites, and observing pictures. Students...

Students examine cell division and the process of mitosis.  In this cell reproduction instructional activity students grow yeast and observe the results, and learn about the career of scientific illustration.