The Great Brain

A reading of Tanya Lee Stones' biography of Ella Fitzgerald lets middle schoolers get up close and personal with the First Lady of Jazz. Stone recounts details of Fitzgerald's life from her early days through her experiences as a teenage...

During this lesson, which is all about making connections, learners watch a documentary about the teenage brain and connect it to Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True Story About Brain Science, their own lives, and the world.

How did literature reflect people's attitudes in post-World War I America? A lesson explores the topic using a variety of activities. Individuals watch and respond to a video; read author biographies and engage in discussion; write...

Compare and contrast the characters in John Boyne's The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. Using a Venn diagram, kids write in different traits to describe each person, and note their shared characteristics in the middle section.

Understanding the vocabulary in a text, especially a text like Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True Story About Brain Science that includes quite a few technical terms, can be the key to understanding the text as a whole. Learners focus on...

How is a story different when told from various points of view? Learn about first and third person points of view with an activity based on Robert Louis Stevenson's Treasure Island. Readers examine a passage written in first person,...

John Green summarizes the ebb and flow of dynasties in 2000 years of ancient Chinese history up to the Chinese Revolution of 1911. He discusses the development and influence of the mandate of heaven, as well as an overview of...

Whether you are planning a unit on F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, or simply want to improve your pupils' descriptive writing, this lesson could be a good addition to your class. Using the Six-Trait Writing process, pupils...

Part of a longer time line describing the history of the American West, this section covers the period 1829 to 1859 with hyperlinks to stories and people of this time period.