What Is Smart Growth?

A short story is only as strong as its characters, development, and conflicts. Encourage the young authors in your class to plan their stories based on the elements of narrative writing, all provided in brainstorming graphic organizers.

New roads, new businesses, new developments, new mass transit systems. All growth has both positive and negative effects on communities. Government classes investigate the principles of Maryland's 1997 Smart Growth program and...

Set up your writers for writing strong introductions with a formula for putting together supported thesis statements. This reference page breaks the process down and provides an example of how to compose a thesis statement, develop a...

As an end-of-unit assessment, class members craft a formal, multi-paragraph essay identifying a similar idea found in Rainer Maria Rilke's collection, Letters to a Young Poet, and David Mitchell's Black Swan Green. Writers state and use...

Ambition, murder, nontraditional gender roles ... some problems just can't be fixed in marriage counseling. Learners discuss the relationship between Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. As a culminating activity, pupils analyze how the characters'...

Investigate the choices people make between economic growth and personal growth and development using the ethical/decision making model. Small groups create and present a position paper describing their feeling for or against the...

To examine the “New English” Chinua Achebe uses in Things Fall Apart, readers complete a series of worksheets that ask them to examine similes, proverbs, and African folktales contained in the novel. Individuals explain the meaning...

Learners explore population growth in the United States and the impact it has had on society. First, they brainstorm the reasons for population growth and the results of these increases. Then, they design surveys, record results, and...

Energy conservation is a hot topic these days; introduce your kids to the Smart Grid solution through a video clip and several interactive online tools. They discuss areas of household energy consumption, examining a pie chart...

How smart is your home? Middle and high schoolers write a journal entry describing the types of technology found in their homes. After reading an article, they are introduced to "smart" home technology. In groups, they identify and...