Taking a Page From Franklin

Bring Benjamin Franklin to life in the classroom with a set of five activities. Discover the type of person he was and his accomplishments through a study of his inventions and comments about life virtues. 

Candace Fleming's award winning Ben Franklin's Almanac is the anchor text for a classroom guide that provides teachers with a cache of pre, during, and post-reading activities.

While Benjamin Franklin enjoyed fame and success in colonial Philadelphia, that was not the experience of all coming to the British colonies. Young scholars trace the life of an indentured servant using a scholarly biography and reading...

Life may not be fair but working conditions should be. Scholars research working conditions at Wegmans by studying the company website. They complete a working conditions anchor chart and discuss their findings in a think-pair-share...

Scholars know him for his role in the American Revolution, but Ben Franklin was also a journalist and printer. Learners investigate his standards for what was fit to print using primary sources—including writings where Franklin explains...

Benjamin Franklin's famous aphorisms are a perfect time capsule of colonist values in the mid-18th century, as well as a clever reminder of the way life still works today. Middle and high schoolers select one aphorism to interpret...

Does your class need some practice with writing yes or no questions in the present tense? This worksheet offers learners some choice as they pair activities with subjects to form questions. Pupils also write a quick response to each...

Benjamin Franklin famously had an aphorism for every situation—most of which we still use in modern vernacular. Introduce class members to Franklin's Poor Richard's Almanack with a presentation that details the characteristics of aphorisms.

Teach literary lovers how to form opinions about form. Scholars read informational text about the form used in villanelles. After analyzing the structure used in the poetry with graphic organizers and gallery walks, writers create...

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...