Overcoming Obstacles
Staying Healthy
The third lesson in the Building Confidence module focuses on healthy habits. Middle schoolers engage in activities that underscore the need for a healthy diet, daily exercise, and a good night's sleep. They create customized food and...
Overcoming Obstacles
Identifying Strengths and Weaknesses
Through a series of activities, middle schoolers learn how to celebrate their strengths, identify their weaknesses, and brainstorm strategies they can use to turn their weaknesses into strengths.
Overcoming Obstacles
Giving and Earning Respect
Middle schoolers learn what respect means to them and their classmates with the opening exercise in a series of confidence-building lessons. Participants list people they respect and why they respect them. They generate a definition,...
Facing History and Ourselves
Take a Stand
Whole-heartedly agree! I sort of agree. Disagree! Class members indicate their stance on a controversial statement by participating in a Barometer activity.
Facing History and Ourselves
Fist to Five
A "Fist to Five" routine asks participants to indicate how they feel about an opening question, like how ready they are to start learning, how well they understand instructions, etc. Groups then suggest strategies to get learners ready...
Facing History and Ourselves
Rose, Thorn, Bud
Developing engaging opening and closing class routines is essential in post-COVID, face-to-face classrooms. The 7th routine of 15 in the Building Community series invites participants to begin class by reflecting on a success (rose), a...
Facing History and Ourselves
Slow Down with The Slowdown
Help learners bring their focus to the classroom with an opening routine that asks them to listen to a podcast about what a particular poem means to the narrator. Participants then share what's happening with them.
Facing History and Ourselves
Notable Quotable
Engaging learners in the classroom can be a challenge. Here's a bell ringer that can easily adapt to any subject area. Instructors post a "Notable Quotable" and ask learners to respond to it in their journals.
Carolina K-12
African American Troops in the Civil War
Middle schoolers explore the history of the African-American troops that served during the American Civil War. After reading primary source documents that detail the controversies about permitting freemen and former slaves to serve,...
Carolina K-12
The End of World War II: Pearl Harbor, Japanese Internment Camps, and the Atomic Bomb
The end of World War II saw major events that would forever change the global landscape and international relations. Using a fantastic PowerPoint presentation and several primary source documents, your learners will discuss the...
Facing History and Ourselves
Three Good Things
A "Three Good Things" routine asks participants to sit quietly and reflect on three positive things in their world: family, school, community, or the world at large. After journaling about one that feels most important right now, writers...
Facing History and Ourselves
Picture This
Sometimes what you get is far more than what you first see. The third routine in the Building Community series asks participants to engage in a See, Think, Wonder strategy. Small groups analyze a projected image, infer what is happening,...
Facing History and Ourselves
Emoji Emotions
The BC (Before COVID) and AC (After COVID) classrooms differ. Instructors must reestablish protocols and opening and closing routines with learners who are no longer used to in-person learning. The second routine in the series designed...
Facing History and Ourselves
Mood Meter
Returning to in-class learning has proved to be a challenge for both teachers and learners. This series of 15 lessons provides instructors with ideas about establishing or re-establish classroom protocols and opening or closing routines...
Carolina K-12
The Rule of Law
What functions do laws serve in our society? Your learners will be guided through several interactive activities to address this question, and to consider the impact of rule of law in American society.
Overcoming Obstacles
Setting Expectations
As Don Quixote asserts in the musical Man of La Mancha, it is possible to achieve your dreams. For the last lesson plan in the Getting Started Module, participants learn the importance of having dreams and setting goals that...
Overcoming Obstacles
Working In Teams
Working in teams can be a challenge but also offer many rewards. Developing the skills necessary to work effectively in teams is the focus of the third lesson plan in the Getting Started Module designed for middle schoolers. Participants...
Overcoming Obstacles
What Is Overcoming Obstacles?
The second lesson in the Getting Started Module introduces the theme of the "Overcoming Obstacles" course. Participants listen to a guest speaker who has achieved success, and then identify traits and skills that the speaker talked about...
Overcoming Obstacles
Who Are You?
Personal involvement in any class is essential! That's the takeaway from the first lesson in the Getting Started module. Class members participate in games to learn each other's names and details. The goal is to create an atmosphere...
Penguin Books
An Educator Guide to Call Us What We Carry by Amanda Gorman
Call Us By What We Carry, a poetry collection by Nation Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman, is the focus of a 10-page teacher's guide.
Penguin Books
Teacher's Guide: When the Emperor Was Divine by Julie Otsuka
Julie Otsuka's haunting novel, When the Emperor Was Devine, is the subject of a 14-page teacher's guide. The guide includes the text of an interview with Otsuka, background information about Japanese immigration to the United States, and...
Penguin Books
The Discussion Guide to the Inaugural Poem: The Hill We Climb by Amanda Gorman
National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman's "The Hill We Climb," featured at the 2021 inauguration of President Joseph Biden, is the focus of a six-page guide. The guide includes before reading, during reading, and after reading...
ReadWriteThink
"Three Stones Back": Using Informational Text to Enhance Understanding of Ball Don't Lie
"Three Stones Back," a passage from Matt de la Pena's best-seller, Ball Don't Lie, allows readers to practice their close reading skills as they compare the passage to an information text about wealth inequality.
Penguin Books
A Teacher's Guide to the Penguin Edition of John Steinbeck's The Pearl
The guide to John Steinbeck's The Pearl suggests ways instructors can help readers see below the surface of the novella to the parable beneath. Through a variety of activities, readers come to appreciate the complexity of the tale.