Beyond Benign
Medical Ethics
Just because we have the ability to determine an organism's traits through genetic testing, should we do it? Middle-school medical experts examine the ethical dilemmas in biotechnology in the 18th and final installment in a series of...
Character Lab
WOOP for Classrooms: Self-Control
Achieving your goals can be as easy as Wish, Outcome, Obstacle, and Plan! Show your class how to turn their personal and academic desires into reality using a time-proven process. The resource focuses on self control and guides users...
Trinity University
I Didn’t Know that was Poetry
Poetry or prose? That is the question facing middle schoolers as they begin a month-long poetry unit by examining the characteristics that differentiate poetry and prose writing. Pupils learn about poetic devices and different types of...
Trinity University
The Shakespearean Sonnet
Looking for a great lesson to teach your class everything they need to know about Shakespearean sonnets? Here's such a lesson. "Sonnet #18" launches a study of the Shakespearean sonnet. Scholars watch two Prezi presentations that provide...
ReadWriteThink
Sonic Patterns: Exploring Poetic Techniques Through Close Reading
Robert Hayden's poem "Those Winter Sundays" serves as the anchor text in a five-part lesson plan that takes the mystery out of poetry analysis by modeling explicit strategies for pupils to employ to conduct a close reading of a poem....
K20 LEARN
Watch Your Tone: Tone Analysis Through Music And Nonfiction
Identifying the tone of a piece of writing or the author's attitude toward the subject matter can be difficult for learners. Simplify the process with a lesson that begins with skits, moves to songs and their lyrics, and then to passages...
Livaudais-Baker English Classroom
Stranded!
Imagine being stranded on a remote island with no one else but your team members. That is the scenario facing groups who must decide how they will survive. The good news is that groups get to design their part of the island, choose how...
Mexic-Arte Museum
El Dia de los Muertos/Day of the Dead Educational Activity Guide
Here's a must-have activity guide for any celebration of El Dia de Los Muertos. The colorfully 56-page packet is packed with historical background, information about Mesoamerican cultures, images of the works of famous artists, and...
American Museum of Natural History
Planetary Mysteries
A website all about planetary mysteries—it's a one-stop-shop for all things, stars, planets, and space travel. Scholars read an astronomy overview to discover the page's big ideas, then choose from the plethora of resources, including...
PBS
Hemingway Educator Guide
A 17-page Educator Guide is designed to support classroom discussions of Ken Burns' documentary on Ernest Hemingway. The guide includes background information on Hemingway's life, the themes found in his works, essential and discussion...
Academy of American Poets
Noticing Poetry
Introduce scholars to the "I Notice" method, a different approach to studying poetry. Instructors first model the noticing method by identifying words and images that appeal on the sonic level, the ideational level, the sensory level,...
Vaquera Films
Wonder Women - The Untold Story of American Superheroines: Middle School Curriculum Guide
Women in power are the focus of a three-module unit that employs comic books to bring home the importance of equality and proficient media literacy skills. In module one, scholars examine gender roles in media—boosting media literacy and...
UNICEF
Self and Interpersonal Relationships Theme Unit
A key goal of social-emotional learning is to help young people develop healthy attitudes towards themselves and others. A 173-page curriculum guide provides step-by-step lessons that are richly detailed, carefully scaffolded, and...
Royal Shakespeare Company
RSC Activity Toolkit: Othello
Jealousy, betrayal, revenge! Hello, content! The Royal Shakespeare Company's Othello toolkit is a must-have for any in-depth study of one of Shakespeare's most famous tragedies. The 25-page packet is divided into 20 sections, each...
Pulitzer Center
The Paradise Papers: A Lesson in Investigative Journalism
The Paradise Papers, a year-long research project from the International Consortium of Investigative Journalism (ICIJ) exposed how political leaders, business people, and wealthy individuals used offshore entities to avoid taxes and hide...
Greater Good Science Center
Nurturing Gratitude From the Inside Out: 30 Activities for Grades K–8
Teach the importance of showing gratitude at any age with a teacher's guide comprised of thirty activities. Browse the extensive table of contents to find the array of exercises designed to meet the needs of your learners. Scholars take...
C-SPAN
Historical Presidential Campaign Announcement Analysis
Using the announcements of presidential candidacies, pupils consider how contenders make their initial arguments to the public. A worksheet helps structure collaborative work to analyze 10 video clips. Writing prompts allow for extension...
Encyclopedia Britannica
Becoming US President
It's that time of year, and the year. Once again the race is on for the White House. It's important that young voters, and would-be voters, understand the process for becoming the United States President. Class members research the...
Facing History and Ourselves
The Challenge of Confirmation Bias
Confirmation bias makes it difficult to overcome our preconceived notions of others. That's the big idea in a activity that teaches learners strategies to recognize and question their biases.
Facing History and Ourselves
Transcending Single Stories
The focus of the second lesson in the Standing Up for Democracy unit is on the power of assumptions based on a single experience or point of view. Class members begin by journaling about assumptions others make about their identity based...
PBS
Who, Me? Biased?: Understanding Implicit Bias
A 10-page interactive explains different facets of implicit bias, demonstrates how implicit bias works, and how people can counteract its effects. The interactive tools permit users to save their information in "My Work" folders, to take...
Indiana Department of Education
Social Emotional Toolkit
Looking for some tools to help you incorporate social and emotional learning into your curriculum? Then check out this 79-page kit packed with ideas for developing social-emotional learning competencies. The first section provides...
PBS
Frankenstein: The Consequence of Creation
Famous as a horror story, as the first science fiction novel, Frankenstein is also a tale of ambition, a warning about unbridled science, and responsibility for actions. Readers consider what the tale says of the consequences of creation...
PBS
Character vs. Society in The Invisible Man
Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man is difficult to read and difficult to teach. The novel is so highly regarded that it is one of most often listed as an option for the AP Literature and Composition exam. The materials in this packet from PBS...