Young scholars investigate new vocabulary words with a fun, collaborative activity. Given a deck of word cards, pairs of students flip over one at a time and independently look up the term in a dictionary. They then take turns rolling a...

Scholars work together to define words and answer questions using a dictionary cube.

Finding engaging ways to help your middle schoolers build their vocabulary is not easy to do. The lesson presented here offers a great way to motivate them to build vocabulary by making it into a game. Teams of pupils use a dictionary...

Middle schoolers get hip to the jive with a lesson about slang. They closely examine examples of slang and use context clues to infer the meaning of the terms. Groups read and summarize an article about a teacher who created a Gen Z...

A unit covering stories of Ancient Rome examines spelling rules, suffixes, verbs, quotation marks, writing, and dictionary skills. Lessons follow a similar routine; reading, skills practice, and extension activities, followed by...

Middle schoolers engage in a lesson which reminds them that root words indicate the base meaning of a word, and that those roots are found in many different words that have similar meanings. Pairs of pupils use construction paper and...

After a review of what suffixes are and how they are used, middle schoolers utilize a worksheet that is embedded in the plan to work in pairs to strengthen their understanding and skills in using these very important parts of our...

"Who says a pen has to be called a pen? Why not call it a frindle?" Inspired by this quote from the award-winning novel written by Andrew Celements, this lesson allows children to invent their own...

Readers of Man's Search for Meaning use context clues, create stories using words from the text, and retype these stories as part of their vocabulary study of Viktor Frankl's book.

Build upon and stack up data to get the complete picture. Using the applet, pupils build bar graphs. As the bar graph builds, the interactive graphically displays the mean, median, and mode. Learners finish by exploring the changes in...

How good is the fit? Using an interactive, classmates create a scatter plot of bivariate data and fit their own lines of best fit. The applet allows pupils to display the regression line along with the correlation coefficient. As a final...

What is the relationship between two variables? Groups work together to gather data on arm spans and height. Using the interactive, learners plot the bivariate data, labeling the axes and the graph. The resource allows scholars to create...

The key is in the leaves. Pupils enter data to create a stem-and-leaf plot. The resource then displays the plot and calculates the mean, median, and mode of the data. Using the plot and the calculated measures of spread, learners analyze...

Scholars demonstrate their knowledge of root words aqua and aud, and develop vocabulary skills by completing of a chart, handout, and worksheet using creative thinking skills, a dictionary, and a thesaurus.   

Oh, what fun! Young logophiles and neologists create a dictionary-sounding definition for imaginary words and try to fool their classmates.

Here is a unit designed to support English language development. Scholars speak, move, and write to learn more about topics that focus on community and local concepts. The series of lessons aids to reinforce concepts...

Smart Solutions is the theme of a unit created to meet the needs of English language earners. Through a series of lessons, scholars follow a routine—move, speak, and listen— to cover topics including stores, shops, celebrations, pets,...

Pupils sharpen their dictionary skills and their understanding of compound words in this plan. Tailor it to the grade level you teach by honing in on specific skills. For older learners, the plan suggests providing a word and having them...

Young readers get to the root of unfamiliar vocabulary with a collaborative learning activity. Given a deck of root word cards and copies of a graphic organizer, pairs of students take turns flipping over cards and brainstorming...

How does fire keep itself going? Explore the ways that heat uses fuel and energy with a lesson about the fire triangle and combustion. Several activities demonstrate how heat moves from warmer objects to cooler objects, as well as the...

Besides the dictionary definition, words also carry the added weight of meanings that are inferred or implied, meanings conferred on words, or connotations. To gain an understanding the importance of connotation, class members...

Watch the damage from a forest fire in this interactive simulation activity that challenges learners to estimate the burn area using different approaches. Learners are given a worksheet to track the different burn patterns and practice...

The second lesson in a unit of 15 introduces pupils to text compression. The class begins with discussing how they already use text compression when sending text messages. Pairs learn more about the subject as they work to compress a...

While the lesson plan focuses on right triangles, this activity offers a great way to practice the area of all triangles through an interactive webpage. The activity begins with the class taking a square paper and cutting in in half; can...