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.
Greater Good Science Center
Discover Your Great Full Self
Reflecting on character strengths can bring a little sunshine as the gray days of winter approach. Tweens and teens view a PowerPoint presentation, watch a short video about character strengths, and take a survey that helps them identify...
US Institute of Peace
Characteristics of Peacebuilders
Can anyone become a peacebuilder? A instructional activity on character education challenges scholars to examine the characteristics of well-known peacebuilders. Pupils then look within themselves to discover their own strengths as they...
California Department of Education
I Have “M.I.” Strengths!
There are so many ways to be smart! Can your class identify their intelligences? The third of five career and college lesson plans designed for sixth graders challenges them to assess their unique skills. Once they determine their...
Missouri Department of Elementary
Survivors
Developing a positive self-concept can sometimes be a challenge. Seventh graders engage in an activity that helps them identify their individual strengths and helps them recognize how these strengths can contribute to being a successful...
Social Media Toolbox
About Facebook
If everyone is on Facebook, should the school's news publication be as well? Scholars study a social media giant in the 11th lesson from The Social Media Toolbox's 16-part series. The activity combines individual study and collaboration...
EngageNY
Mid-Unit 2 Assessment: On-Demand Informational Writing
Lesson 7 focuses on building academic vocabulary and writing an explanatory letter with supported textual evidence. For the first five minutes of the lesson, the educator reminds the class of how to read and refer to the accordion...
What So Proudly We Hail
The Meaning of America: Freedom and Individuality
What are the strengths and weaknesses of American individualism and independence? Explore these principles through a close reading of Jack London's To Build a Fire, and engage in high-level discussion with your class by analyzing the...
American Chemical Society
pH and Color Change
Did you know strong bases can feel slippery and slimy? Lesson allows scholars to practice using the pH scale to identify acids and bases and their strengths. By changing the concentration of an acid and a base, they create the entire...
PwC Financial Literacy
Evaluating Financial Information
Advertising is all around us. Sometimes those advertisements are directed at young people, so it's important for youngsters to recognize false advertising and fraud when they see it. That's what this instructional activity is all about....
Core Knowledge Foundation
Third Grade Skills Unit 4: Stories of Ancient Rome
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...
Sensory Connection Program
The Tree of Self Esteem Game
Create a respectful classroom community and boost children's self-esteem with this collaborative activity. Working in small groups, children take turns filling in each other's tree of self-esteem with compliments, personal...
John Wiley & Sons
It's the Little Things That Count
Encourage your young leaders to acknowledge small victories and the unique abilities and strengths of others. Class members are assigned to observe a classmate and note their talents and interests, concluding in an "awards...
Council for the Curriculum, Examinations and Assessment
Learning About Learning
Bloom's Taxonomy and Howard Gardner's Theory of Multiple Intelligences feature largely in a session that asks class members to identify their dominate learning style and intelligence. Furthermore, individuals consider how using...
EngageNY
Writing an Argument Essay: Planning the Essay
Preparation is the key to success. With the help of an informative resource, scholars complete a writing improvement tracker to identify their writing strengths and challenges. They also meet with partners to plan an argumentative essay...
EngageNY
Writing an Argument Essay: Planning the Essay
Pupils use a helpful resource to begin a Writing Improvement Tracker, developing awareness of their writing strengths and challenges. Additionally, they continue planning their argument essays about Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's...
Greater Good Science Center
Seeing The Good In Others
Showing gratitude is an intentional act and it's the glue in relationships. That's the big idea in a lesson for tween and teens. Scholars leave post-it thank you notes on other's character strength posters that acknowledge those strengths.
Teaching Tolerance
Activism Online
People can make a difference in the world without leaving their homes. Using an eye-opening resource, scholars complete a handout as they consider the strengths and weaknesses of the Internet as a tool for social activism. Finally,...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Writing a Diplomatic Toast
Here's to you! Using a role-playing activity and primary source analysis, learners discover the importance of diplomacy. Impersonating a diplomat from a great empire, they write a toast to another empire, analyzing the strengths and...
Museum of the American Revolution
Leadership and Alexander Hamilton
Alexander Hamilton serves as a model in a lesson that asks young political scientists to consider the strengths and weaknesses of six different leadership styles. They read a brief overview of Hamilton's activities before, during, and...
WE Charity
Exploring the Four Leadership Styles
What is your leadership style? Tweens and teens independently complete a Four Leadership Styles worksheet. Once completed, they use a leadership code to identify their prominent leadership style. Class members gather by style, brainstorm...
Curated OER
Tiles, Blocks, Sapphires & Gold: Designing a Treasure Map
Young cartographers in groups hide treasure at school and then create a map to find it using pattern blocks and tiles. They make paintings with clues to create a visual representation of the location of their treasure. Groups present...
North Carolina State University
Construction
Engineering design projects serve as great opportunities for collaborative problem solving. In this case, students work in small groups designing, building, and eventually testing a structure that meets a teacher-specified objective. It...
Smart Museum of Art
The Making of a Superhero
Thor, Loki, Iron Man, and Captain America. As part of their study of Greek and Roman gods and heroes, middle schoolers compare the characters in The Avengers to Greek counterparts. Individuals then create their own superhero,...