Invite your class to investigate racism and civil rights by analyzing the great Dr. Martin Luther King's speech. Your learners will read the words from the "I Have a Dream" speech and analyze the political and racial overtones. They will...

Use Greek roots, suffixes, and prefixes to create polysyllabic words. Readers use the dictionary to identify what the word's prefix, suffix, and root or base word mean. They define what a syllable is and how one is formed using Greek...

What's the best resource to use when looking up words? Use Visual Thesaurus to see a word's meaning. The class accesses the interactive website and then compares and contrasts the difference between using a traditional dictionary and the...

Students use a database as a vocabulary resource during writing/reading. They preview stories and list unknown works into their reading notebooks. Students find the definitions, and enter their words into a database using a teacher...

Pupils explore English by completing a word definitions worksheet. In this dictionary lesson, students practice locating a list of vocabulary terms in a "Dictionary Race." Pupils complete a worksheet based upon word cards and definitions.

How can learners evaluate research sources for authority, accuracy, and credibility? By completing readings, discussions, and graphic organizers, scholars learn how to properly evaluate sources to find credible information. Additionally,...

An Online NewsHour article about scholarly ethics launches this study of plagiarism. Since historians are supposed to bring original ideas and perspectives to their publications, they must give credit to the ideas of others. After a...

Learners understand the way the dictionary is laid out as well as the purpose for why people use dictionaries. In this language arts instructional activity, students recognize the need for alphabetical order and are able to find words...

A reading of Roald Dahl’s Lamb to the Slaughter opens a discussion of justice and fairness. Using a Venn diagram and an Idea Wheel graphic organizer, class members consider the similarities and differences in these two terms. They then...

Students explore economics by creating a budget. In this financial goal setting activity, students investigate their use of time by completing a worksheet. Students identify financial goals they would like to achieve in the next several...

What elements are needed to have a revolution? How do historical revolutions from across the globe and generations compare with one another? This is an excellent activity that incorporates group work, source analysis, and an engaging...

Second graders explore the purpose of a dictionary. In this library media lesson, 2nd graders explore My First Dictionary and identify guidewords, entry words, and captions. Students list ways they can use the dictionary.

Teams practice decoding and using context strategies to determine the meanings of unfamiliar words. After verifying the meanings of words through the use of dictionaries, the Internet, thesauruses, and other sources, learners write the...

Who named the shapes, or the days of the week? Should words be removed from the dictionary if they're no longer commonly used? Are there too many words in the English language? Language arts students explore these and additional...

Three annotated passages from Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay on "Nature" provide young philosophers a chance to improve their reading comprehension skills as they gain insight into Emerson's ideas.

Here is a lesson plan which may be best suited for a library science teacher, or one that can be done by a regular teacher when in the library. In it, learners explore the best ways to use print and electronic resources to find...

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...

Students analyze the archetype of 'the fall' in Shakespeare's Macbeth. In this literary analysis lesson, students work in tiered learning groups to analyze the characters of Macbeth and Lady Macbeth. Students use the book of Genesis as...

"Why do we have to learn a foreign language?" Have you ever heard that question before? Give your novices this project, and have them research different jobs that require the use of a foreign language. They create a PowerPoint...

Students study life cycles including developing their understanding of the human life cycle. They decide where they are in the human life cycle and provide reasons for that placement. They compare the human life cycle to that of the...

Students write and contribute one page for a class picture dictionary. They discuss how to alphabetize words, and examine both regular and picture dictionaries and how they are organized. Next they create a page for the class dictionary...

Looking for materials to accompany your study of Flowers for Algernon, by Daniel Keyes? Look no further! Included here is everything you need to go alongside your unit: worksheets, graphic organizers, writing assignments, an assessment,...

Discover how to use prefixes and suffixes to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words. The group views a jovial video on the topic, and then they create a chart of prefix and suffix meanings to identify the meanings of words in a social...

Riddle me this! What do kennings, caesura, and alliteration have to do with the Nowell Codex? Introduce class members to Anglo-Saxon poetry and prepare readers for a study of Beowulf with a series of activities that...