Here is a great graphic organizer for ensuring that young researchers and writers cover all their bases when brainstorming a topic by considering the five W's (who, what, where, when, and why) and how.

Introduce your class to the MLA style of formatting. In addition to studying the formatting, learners improve language skills and review word processor features. They use the Interwrite SchoolPad for the first time to assist in proofing...

Coal forms from the ancient remains of plants that were alive on Earth before the dinosaurs! Scholars use their t-charts from the previous lesson plan over resources and research to determine if their information is correct. Through...

Celebrate Black History Month with this lesson, in which middle schoolers create an essay about a famous African-American. Writers conduct research online, take notes to write an essay in proper format, and use ideas, text, and graphics...

Science is magic that works. Magical color-changing beads and a coffee can that follows voice commands are just two examples of magic tricks that rely on science. After completing a hands-on activity and an experiment investigating the...

In small groups, energy engineers research and make a topographic map of a marine natural resource. They report to the rest of the class pros and cons of extracting their assigned resource. The two activities may take up to four class...

How does recognizing the author's purpose help you draw conclusions about a topic? Using two articles (both are attached), learners brainstorm why each author wrote each article. Are their purposes similar or different? Learners use a...

Create a class anthology with your young writers. In this personal narrative instructional activity, each writer reflects on actions and events from their own lives and chronicles them in a three-part written sequence. They create a...

Students examine and discuss different perspectives of the Story of the Three Little Pigs. They write a friendly letter, from the wolf to any other character, using the proper letter format.

Students examine how art and music help to define and unify a social movement and also how they can function as symbols of protest. They watch KQED program And Then One Night: The Making of Dead Man Walking and discuss what happens when...

Learners explore the environment by reading a story in class. In this water formation lesson, students define environmental terms such as rivers, streams, gulf, oceans and lakes. Learners read the story A River Ran Wild and discuss the...

Looking for a cross-curricular project for language arts and science? Use this lesson plan to reinforce knowledge of the Solar System, as well as expository writing skills. Elementary and middle schoolers choose one aspect of the Solar...

Collaborative groups work together to report on the volcanic activity leading to island formation and construct models to demonstrate the process. Consider having each group present their project to the rest of the class. There are many...

High schoolers write a two or three-page typewritten paper on a career of interest. They collect research materials from the library and Internet. They are also required to include at least four citations from a minimum of four different...

Youngsters pretend they are rocks sitting on a hill. They listen to the provided guided imagery script to conceptualize the process of how rocks change over time. They draw a diagram of what happened to them as rocks during the story. An...

Learners write a friendly letter. They write a friendly letter to author, Cynthia Rylant, after reading a number of her books, and watch a presentation by the teacher that describes how to write the letter. They word process their...

Here is an app version of a powerful tool that allows you and your students to have one place where you can capture, organize, and share items in multiple media formats.  The different uses for this app are as varied as your ideas...

What is a media baby? Discuss at what age children should be exposed to electronic media. After reading an article, they identify the types of media products for infants and toddlers. Learners will predict the effects of media on the...

An environmenta science unit includes three lessons plus a cumulative project covering the ecosystem. Scholars follow the history of the Ford Rouge Factory from its construction on wetlands and how it destroyed the...

Students investigate growth rates of flowstone formations. They view a virtual field trip and discuss how flowstones form. They observe the cave fieldtrip and predict the growth rate for a cave formation. They graph growth rates and...

Students recognize "The Seven Wonders of the Ancient World." In this world history activity, students research various architectures on the Internet and construct a PowerPoint presentation.

Students observe landscape paintings consisting of cloud formations. In this identifying cloud types lesson, students discover different cloud types and characteristics by looking at paintings. Students paint their own pictures at the...

Students observe clouds outside of the classroom. For this weather lesson, students investigate and record the clouds above their classroom everyday for three weeks. The students then analyze their data and discuss what causes specific...

Middle schoolers investigate natural disasters by participating in an experiment. For this water formation lesson, students define the dangers associated with avalanches and landslides. Middle schoolers utilize a bag of sand, meter-stick...