Third graders enjoy a train ride with The Little Engine That Could and discover how to create a five-paragraph essay train. This clever lesson has students use each boxcar of the train as a template for a paragraph.

Explore identity and community through an expository essay based on The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros. This two-week unit on writing an essay provides a brief description of each day and all of the worksheets and...

Wrap-up a unit on global climate change with a lesson that examines the causes and effects of climate change. Learners fill out a chart that represents what they think causes climate change—natural and human-based—and what they think...

As you explore an excerpt from Upton Sinclair's The Jungle with your class, discuss how his descriptions of the meat-packing industry caught the public's attention and helped to promote change in the Progressive Era.

Your young writers will practice identifying the hook, position statement, and main points of two examples of persuasive writing.

Ninth graders identify an ordinary object and write an ode for the subject. For this poetry writing lesson, 9th graders select an ordinary object and define its uses. Students then write an ode for the poem.

Ninth graders review what they know about river valley civilizations. In this global history lesson, 9th graders play Cave Jeopardy to prepare for an exam on Sumeria, Egypt, Indus, and Chinese civilizations.