What evidence supports the big bang theory? Individuals analyze scholarly resources about the the theory and develop arguments backed by evidence. They brainstorm, share ideas, watch a video, and read articles to complete a graphic...

Encourage your learners to explore the differences between hard news and news analysis. They outline a complex news analysis about the upcoming presidential election, then endeavor to write an analysis of the same topic, using local...

Explore the life and painting style of African-American artist Horace Pippin by looking carefully at its parts, then create a "secret number" painting for a classroom counting book.

After reading and analyzing two narrative memoirs, middle schoolers engage in a variety of activities, including writing an essay, developing a story map, and creating character charts. They then compare and contrast story maps, and...

High schoolers examine the relationship of man and nature as portrayed in Stephen Crane's, The Open Boat." The third person, omniscient point of view, the depth of character analysis found in the story, and the emotions evoked by the...

Here's an activity that uses a reading comprehension strategy based on Bloom's taxonomy to focus readers' attention on key passages from Edward Bloor's Tangerine. Worthy of a place in your curriculum library.

Access a wealth of rich, engaging activities that will allow learners to see through the eyes of Anne Frank and experience her emotional journey as they read her biography The Diary of a Young Girl.

A house with no windows and a garden full of stinging nettles make the perfect home for Mr. and Mrs. Twit. The seventh instructional activity in an 11-part unit designed to accompany The Twits by Roald Dahl takes a closer look at...

What does the ground around your home have to do with water pollution? Young ecologists learn about their local watershed and create their own cause-and-effect models of the hydrosphere.

Write-on! Demonstrate a writing model and support learners as they write an informational essay on a water resource issue of your (or their) choosing. The lesson plan provides a well-scaffolded summative writing...

Ready to roll up those sleeves and get your hands dirty? Dirty with soil science content, that is! Overcome those "But it's just dirt" objections with a trip outside to collect soil samples for some in-class analysis. Use the...

Two exercises boost scholars' knowledge of a onomatopoeia with excerpts from famous poems. In exercise one, participants circle onomatopoeia words. Exercise two challenges writers to choose three words to use in an...

Students analyze "To Build a Fire" by Jack London and "The Open boat" by Stephen Crane. They write an essay in which they compare and contrast the narrators and plots in each story.

High schoolers analyze a character of Faulkner's The Sound and the Fury to catch a glimpse of a family and the changes they, and the Old South, undergo. The use of time as it relates to the structure of the plot is covered in this...

High schoolers examine role spirituals have played in African American history and religion, examine Harriet Tubman's use of spirituals in her work, explore power of spirituals in Civil Rights Movement, and work with oral tradition,...

Students are introduced to Earth Day and the importance of this day. They make a collage, students can use articles, pictures, words, etc., in magazines or newspapers or online, that relate to Earth Day, the environment and environmental...

Have class members eager to enter the workforce? They'll be glad to learn that things aren't how they used to be. Have your young historians examine then discuss four primary source images related to the negative effects of...

“. . .different men often see the same subject in different lights. . .” but the great orator Patrick Henry used all the skills at his command to craft a speech to convince listeners to see things as he did--that liberty was worth dying...

Beginning writers practice writing and reading from left to right using green and red dots. You'll need notecards with a green dot on the left side and a red dot on the right side. Do your learners understand that print moves from left...

Readers select a character from Call of the Wild, record their responses to a series of prompts in a spiral notebook, and use details from the novel to support their thinking. The spirals are then used as source material to support...

Third graders discuss the differences between the clothing choices within the three regions in Africa and in Hawaii.

All the Common Core standards are important, but they all build off the ability to cite textual evidence to support analysis. See how to scaffold this standard into three steps of development, along with assessment ideas with the ideas...

Students examine the difference between a narrator and author. They read Nathaniel Hawthorne's novel, 'The Scarlet Letter,' write a description of the narrator, and research how Hawthorne was impacted by the politics of the time.

Learners discuss the characteristics of the literary genre known as "Southern Gothic". They write an analysis of the short story, "A Good Man is Hard to Find" by Flannery O'Connor.