Media Smarts
Gender Messages in Alcohol Advertising
Make your students critical consumers of media, and foster an awareness of how culture is reflected and shaped by media. This resource covers how alcohol advertising presents and promotes gender stereotypes. After a discussion on...
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AIDS and Adolescence
Ninth graders examine the relationship between AIDS and teenagers. In groups, they discuss the various issues educators face in introducing the topic to teenagers in school. As a class, they brainstorm a list of the misconceptions they...
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Middle-class teenagers in India
Learners read and discuss an extract about teenagers in India and complete related activities.
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Student Opinion: Do You Spend Too Much Time on Smart Phones Playing 'Stupid Games'?
This versatile resource from The New York Times website provides a short opinion piece on smart phones and the amount of time we spend playing games on them as well as several possible writing prompts pupils could consider in response to...
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Marketing to Teens: Introduction
An introductory lesson plan shows learners how pervasive and influential advertising is in our culture; particularly, how teenagers are actively targeted by advertisers. As teenagers, your students already have all the information they...
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Ages in Stages: An Exploration of the Life Cycle based on Erik Erikson's Eight Stages of Human Development
Examine Erikson's chart on the various stages one goes through growing up. Individually, they write a paper on whether or not they fit into those categories and how they are different today. In groups, for each stage they role play the...
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The Individual and His Role in Society
Tenth graders discover how various writers approach the themes of : alienation and solitude, living life "deliberately" and "phonies." Through reading, journaling, class discussion, and writing assignments they realize the power of the...
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With Detective Fiction in the Urban Classroom
This abstract for an instructional unit using three-minute mysteries, stories by Sir Arthur Canon Doyle, and Edgar Allan Poe includes a short history of detective fiction, sample plans, and suggestions for exercises and activities...
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ESL: World Suicide Prevention Day
Help to educate your ESL students about World Suicide Prevention Day with this series of activities. Matching key phrases, completing CLOZE paragraphs, and choosing appropriate words based on context clues are just a few of the many ways...
Purdue University
Healthy Body Image: A Lesson Plan for Middle School Students
This is a very valuable lesson for middle schoolers on the importance of maintaining a healthy body image through diet, exercise, and positive mentality. The resource includes four lesson plans. The first two plans outline the physical...
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"I Believe..." Podcast Style
Use this communication skills lesson to emphasize evaluating a speaker's main point and argument. After reading Martin Luther King's, "I Have a Dream Speech" and John F. Kennedy's speech, "I Believe in an America Where the Separation of...
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Play: It's Not Just For Kids
Middle schoolers realize that play is an important part of life and in the effort to staying healthy. They explore the role of play in society. In addition, they illustrate listening and speaking strategies for different purposes that...
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Helping the Adolescent Cope with Family Life
Students are introduced to the proper ways to deal with conflict at home. In groups, they define family based on what it means to them and identify factors that lead to a breakdown in communications. They participate in role-playing...
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The Teenage Single Parent
Young scholars examine the challenges a single teenage parent faces. In groups, they research ways to positively cope with an unplanned pregnancy and design their own layette for their new baby. As a class, they discuss what it means to...
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Poetry: A Mirror in Which to See Myself
Fifth graders focus on their self-esteem and strengths while reading poetry. In groups, they research the contributions and achievements of African-Americans and discuss how they overcame obstacles. They are read a poem, define new...
Practical Money Skills
Cars and Loans
Most teenagers want to buy a car, but do they know how much it really costs? Calculate the cost of purchasing a car, securing auto insurance, and maintaining the new investment with a thorough and engaging personal finance lesson.
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Rules of Conduct: Media Violence, Dating and Teenage Behavior
Students discuss the role of media in their lives and making decisions. In groups, they define violence and identify how it is represented in the type of entertainment they are accustomed to viewing. They compare and contrast behaviors...
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Suicide and Depression
Eighth graders research suicide and depression in teens. They are given an essential research question then create focus questions of their own before conducting their research. Using the Internet, they find answers to their questions...
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Every Teenager's Choice
Students focus on developing emotional maturity that aid them in making intelligent and appropriate decisions regarding their own sexual behavior.
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Smoking Patterns in the United States
Students examine tobacco use in the United States. For this tobacco lesson, students complete worksheet activities regarding tobacco use in America and examine the manipulation of the tobacco industry.
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Teaching Human Sexuality in the Social Studies Classroom
Ninth graders examine the social problem of teenage mothers. In groups, they examine the consequences of a teenage pregnancy and how it can be considered a breakdown in family structure. They discuss the physical changes during...
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Abuse and Neglect: United Nations Conventions on the Rights of the Child
Students analyze the consequences of inadequate or inappropriate care giving (e.g., the effects of neglect or abuse). They analyze the influences that have impact on growth and development during adolescence. Pupils analyze services...
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Creating Historians: Send Them Out
Get teenagers out of the classroom in the pursuit of history; part three of a series on approaching social studies as a group of historians.
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'Hunger Games' Science: Investigating Genetically Engineered Organisms
In The Hunger Games novel and movie, a futuristic, dystopian society is the setting. In it, a genetically engineered bird escapes control of the government. Using this as a starting point, teenagers examine the realistic possibility of...