Do your young authors suffer from writer's block when they try to write short stories? Access their natural creativity with C-Gor, the writing monster! The instructional activity takes aspiring authors through a new writing process...

This short, yet effective, presentation gives pupils many great tips on increasing their enjoyment of what they read and improving their comprehension. The categories of tips include analyzing, remembering, understanding, applying,...

Both the writer and the reviewer contribute to this editing worksheet. Before handing the paper to a partner, the writer lists specific areas of concern for the reader to address. The editor addresses these concerns and offers detailed...

Start by defining the word sitcom with the goal of launching a discussion. What exactly is a sitcom? How is a sitcom different from sketch comedy, drama, and reality television? Class members give examples, remember storylines...

"Would a rational and well-regulated world include human suffering?" "If the plight of human suffering is the 'best of all possible worlds' do humans have freewill?" Class members develop their position on an issue raised by Candide,...

After reading up to page 371 of Percy Jackson and The Olympians: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan, get insight into how Percy felt making a major decision through active discussion strategies that enable both academic...

Introduce your high school scholars as to how to use counterclaims in argument writing. Learners explore this skill with collaborative efforts and technology. Together they explore the pros and cons of homework and develop a thesis for...

What was the relationship like between George and Martha Washington? To protect their privacy, Martha Washington destroyed all her husband’s letters after his death so historians have little evidence of their lives together. Two letters...

When your pupils read an account of an event, are they conscious of the fact that this particular account might focus on certain details, while ignoring others? Open their eyes to bias and varying interpretation of facts with the...

Some books are perfect for drawing connections between multiple subjects. The book Hill of Fire becomes the hub for three very different, yet related activity ideas. First the class hones their oral language skills by creating an...

Chapter II of John Milton's Paradise Lost provides the text for a series of comprehension questions crafted using Bloom's Taxonomy.

As part of a media literacy unit, class members establish criteria for good video reporting, and practice giving both positive (warm) and constructive (cool) criticism.

Story chains connect literary concepts, reinforce context clues, and even help learners predict what's coming next! Using words from the next chapter of Sharon Creech's Walk Two Moons, middle schoolers craft story chains to...

A good prompt is hard to find, especially ones that encourage application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation of a text. Help is here in the form of a prompt list for George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty Four that offers essay topics that...

Napoleon Bonaparte once said, "What is history but a fable agreed upon?" A series of lessons encourages learners to look beyond the basic fable agreed upon related to events in history and consider multiple accounts of the event....

George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, published in 1949, can seem strangely prophetic when compared to modern news events and politics. Readers of Orwell's dystopian classic sharpen their critical thinking skills by engaging in...

Get ready to review and revise! Scholars peer edit each other's literary analysis essay drafts. Next, using peer and teacher feedback, pupils compose their final drafts. 

Take note. Scholars receive their claim drafts back to revise and write their claims and three pieces of evidence on notecards. They save the notecards to use when the verbally present their claims to the class. At the end, individuals...

An excellent series of five lessons on China awaits you and your young geographers. In these lessons, learners engage in hands-on activities, watch streamed video, access websites, and complete activities in cooperative groups in order...

Fifth graders explore the abstract form of drawing of Paul Klee. They create a drawing of an animal using contour line in the same style.

Students create topics for other students to write about in the computer lab.

Dig into any piece of fiction with a series of analysis questions. There are two levels of questions provided: basic and in-depth. The basic questions can be copied double-sided onto a single piece of paper, while the in-depth questions...

Sixth graders study about Impressionism and Post Impressionism. They create a watercolor collage.

The photograph, Nellie and her Italian Soda is viewed and discussed by the class. They are instructed to use the photograph as inspiration to write a poem about non-events, or things that are beautiful in every day life. Pupils use...