Students employ their technology skills to produce campaign commercials. In this political campaign instructional activity, students discover the appropriate uses of video cameras and create fictitious campaign commercials.

What was your most (exciting, maddening, nervous, thrilling, etc.) experience in school? A part of a unit on narrative writing, in this lesson class members review the elements of the form and then choose an event when they learned a...

Have your learners play around with Shakespeare's language. In this plan, small groups examine and rearrange soliloquies from Othello, noting how the language changes and morphs. All groups have a chance to change each soliloquy, making...

Students watch the News Ohio video about Lincoln Junior High School. They write a reaction paper, explaining what effect the studying environment has on students. If the classroom was in a basement, perhaps a little dark and damp, would...

For this first of four lessons on book design, students are introduced to the vocabulary of book design through the use of bookwalks and a non-linear PowerPoint presentation in game-show (Jeopardy!) format.

Explore the fascinating ways in which authors use specific literary devices to create interesting and realistic texts. Using non-fiction articles with the subject of rogue waves, an excerpt from The Perfect Storm, by Sebastian Junger,...

Your learners need to develop skills to argue effectively, and this comes by understanding the traditions that make claims valid, and what detracts from their effectiveness.  Although this resource does not give advice on how to...

Guided by close-reading questions, groups examine the similarities and differences between the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. In addition, they look at how the principles are presented in these two foundational US...

With a nice description of what the standard means, an idea for a class activity, and a quiz with answers, this resource should deepen your (and your pupils') understanding of the targeted Common Core standard. The provided activity is...

Tenth graders explore Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. After reading specific scenes, they brainstorm and discuss free will. Students observe a clip from the Dr. Phil television show entitled, "Afraid to Age" and make connections from the...

Pupils create a new project. They are told that the Garage Band is a program that comes on Macintosh computers. Students are told that they project doesn't matter what tempo or key if they are recording live music. They go back to the...

Read various texts to compare the themes across each text. Learners write a journal entry describing the most beautiful scenery they've seen and use a map of the United States to locate the Sequoia National Park and Muir Woods. They then...

Drafting a strong first sentence for a summary is an important step. Writers can use the formula presented on this handout to get started. The resource lists three steps to put together a strong topic sentence, as well as tips and hints...

Assist your pupils with literary analysis by discussing and exploring theme. This plan, the twelfth in a series of fourteen, builds in some time to explore theme as a class. Learners also blog about the main event in their stories and...

As learners continue to examine a short story of their choice, they take some time to look at analysis completed by others on the same story. In the eleventh lesson in a series of fourteen, pupils explore various sites for literary...

Have new or soon-to-be voters examine different political parties and their platforms as they figure out which one aligns most with their beliefs. After taking a few online quizzes, young scholars split into pairs to discuss...

Students analyze and critique various artists and their work. They write research papers on artists and create reproductions of their works, reflecting their earlier critiques of the works.

Fourth graders view Theibaud's work in order to form opinions and share in class discussions. They also critique some of the artists work using the Linderman method and recreate the artist's style of work with their own paintings.

Fourth graders go online to critique the organization of student writing. They access the Yahooligans website to view the writing pieces. They utilize a worksheet imbedded in this plan which guides their scoring.

Students use different pieces of art and critique them. Using worksheets, they analyze the historical and cultural context of the art and the methods in which the artist used. They discuss their responses as a class and use them to...

High schoolers participate in a class critique of the symbolic sculptures they created. They critique the work of their peers by responding to questions about the symbolic content and applying criteria for sculpture.

Students view various paintings and write down the adjectives that come to mind. Using the painting, they use information from a previous lesson to write their own critique or point of view. They share their writings with the class.

Students take a virtual trip to the country of Greece. Using the Internet, they examine pieces of art and sculpture from Roman times. They are to critique a piece of art and type it in a word processing program. They share their...

Students are taught the basics of writing a feature story. They choose a topic for research. Students use the library and internet research skills to investigate their topic. They proofread their own writing or the writing of others,...