Gregor Mendel's work revolutionized agriculture from an art to a science. Explore Mendel's work with an interactive lesson that includes animations, video, and practice problems. The instruction describes the early discoveries that...

Family and friendship are two very important themes of the historical fiction novel The Orphan of Ellis Island by Elvira Woodruff. From video clips and writing prompts to reader's theater and family interviews, this resource...

Teach young children that with a little perseverance and the help of a good friend, anything is possible. This two-part lesson series based on the book Giraffe's Can't Dance starts with a shared reading about Gerald and...

What makes a good New Year's resolution? Practice goal-setting and reading comprehension with a set of language arts activities. English learners work on cloze passages, synonym matches, interviewing exercises, and...

Researchers use scientific data to understand what is inside each of the planets. The first in a series of six, this instructional activity builds off of that concept by having pupils use a data table to create their own scale models of...

Laborers used common materials to build London's first performance venues, including sticks, plaster, and ... hair? Using an informational handout, scholars learn about the construction of different types of playhouses where actors...

Class members discuss Chapter 13 of The Autobiography of Malcolm X and use evidence from their character development worksheet to support an analysis of how Malcolm X and attitudes toward him and his teachings are changing.

Class members take a break from discussing The Autobiography of Malcolm X to focus on their personal narrative essays. Before working on their drafts, they review what they have learned from their study of Haley's narrative about...

Track character development with an excerpt from Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club. As tenth graders examine the relationship between Jing-Mei and her mother, they compare both characters' expectations of each other in the chapter "Two Kinds."

Sometimes, the movie version of a book can provide additional details about the source material, particularly when the film is thoughtfully directed and well-acted. Ninth graders watch a two-minute clip from the movie Temple Grandin and...

Ninth graders hone their research questions in a lesson focusing on accurate search engine techniques. Continuing a unit on inquiry-based learning based on Temple Grandin's Animals in Translation, the lesson guides learners through the...

Class members examine the images Arson and Budhos use to depict the working conditions on the sugar plantations and consider how these images support the arguments the writers present in Sugar Changed the World.

Sticks and stones may break bones, but words matter. Scholars analyze words in paragraphs from Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail." They use new vocabulary words and discuss how King's words develop and support his...

What is a megalomaniac? Scholars discover the word's meaning as they read and analyze paragraphs seven and eight from Julia Alvarez's essay "A Genetics of Justice." They also read Mark Memmott's article "Remembering to Never Forget" and...

Scholars examine an excerpt from The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and determine how the author builds up smaller details to create the larger idea of the main passage. To finish the lesson plan, learners discuss in pairs, answer...

What do readers discover about a character within the first few sections of a text? Pupils begin reading Shakespeare's Macbeth and analyze the language in the first few scenes of the play. They also demonstrate understanding with a Quick...