In many places in the world, people go to great lengths to get books to read. This beginning-of-the-year activity uses pictures of people reading in extraordinary situations to stimulate effective listening and speaking using the...

Jane Eyre offers scholars an opportunity to practice reading comprehension skills. Pairs are assigned a word from the text, use their prior knowledge, and consider the context, connotation, and denotation of the word to posit a...

Eric Liu's formula "power plus character equals citizenship" and his three strategies to making change happen model for high schoolers how to develop citizen power, how to get involved and participate to make democracy work. Class...

Reading comprehension and note-taking skills are practiced as young ecologists embark on this journey. Explorers visit a website where they will read about three ecosystems that are in danger. They use interactive programs to build a...

The final lesson in the "Color of Law" series explores the government's discriminatory economic policies. Young scholars watch videos, read primary source materials, and examine images to gather information. They discuss how what they...

Class members review expectations for successful discussions before reading chapter one of A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park. They engage in a think-pair-share to discuss the gist of the text and add their thoughts to their Readers'...

Light up middle schoolers' understanding of the monetary and health costs of smoking with two activities. First, class members calculate how much a smoker would spend in a year if they smoke a pack a week or a day. They then explore...

The Boston Massacre is the focus of a lesson that explores primary sources. Scholars examine two primary source images and discuss the different perspectives on the historical event. After groups read a researched account, they perform a...

What do modern voices sound like? Scholars explore the topic, reading two concrete poems from John Grandit's Blue Lipstick and analyzing them using a graphic organizer. Next, they read a third poem and work with partners to look for...

A bully, a victim, and a bystander—far from the beginning of a joke, cyberbullying is no laughing matter. Bystander or upstander? As part of the study of cyberbullying, high schoolers first read a series of articles about cyberbullying...

Everyone feels sad sometimes—aide in the coping process with two activities. In the first activity, scholars discuss sadness then complete a worksheet detailing ways four peers can identify their feelings and ways to feel better. The...

Eyes on the finish line. Serving as the first part of the end of unit assessment, learners answer questions based on a text about how to write a graphic novel. Using what they've learned, they then create a storyboard about the invention...

Young scholars explore the connections between natural disasters and poverty. For this economic lesson students examine worksheets and activities for each level.

First graders practice oral and silent reading using beginning  comprehension and decoding strategies. For this guided reading lesson, 1st graders take a picture walk and make plot predictions prior to reading the book Rain by...

Students compare versions of Cinderella and draw conclusions based on the story elements identified. In this literacy comprehension and story elements lesson, students read several versions of Cinderella, complete a "Comparing Folklore"...

Students trace James Brown's rise from "Little Junior" in Depression-era Augusta, Georgia, to the "Minister of the New Super Heavy Funk" and create a collage that captures his impact on American music.

Discuss the life of Franklin D. Roosevelt. This story, called "Franklin D. Roosevelt" by Laura Hamilton Waxman, is used to explore comprehension skills. Some of these skills include identifying prefixes and suffixes, making comparisons,...

Inspire kindness in and out of school with a lesson that challenges scholars to perform 100 acts of kindness during the time between Martin Luther King Jr. Day to Valentine's day. Leading up to a celebration of friendship, learners...

Eighth graders discuss the importance of battles fought during the Revolutionary War. They summarize the events, people, and strategies of significance in the Battle of Yorktown. They identify the significance of the the adoption of...

Dramatic activities promote enjoyment of literature, increase reading comprehension, and help develop oral expression. It is important for children to engage in activities which help to develop their creative potential. Drama allows...

Balloons take on the role of stereotypes in an activity that asks high school freshman to generate a list of different adjectives that are frequently used to describe men and women. Then then attach a stereotypical label to a balloon and...

Guide readers to think about what they are reading with a comprehension activity. Using John Steinbeck's The Pearl, learners predict what is coming, verify and judge their predictions, and analyze what they are reading more closely.

Readers locate unfamiliar words in John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath and teach these words and their meanings to class members.

What does it mean to be alone and isolated? What would you do if you were all alone in a strange place? Kids ponder these questions as they prepare to read Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.