A unit on persuasive writing guides elementary learners through the writing process. The first part examines the elements of persuasive writing, including expressing an opinion, connecting ideas, using supporting facts, and writing...

There might not be a butcher or baker, but you'll have a class full of candlestick makers after a hands-on lesson about candles make from beeswax. After a brief history of where beeswax comes from, young artisans craft their own...

A historic site marks a place where a relevant historical event occurred, no matter how many people know about it. Small groups choose their own historical sites, including a place where a class member was born, or even a...

Readers learn to ask questions about text with an activity based on Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea. As they read, class members craft questions based on Bloom's Taxonomy and then find the answers themselves.

Use a handy concept analysis guide as you begin your unit on William Shakespeare's The Tempest. With character descriptions, literary themes, and anticipated affective issues, the guide can help those new to using The Tempest craft...

The political, social, and economic challenges the European Union faces as it enlarges is the focus of a six-lesson unit. Class members investigate and craft a presentation about a member country, the treaties member states must...

How do interest groups try to influence elections? As part of their study of the election process, groups view 30-second advertisements produced by advocacy groups and use the provided worksheet to evaluate these ads. They then craft...

Should the United States Supreme Court have the power of judicial review? Instructors guide class members through a review of Marbury v. Madison and assist class members in writing a brief of the case. As independent practice,...

After reading information about Executive Order #9066, class members assume the voice of an 18 year-old Japanese-American born in California and placed in an internment camp. Individuals then craft a letter to President Roosevelt...

You don't have to slay the dragon in this activity. Young writers review poetic devices with a set of worksheets about alliteration and similes. Once they finish waxing poetic about their dragon friends, they craft a final...

This Labor Day, provide class members with a variety of engaging worksheets offering games, word work, and more! Here, you'll find a game of tic-tac-toe, word puzzles, a coloring sheet, crafts, and vocabulary practice.

A reading of Patrick Henry's "Speech in the Virginia Convention," Henry David Thoreau's "Civil Disobedience," and Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail" launch a discussion about the price one is willing to pay to...

Who keeps animals safe? Who keeps us safe? Discover the helpers that make learning and growing possible through a medley of activities that focus on habitats—ours and those in the rainforest. Scholars are asked to identify one...

Be mine! Young poets use the provided worksheet to craft a Valentine's Day acrostic poem for the word heart.

Young writers assume the voice of a person living in the US in the 1850's with an engaging historical lesson. They craft a letter to the editor of their local paper that details why they believe slavery should be abolished.

The Women's Rights movement is the focus of an engaging and collaborative exercise, in which young historians use information found in textbooks, class notes, and the provided documents to craft a DBQ essay.

After reading a series of primary source documents detailing the teachings of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X, class members craft newspaper columns assessing the strengths and weaknesses of each man's vision, and present their...

The interactions between the Coureurs de bois (runners of the woods) and the First Nation Peoples as they engaged in the fur trade are the focus on this Canadian history exercise. Kids select learning centers based on their learning...

Young poets are asked to craft a poem in the voice of a first person narrator, a dramatic monologue of sorts, that reveals not only a dramatic situation but something of the narrator's character as well.

Combine poetry and reading comprehension with an engaging writing assignment. Readers of The Winter's Tale craft a sonnet in the voice of one of the characters in Shakespeare's play.

Readers respond to a series of questions focused onJuliet Marillier's young adult novel Wildwood Dancing, and crafted to reflect the levels in Bloom's Taxonomy.

Your parents were both in different countries. You were born in the US. Documents and application forms ask you to identify your racial or ethnic classification. Which box do you check? Class members collect documents...

Slavery in India, Sudan, and Mauritania? What about in the United States? Groups research modern slavery in these four countries, collecting factual evidence (What), determine their feelings about this evidence (So what),...

Describing a problem efficiently doesn't solve it, but a well-crafted argument can move readers to action. High schoolers focus on structuring problem statements by reading examples of strong essays and working in groups to create...