How do you get your class talking? Use a card like the one included to help English language learners join the discussion. On this card, for example, nine sentence starters are provided. You could also use this with native English...

Speak up and listen up. Scholars participate in a speaking and listening mid-unit oral assessment. They discuss whether their rules to live by should be a personal choice or made into a law, and then they complete an exit ticket to...

How is a poem similar to and different from a news article? Pupils use a graphic organizer to compare and contrast the two genres. Also, as part of a mid-unit assessment, scholars participate in small-group discussions based on poetry...

Let's talk it out. Using the resource, scholars work in triads to discuss how their research has deepened their understanding about sustainable fishing. Next, pupils engage in a whole-class discussion to consider their next steps toward...

Challenge readers to read closer in an activity based on the Socratic questioning strategy. As kids read Antoine de Saint Éxupery's The Little Prince, they use sentence starters to ask deeper questions about the text, and...

Partner up! Scholars continue their fishbowl activity with one partner sitting inside the circle and one sitting outside the circle. Participants add to sentence starters to analyze the perspective of the Pearl Harbor Attack seen in the...

From more empathetic individuals to greater tolerance in government, learners explore the benefits of a culturally diverse world through a series of collaborative, discussion-based activities. 

Listen up, it's time for a Fishbowl discussion! Scholars continue their discussions about water management in industry and agriculture. After hearing both sides of the debate, pupils complete graphic organizers, deciding which sector is...

As you explore the meaning of cultural understanding and diffusion with your learners, discuss how dialogue can play a role in resolving conflicts based on misunderstanding. Examine keywords such as compromise, communication, and...

Using video clips of young adults from around the world describing their cultures and how they can be misunderstood, learners compare their own cultural point of view to that of others through discussion and writing.

Your learners talk to each other every day, but are they really listening? Use a lesson based on listening skills to ensure that class members feel heard and respected. It includes games, discussion topics, and self-assessment tools...

We must remember the past in order to avoid its mistakes. Young historians analyze the importance of historical remembrance using primary and secondary documents, as well as video clips. They then study the creation of a World War...

As part of a unit on the chemistry of the brain, thinkers learn how chemicals work to transmit messages between individual neurons and how controlled substances impact the synaptic cleft. They do so by playing a dice-and-card game in...

What do you do if someone you like wants you to do something you don't want to do? A series of activities, including discussion, videos, role-play, and poster projects, demonstrate the most effective ways to withstand peer pressure online.

If friendship were a soup, what ingredients would be in it? As part of a study of Marcus Pfister's Rainbow Fish and the Big Blue Whale, kids engage in a series of friendship-themed activities using materials contained in this richly...

Why do cultural misunderstandings happen? What causes stereotypes, and what is dangerous about them? After viewing some possible explanations to these questions provided by young adults around the world, your learners will discuss how...

The End of the Line, Angela Cerrito's gripping novel about an adolescent murderer incarcerated in an unusual "school," is the subject of a comprehensive set of support materials. Chapter vocabulary and discussion questions are excerpted...

Readers are introduced to the key themes in Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie by this carefully crafted anticipation guide. A great discussion starter.

Pupils define freedom, unity, progress, and responsibility in relation to American Heritage. They explore the origin of how American Heritage was developed and ways in which they can continue it today.  They also determine ways they...

By participating in discussions using prompts and statements provided in the activity plan, learners identify the concept of extremism and consider what causes violent acts of extremism in the modern...

As part of a study of crafting compelling arguments, class members tackle the problem presented in Lawrence Kohlberg's "The Heinz Dilemma." After discussing the dilemma with classmates, writers draft an essay with a claim, support...

Conduct a written literary discussion and diminish stress about public writing. Class members, already arranged into literature circles, compose and post responses to novels, signing with initials or class number. The process continues...

Free speech, privacy, and cyberbullying are the focus of a series of activities that prompt class members to engage in discussions about these interrelated topics. They view a segment from PBS’s series on bullying, read...

To middle schoolers, there's nothing worse than being excluded from a peer group. Developing important self-esteem skills can not only get them through awkward adolescent times, it can carry them through the rest of their lives as...