Students complete distance learning classroom activities based on their preferred learning style. In this learning style lesson plan, students discover their learning style and perform activities based on it.

How did the environment and natural resources found on the Channel islands influence the culture of the Chumash? Archaeology meets technology in an activity designed for middle schoolers. After viewing West of The West's documentary Once...

"Words, words, words." Despite Hamlet's opinion, words can be significant. In this inquiry lesson, middle schoolers learn how the words in Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom's Cabin, in the view of many, lead to the American Civil War. To...

Willy Wonka takes center stage in a lesson about direct and indirect characterization. Scholars read a passage from the story about Wonka's Grand Entrance and watch a film clip of the same, noting examples of direct and indirect...

"Yuns betta outten the lights!" Colloquial language is the focus of a lesson that asks middle schoolers to consider the pros and cons of using idioms. They read articles, match expressions with their meaning and place of origin, and...

Clement Moore's "Twas the Night Before Christmas" models the power of descriptive language for middle schoolers. They identify the similes and metaphors in the tale and consider what these descriptions add to the story's emotional...

Don't you wish you could use passive voice? Be careful what you wish for! "The Monkey's Paw" is the focus of a grammar and language usage lesson about active and passive voice. Readers identify examples of active and passive voice in...

Students discuss what heat is and how it travels. They discover that one way to cool an object in the presence of a heat source is to increase the distance from it or change the angle at which it is faced.

Students map local places and learn to use scale and distance.  In this mapping lesson, students map their school and a favorite place.  Students recreate their maps showing distance and scale sizes. Students locate their...

Young scholars complete an online inventory to identify their individual learning styles, strengths, and characteristics. Students use the information to create a personal brochure explaining their learning strengths and strategies to...

The lesson guides young academics through the steps in producing a 10-page research paper on any topic in American history. Historians begin by formulating a thesis and gathering resources, then move on to creating an outline, and end...

I came, I saw, I conquered! Parallel structure, employed by writers even before Julius Caesar, is the focus of a lesson that teaches young writers the power of this rhetorical device. Class members analyze speeches by Dr. Martin Luther...

Why is weather different around the world? Learn about world climates with a reading comprehension passage. Kids read a short passage before answering five comprehension questions based on context clues.

Lois Lowry's The Giver is one of the most engaging and thought-provoking works of literature in the middle school curriculum. Round out your novel unit with a collection of reading activities, comprehension questions, memoir and...

A three-week unit designed to be completed in an elementary level, dual-language immersion classroom, this resource includes several lessons intended to introduce young learners to the solar system, the Earth and how the Earth compares...

One only has to watch MSMBC and FOX News to realize that media can present the same story in very different ways. Middle schoolers have an opportunity to test their ability to determine the validity and trustworthiness of information by...

Sixth graders explore space science by measuring distances between planets. In this solar system lesson, 6th graders view a Bill Nye video and discover the conversion between the metric system and imperial measuring systems. Students...

Four thought-provoking questions encourage readers to develop and support their opinions about strategies to end a friendship after exploring excerpts from a New York Times article. The reading is brief so this could be a lead-in to...

Students explore the concept of philanthropy in historical context. In this Westward Movement instructional activity, students read Our Journey West and explain examples of settlers working together for the common good.

You have the power! Scholars learn that they have power of the pen in their writing. After reading and viewing various sources about standardized testing, they express their own opinions about the testing by writing letters to the...

A cross-curricular instructional activity for middle schoolers that covers language arts, social studies, geography, and math, this is a great extension activity if your class is reading The Diary of Anne Frank or learning...

Students investigate global positioning systems. In this technology and mapping lesson, students view a PowerPoint presentation in which they identify the features of a GPS, state its uses, and follow steps to find a waypoint.

Today's kids are probably not familiar with the conventions of letter writing, due to the boom of technology. Here is a lesson that will provide opportunities for formal and informal letter writing.