How many people do you need in a room before two likely share the same birthday? Scholars consider this puzzle by analyzing a set of data. They ponder how to divide the data and determine the proper size of a group for this event to...

Clichéd and repetitive introductions got you down? Try this lesson plan on for size! Start off by instructing your class members on techniques for writing introductions and what types of introductions they should avoid. Several general...

Frances Ellen Watkins Harper's poem "Learning to Read" is the focus of a lesson that teaches middle schoolers how to do a close reading of a text. The lesson introduces them to a brief biography of the poet, includes a video reading, and...

Practice comprehension skills using the story, The Man Who Went to the Far Side of the Moon by Bea Uusma Schyffert. Learners answer questions, fill out graphic organizers, and engage in extension activities involving writing and...

Students practice summarizing what they have read. They review the meaning of comprehension. Students go through the steps needed in order to summarize a passage. They pick out the main parts/ideas of what they have read. Students...

Students exercise the strategy of summarization to recall important information in a text. They read to summarize the passage, "Ways the Ocean Helps Us," by Katherine Jones Carter, from "Oceans." Each student follows a list of...

How did the television change people's lives? Learners consider the question as they complete their storyboards about the invention of the TV, adding visual elements along the way. Then, they participate in a peer review to offer and...

Let's work together! Using the collaborative resource, scholars work in triads to begin section two of their storyboards about Philo Farnsworth, the inventor of the television. They then practice using linking words and phrases to...

Place the data in a box. Pupils experiment with placing dividers within a data set and discover a need for a systematic method to group the data. The 14th lesson in a series of 22 outlines the procedure for making a box plot based...

The eighth lesson plan in this series continues the focus on vocabulary and increasing young readers' awareness of academic language. Pairs of learners participate in a short vocabulary review activity called Interactive Words in which...

How did Theodore Roosevelt stress the importance of conservation during his time as president of the United States? Take a closer look at the language Roosevelt used himself in a 1907 address to Congress, and have your young...

Enhance and extend instruction of "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin with one or all of these ideas. You might want to cover characterization and summary, or improve understanding of context clues and irony. You can cover any...

Middle schoolers demonstrate their ability to summarize by crafting a summary of a passage from Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist. Oh that Dickens should be so laconic.

Hold a discussion in writing about coping strategies to prepare your pupils for reading Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True Story About Brain Science by John Fleischman. After journaling, pupils come up in an organized fashion and write...

How can you determine the maximum speed of a sailboat? A sailing presentation included with a straightforward lesson plan prompts learners to calculate the maximum speed of a sailboat with a displacement hull. The...

How high can your pupils jump? Learners design an experiment to answer this question. After collecting the data, they create box plots and scatter plots to analyze the data. To finish the lesson, they use the data to draw conclusions.

"Clean the data!" "I did not know it was dirty." Introduce your class to the process of cleaning data so that it can analyze it. Groups work through a guide that demonstrates the common ways to filter and sort data. Pairs then...

Students review techniques on how to read a passage smoothly making the words connect, and with expression. They then read the instruction to the chapter in their science book and answer questions that are written on the board. They...

Students observe and demonstrate the process of summarizing text. They read and discuss the steps to summarize text, then in small groups read and summarize an article about frogs from "National Geographic" online. Independently they...

Students observe and demonstrate three steps to summarize text. They read and discuss the three steps to summarizing, then silently read an article about dugongs from "National Geographic Kids" magazine. Students demonstrate the three...

Emerging readers summarize a nonfiction text using a five step process. After a brief demonstration of the five-step method for summarizing text, they read a nonfiction article and write their own summary. A checklist of each summary is...

When scholars re-tell a story, do they boil it down to important details in a logical order? Practice summarizing narratives using this think-aloud strategy, which is scripted here for your convenience. After explaining why this is an...

How do you summarize data that cannot be averaged? Using an exploratory method, learners complete a two-way frequency table on super powers. The subject matter builds upon 8th grade knowledge of two-way tables. 

Use this poetry analysis worksheet to help your learners understand a poem of their or your choosing. This resource asks class members to summarize the poem and analyze it by looking at voice, word choice, imagery, and theme. The...