Invite your young writers to take the reins with writing dialogue. Using two characters of their own creation, kids work with partners and then individually to write short conversations.

Instill the positive study habit of reflecting on learning by reading this passage with your class. The passage describes how reflection can be a powerful learning tool, and how learners can start reflecting. After reading, class...

A fun and delicious lesson can help your kids learn about plural nouns and story sequencing. After reading The Magic Apple by Rob Cleveland, kids match pictures to story segments and add s to nouns to make them plural....

Walk your pupils through the beginning of My Antonia by Willa Cather with a read-aloud-style activity. The goal is to make predictions and back them up with textual evidence.

Focus on synonyms, antonyms, and context clues with a vocabulary instructional activity. Kids study ten words and match them to their definitions before putting the words in context.

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs provides the lens class members use to analyze and evaluate the motivations of the characters in Sylvia Plath's "Initiation" and scenes from Mean Girls. Readers then select a character from A...

What are the effects of competition in an academic environment? The competition between the main characters in A Separate Peace motivates a series of activities that asks readers to take a stance on competition, and then to develop a...

Not all sources are created equal, so how do you evaluate them? Writers learn how to evaluate print sources based on elements such as audience, tone, and argument in the sixth handout of 24 in the Writing the Paper series from the...

Readers' theater is a fun way to get kids reading with expression and improve their fluency! There is a full script here for The Three Bears with five characters to assign.

Get all your blends organized into neat little boxes! This resource provides pages and pages of words that you can print out and place into labeled boxes so that you can find the exact words you want to work on with your class...

The world may indeed be a stage, and players certainly need to know drama vocabulary. This list of 16 terms (and their definitions) often found in scripts will prompt actors to perform their role.

Intended to help Virginia teachers align their curriculum to the state's history and social science standards, this packet provides a wealth of materials for any social studies or science instructor. Loaded with plans,...

A solid, straightforward book report form is an excellent addition to your literature unit. Class members note the main characters, point of view, plot elements, and other important details from a story, adding their favorite part...

Eighth graders take a stand on a variety of controversial topics with a lesson on argumentative writing. As they view an informative presentation and work with collaborative groups, they decide which side of each argument they want to...

How was Edgar Allan Poe able to create "intriguing, memorable, and lasting literature"? To answer this question, learners analyze the syntax, diction, and characterizations in Poe's poems and short stories and compare the impact of these...

President Ronald Reagan's "Tear Down This Wall" speech, delivered on June 12, 1987 before the Berlin Wall, provides class members with an opportunity to examine three key aspects of informational text: author bias, the use of facts and...

As part of a close reading activity, individuals respond to three questions and craft two short essays based on a passage about Islam, one of the world most widespread religion.

How can visual aids enhance understanding of a complex topic? With the third of four lessons from the Introduction to the Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) set, scholars view illustrations online from the book We Are All Born Free and...

Do your young authors suffer from writer's block when they try to write short stories? Access their natural creativity with C-Gor, the writing monster! The instructional activity takes aspiring authors through a new writing process...

Young scientists are introduced to the connections among cells, tissues, organs, and systems in a life science reading comprehension worksheet that asks them to respond to a series of questions based on the passage.

Help middle and high school readers access the text with a series of question-answer relationship (QAR) strategies. Using Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice as an example, the resource prompts learners to ask and answer questions using...

Challenge your class to hold a discussion about the theme of death in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead without direct teacher guidance. After going over the discussion protocols and quotes from the text, learners move in a circle...

Using methods adopted by Public Policy Analysts (PPA) class groups define a social problem, gather evidence to document the existence of the problem, identify causes, evaluate existing policies designed to deal with the problem, develop...

If you need a lesson for your poetry unit, use two poems by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ("Rain in Summer" and "The Slave in the Dismal Swamp") and a resource on Elements of Poetry. The lesson plan guides you through activities...