A study of Jan Felipe Herrera's poem "Every Day We Get More Illegal" opens the door for a discussion on immigration. To begin, class members examine the photograph "Desert Survival," record their observations of the image, and then...

Black berets, black leather jackets, raised black fists, chants of "Power to the People!" These are the images that many associate with the Black Panther Party. Often forgotten are the programs the party created during the Civil Rights...

Young scholars are asked to reflect on how personal experiences might influence points of view and perspectives. They read poems and biographies of the poets and then match the poem to the poet. To justify their matches, learners...

Isn't paper pushing supposed to be boring? Learners attempt a paper-pushing puzzle to develop ideas about angles inscribed on a diameter of a circle. Learners then formalize Thales' theorem and use geometric properties to develop a proof...

There is a reason why an Oscar is given each year for the Best Adaptation Screenplay. Adaptations are the focus of an exercise that asks class members to compare a work of literature with a least one adaptation of the work into a...

Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Rappaccini's Daughter" provides the text for an activity that asks readers to select specific passages from the story, identify the aspect of American Romanticism the passage exemplifies, and then provide an...

While the Spanish claimed to bring civilization to California indigenous peoples, in reality, they also brought violence and forced assimilation to European values. Primary sources, such as the reports of Catholic priests and Europeans...

Get your young scientists excited about geology through the study of dinosaur tracks! They will use their power of observation to learn how tracks are made and use critical thinking strategies to suggest a scenario in which they were...

Helpful for any reading comprehension lesson, this worksheet focuses on Victor Martinez's Parrot in the Oven. It contains three levels of questions: Right There (comprehension-level questions), Think and Search (questions you need...

Your class will learn what it means to take a random sample of a population and to draw inferences from the information gained. In part a, of the exercise, you discuss with your class how students during a class election can be best...

"X" is for exaggeration, and "F" is for fact. To encourage close reading and to improve literary analysis skills, class members annotate fables and tall tales, like Paul Bunyan, with symbols that identify key features of this genre.

Young scholars explore the concept of probability. In this probability lesson plan, students use random number generators to determine probabilities of events. Young scholars discuss if certain probable events are fair. Students...

For this lesson, you will need access to "Notes from the Trail." Your learners will read the day's text, and identify the most important or significant event in the journal entry. Not many prompting questions are provided, and some of...

Identify literary elements in fiction. In this reading comprehension lesson plan, learners read the book Pigsty and record literary elements onto a graphic organizer. They specifically discuss the main characters and events in the text.

Students examine the case of a map making expedition. In groups, they read a case study on "The Lost Gorge" in the Finger Lakes region of New York state. They examine maps and determine where the error in the map-making occured to end...

Seventh graders explore the Latino Civil Rights Movement. In this civil rights lesson plan, 7th graders discover the role of the League of United Latin Citizens (LULAC) as well as the women's arm of the organization and write essays that...

Students perform operations with matrices. In this algebra lesson, students use cryptography and cryptanalysis to solve problems. They add, subtract, and multiply matrices.

How can you see a number in nature? Here, learners discover both Fibonacci numbers and the golden ratio by exploring a number of different resources.  Note: Some of the resources are older and may be missing some of the links, but...

Students explore women’s history. In this women’s studies lesson, students will examine seven photographs that depict prominent female figures from Texas’s history. Students will engage in a discussion of the photographs as a mode of...

Note taking is an invaluable skill and requires practice. This lesson incorporates the Cornell Notes format, however the plan itself could be implemented to teach any style. The basic idea here is to use university lectures on podcasts...

Primary source research, secondary source readings, and discussion provide the understanding necessary for students to create a colonial persona, and simulate a situation appropriate for this person, time, and place. While the lesson...

Do you know how the population has grown of your community? Can you predict the population over the next half century? Can we find an algebraic model that matches our data? These along with many more questions can be researched by...

A simple, yet poignant lesson gets teens reading ads for clinical trials and discussing the requirements for participation. At home, they peruse the newspaper to find current examples of similar advertisements. The purpose of this lesson...

Fifth graders perform experiments to determine the identity of an unknown gas sample. In this chemistry lesson, 5th graders fill balloons with air, oxygen, hydrogen, and carbon dioxide. They use mass and reactivity to identify the gases.