Put yourself in my shoes! Scholars work through the Outline Tool from the previous lesson to develop a claim before developing a counterclaim about selling human tissue. Learners also create supporting claims using an outline tool. For...

What impact does word choice have on character development? Using the resource, scholars read Act 3.1 from Shakespeare's Hamlet, focusing on the development of Ophelia's character. They also complete a Quick Write to analyze the meaning...

Can you be a leader without learning first? Scholars learn about leadership with a series of six lessons. Using the teen leadership activities, pupils create posters and participate in a fun game to guess the identity of celebrity...

Use right triangles for more than just mathematical problems. The first two lessons of a unit ask pupils determine distances between cities by using the Pythagorean Theorem and a map. To cement understanding, learners use trigonometric...

Turn a learning experience into a fun activity. Future engineers create blades for a wind turbine using card stock. Using a fan, they test how well the blades help the wind turbine turn. The goal is to build blades that are effective...

Finding the central idea in a text is equally important in fiction and nonfiction. Work on analyzing a piece of writing for the central idea with Karen Russell's "St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves," complete with supporting...

Wrap up your literary analysis unit with a discussion activity as tenth graders prepare for an end-of-unit assessment. After they have read and annotated Christopher Marlowe's "The Passionate Shepard to His Love," Sir Walter Raleigh's...

Class members continue their discussion of David Mitchell's Black Swan Green, focusing on how the author uses the conversation between Jason and Madame Crommelynck to refine his central idea of the meaning of beauty.

As a mid-unit assessment of a series of lessons that use Ethan Canin’s short story “The Palace Thief” as an anchor text, writers craft an in-class essay discussing how Hundert's character has developed throughout the text.

Can a life gone wrong be blamed on a single childhood incident? Hundert, the narrator of "The Palace Thief," and readers struggle with this question as they ponder events in Ethan Canin's story.

Why is Romeo and Juliet considered a tragedy? Class members conclude their reading of the play, focusing on the final lines of Act 5, scene 3. They also consider how Shakespeare structures the text, orders events, and manipulates time to...

Make up your mind to complete a lesson plan about "The Tell-Tale Heart" and forever rid yourself of simple sentence structures. As ninth graders analyze the first two paragraphs of Edgar Allan Poe's short story, they consider how text...

An engaging unit connects Edgar Allan Poe and Emily Dickinson's shared themes of madness and departure from reality. The 10th lesson in the unit explores Dickinson's figurative language and structure choices in "I Felt a Funeral, in my...

Listen to the low, stifled sound that arises from the souls of your ninth graders when overcharged with awe. Inspire them with a captivating instructional activity about "The Tell-Tale Heart." Learners analyze how Poe uses the story...

The concept of sight, whether it's a lack of sight or abundant sight of the future, plays a vital role in Sophocle's Oedipus the King. Develop your ninth graders' literary vision with a activity that connects the prophecy of Teiresias to...

The battle of wits and wisdom rages in Sophocles' Oedipus the King, particularly in Oedipus' discussion with Teiresias about the Sphinx's riddle. Ninth graders focus on this crucial conversation with a literary analysis instructional...

Class members read the chapter, "Serfs and Sweetness" from Sugar Changed the World, and identify the central idea that the development of beet sugar and modern farming technology changed the reliance on the plantation system and made...

As first-year students continue to investigate how sugar changed the world, the focus shifts to a consideration of why people with limited job options take on dangerous or subjugating work. Class members read an opinion piece by Nicholas...

"No flies fly into a closed mouth." Pupils consider the proverb's meaning as they read paragraphs 20–22 from the essay "A Genetics of Justice" by Julia Alvarez. They also engage in small-group discussions about how the author refines her...

Can you please clarify? Scholars continue to work on their argumentative essays about selling human tissue by clarifying and adding cohesion. Writers begin by looking at model paragraphs and then begin improving their writing. They...

Hamlet has an unusual take on the criminal justice system when he decides to determine his uncle's guilt by staging a play. With the resource, scholars continue analyzing Hamlet's third soliloquy from Act 2.2 of Shakespeare's Hamlet....

Read about Daniel Boone and his early years in a new land in Yadkin County, North Carolina. After reading, pupils respond to four comprehension questions that address the how and the why. 

Make your unit on magnetism a force to be reckoned with! Physical science scholars examine the direction of force on charged objects through a simple interactive. Pupils control the charge of the stationary object, then observe how it...

Scholars ponder the beliefs of Confucianism. After reading several sayings made by Confucius, participants complete a chart filling in what each saying means using their own words. Using the same quotes split in half, pairs match...