Students explore business practices by creating a portfolio in class. For this business writing lesson, students identify the causes for a businesses success and failure before deciding on a business they would like to create. Students...

What a great instructional activity, upper graders are sure to love. They explore costume design and the relationships between theatre, culture, and history. They research three time periods, write a response about two of them, then...

Here is an authentic assessment task for Shakespeare's Macbeth. Young literature scholars prepare, perform, and record a news broadcast about the major events in the play. For example, groups may choose to report on the death of Lady...

Trios write, design, and produce cookbooks. In a truly collaborative project, they choose what content to include, contribute recipes, and decide on formatting. Then, they reformat all recipes to ensure consistent style, publish the...

A carefully crafted three-day lesson integrates poetry and visual art. By analyzing and comparing Langston Hughes' poem "Mother and Son" and Romare Bearden's collage "The Dove," readers explore the theme of hope. The lesson activates...

Young scholars examine the use of technical and special effects in TV and film. In this technical effects lesson students review scenes containing special and technical effects then work in groups to apply the effects to different...

Students assess the impact of music to portray emotions and tell stories. Examples are taken from the life of Rosa Parks and a piece of band music called "A Movement for Rosa". Evaluation is accomplished through in-class participation...

Students investigate the lives of pets by videotaping them.  For this animal life lesson, students videotape a cat and other pets using school cameras in a computer lab.  Students review the footage from the cat and other...

Introduce young actors to the meanings of basic drama literary, technical and performance elements with this colorful presentation.

Students research living organisms by exploring their school grounds. In this microscopic observation lesson plan, students gather materials, insects, and objects from their playground and schoolyard and bring them into class. Students...

Plot, setting, characters, and conflict are common to both drama and narrative stories. Kids create narrated tableaus that show their understanding of the plot, setting, and conflict of a story they've recently read. The lesson...

There are so many different ways to help learners make text-to-self connections. Here, fifth graders will create tableaus that show an event from a chapter in the class reader. They'll discuss why they chose that event to dramatize and...

Students collaborate to create a children's book. In this visual arts lesson plan, student study the components and procedures that go into making a children's book including the shape, size. layout, biographical information about the...

Explore American Federal design as it pertains to furniture, architecture, and influences on modern style. By the end of this lesson, learners should be able to recognize Federal design, its place in history, and how it has influenced...

Fourth graders work in groups; collect data in a survey; depict in tables, charts, or graphs the results of the survey; and make predictions. They use creative writing skills and computer skills to generate a greeting card of their own.

Students research English/Shakespearean and Italian/Petrarchan sonnet forms. They write an original sonnet on their preferred form (English or Italian), write the poem on the wordprocessor and publish and post it on the net at the Sonnet...

Students create original costumes and make-up for a puppet presentation of a scene from Shakespeare in this week long creative project. Performances of the Shakespeare scenes end this lesson geared towards state and national standards...

Students identify the elements and principles that appear in an illustration of a room and explain each concept in writing. They watch this movie identifying each of the elements and principles of design portrayed in the interiors of...

Young scholars create an animation flip book. For this flip book lesson plan, students examine past animation, forces and motion, and visual arts by creating an animation flip book. Enrichment extension activities are included.

Students explore songs that tell stories over various decades and create a Garage band track for their voice.  In this story song lesson plan, students create a video for their song group.  Students present a proposal to their...

Pupils listen to a play, or perhaps, take turns reading portions of it aloud. Afterward, they thoughtfully analyze and discuss the components of a well-written play. Next, a theme is assigned, and each person writes a play in conjunction...

Third graders read poetry inspired by nature. They talk a walk in nature or in their neighborhood with paper and pen and write down feelings and perceptions. They write a poem about their walk and share it with the class.

Students create an original Cinquain (five-line poem) and choreograph movement to their poem, performing movement for class and video. This lesson addresses standards in the arts and requires a video recorder.

Fifth graders recreate Mesoamerican Codex Books using brown paper bags, paints, glue, an iron, and books on Mesoamerican Glyphs in this 5th grade lesson in the Art classroom. Resource links and book references are provided for lesson...