Here's the teacher guide to a unit on family and family vocabulary. Sift through the ideas (a pre-test, lesson plan activity, and closing activity are all included), and include them in your own unit. Since visual connections are a great...

“Anyone who thinks small towns are friendlier than big cities lives in a big city.” Mary Alice, the fifteen-year-old narrator of A Year Down Yonder, is forced to leave Chicago and spend a year with her Grandma Dowdel in a small rural...

An activity based on the young adult novel Flipped, groups work to make the same difficult decision a character in the novel faces. Each group is given the same scenario about caring for a mentally disabled brother personally...

Improve the reading ability of your intermediate and advanced Spanish speakers. As they read, they record 10 words they deem important to the text. Then, they summarize the main points, and finally they write an entire paragraph...

Is Phoebe a good friend to Sal or not? After reading chapters twenty-five and twenty-six of Walk Two Moons, class members use the provided graphic organizer to develop an argumentative piece. Writers must decide if the two...

The world is a big and beautiful place; but how do you begin to understand it when you have low vision? Here is a great set of ideas focused on transforming any small room into a sensory paradise, themed to incite understanding about...

Art, music, poetry, and the beauty of the seasons is what you'll find in this very nice unit idea. You can use any of the suggested books and activities to engage your second graders in an exploration of the changes that take place...

This resource provides two ways to engage learners in using latitude, longitude, and research skills. In pairs, or on their own, learners will locate several Antarctic regions on a map. They will write the name of the place and a few key...

Dive your class into a reading of Island of the Blue Dolphins with this in-depth study guide. Breaking the novel into three parts, the resource begins each section with a focus activity that identifies a specific theme or question...

Learners take a closer look at one journalist's work on UN Peacebuilding efforts in four African nations: Sierra Leone, Burundi, Central African Republic, and Guinea Bissau. They collaborate to define peacebuilding and discuss...

Scanning a text before getting started is a reading strategy that your pupils can use to get a general idea about a text before diving in. Give some direction to their scanning with a worksheet that includes items to check for and space...

Emphasize the importance of today with a brightly colored classroom poster. Kids can use the message to move away from their past and focus on what they can do today. The resource main page includes activities for quote books and other...

After reading a short article about taiga ecosystems, middle schoolers are asked to identify the characteristics of this chilly environment.

Designed as a resource for teachers who use Man's Search for Meaning, this seven-page packet includes a list of related informational texts, research issues and project ideas, central questions, background information on World...

Investigating the large numbers of science is the task in a simple but deep activity. Given a one-sentence problem set-up and some basic assumptions, the class sets off on an open-ended investigation that really gives some...

Ask learners to focus on one scene in Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer in order to write an analytical essay about Twain's ideas surrounding childhood. The final assignment in a unit, this writing prompt requires learners...

Designed for teachers, this resource provides an overview of Pearl S. Buck's Pulitzer Prize winning novel, The Good Earth. Information about the organizational pattern of the story, issues and themes addressed, historical background on...

Considering using Nancy Taylor's award-winning science fiction novel The House of the Scorpion as an option for book circles or as a whole-class reading? Check out this packet that includes background information, information about the...

Encourage your young citizens to make a difference. Using Tyson Miller's Dream of a Nation: Inspiring Ideas for a Better America as a starting point, class members watch documentaries, investigate issues, and then write letters to...

Read about the ways that different cultures set up homes with a set of reading activities. Learners read short paragraphs that cover one or more different ideas, and answer four questions about what they have read, including whether or...

Imagine drawing with zeros and ones. The third activity in a unit of 15 introduces the class to creating black and white images. Pairs get together to create an encoding scheme in order to make these images. They move on to a...

Using correct grammar is a capital idea! Elementary readers review the rules of capitalization, including proper nouns, abbreviations of organizations, and holidays, before correcting the errors in two sets of sentences.  

Begin a unit on weather and climate change by assessing prior knowledge of the topic. Learners respond to a survey with questions that ask what they think causes climate change, the effects of climate change, and if it is important...