What kinds of media do your pupils use to read and publish information? After a discussion about what publishing means, and about the freedom of the press, class members interview one or two other people about their publishing habits....

Review concepts and terms after reading Running Out of Time. Learners each come up with a few terms that they think are important and then participate in a list-group-label exercise, paying close attention to the two main years featured...

What's the difference between summarizing and paraphrasing? Show class members how to find the main ideas from informational text and condense it, restate it, or quote it directly with a series of educational activities based...

Readers of Tunes for Bears to Dance to are asked to write a personal letter to Henry, the main character in Robert Cormier's young adult novel, offering Henry advice about whether he should do as Mr. Hairston wants.

Here, young historians compare their early lives to that of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s. They listen to a read aloud of a story by Dr. King's sister, and then write in the provided reflective journal template. Lastly, they share their...

Planning activities for Autism Awareness Month? Check out the ideas in a packet designed to raise awareness of autism. Suggestions include plans for an assembly to launch a school-wide focus, lesson plans for classroom activities,...

There must be a catch! A comprehensive lesson looks at ocean fishing concerns through a set of five hands-on activities. Learners become aware of the risks of seafood contamination and factors that have affected the ocean environment.

Is it a calendar? A religious symbol? A political statement? One thing for certain is that Aztec sun stone designs remain an important symbol in Mexican cultural art. Young artists craft their own Aztec Sun design incorporating ideas...

Just like you choose your clothes to ensure they fit the occasion, you should choose your words deliberately while writing. Style, the main topic of one handout in a series on writing skills, involves choosing words carefully and paying...

A great actor has the ability to make or break a play. A series of lesson plans related to William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar looks closely at the choices actors make during a production of the play to help provide insight into the...

While Alexis de Tocqueville mourned a lack of "freedom of discussion" in America in the early republic, today's pupils are concerned about peer pressure. Using excerpts of de Tocqueville's writing and discussion questions, scholars...

What evidence supports the big bang theory? Individuals analyze scholarly resources about the the theory and develop arguments backed by evidence. They brainstorm, share ideas, watch a video, and read articles to complete a graphic...

Set up your class to read Esperanza Rising, by Pam Muñoz Ryan, through a class read-aloud and exploration of the setting. The detailed instructional activity outlines each step. First, class members read over the first few pages and...

What was life like in colonial America? Follow this lesson and your pupils will find out what people in colonial times did for work and for fun. Ask learners to compare and contrast the two texts and explain what the reading helped them...

Stick it to them! Scholars work to write the gist of sections of text on sticky notes and place them in chapter three of The Lightning Thief. They then share what they wrote with classmates in their triad. The group reads selections of...

Students participate in class discussion to investigate how media affects the ideas of Americans (specifically in politics) and then research events in political history to analyze how the media may have influenced the government's...

Not by the hair on my chinny chin chin! Upper graders and middle schoolers read the story The Three Little Pigs and other tales related to the story from various points of view. They use the Internet to find more stories...

Students investigate how successful they were in obtaining their goals in the Revolutionary War. The peace feelers of 1775 are examined and the reasons for the British rejection of them explored. the main provisions of the Treaty of...

Learn about the two main components of good communication - being assertive and active listening - as well as passive, aggressive, and manipulative communication. There are skits to read out loud as well as scenarios to practice with a...

If you're teaching your class about the cycle of life and want to include a poetry element, consider this exercise. It provides a link to a Found Poem (a poem created from others' words, but an original idea) that includes words...

Use this communication skills lesson to emphasize evaluating a speaker's main point and argument. After reading Martin Luther King's, "I Have a Dream Speech" and John F. Kennedy's speech, "I Believe in an America Where the Separation of...

Such a creative game idea, this activity might actually make grammar fun! Learners play a modified game of connect-four by identifying the grammatical name for different words and phrases and then working them into simple sentences to...

Whether it's dark, delightful, or somber, set the mood with William Golding's Lord of the Flies. High-schoolers practice descriptive writing by creating the appropriate mood for an original scene, starring one of the book's main...

There are three parts to this instructional activity on integers. In the first, learners explore positive and negative numbers on an actual painter's tape number line and by playing a "Hot Seat" game. In part two, they view a BrainPop...