Introduce your class to one of the most famous artists of the twentieth century. After reading a brief biography of Pablo Picasso, pupils create their own collages on the next page on the theme of music.

Did you know dogs had an important job on September 11th, the day airplanes took down the World Trade Center? Learn more about the furry heroes with a three-page informational read designed to aid pupils in answering 10...

Get to the know the common house mouse and the Norway rat with an activity that reinforces reading comprehension skills. Scholars read a three-page document detailing key information about mammals, specifically rodents, and use their...

Can't travel to Richmond for your Civil War unit? This plan creates an authentic experience, using primary sources and the essential question: Over What Was the Civil War Fought? Historians examine the Appomattox Marker, the site of Gen....

President Lincoln believed in the Thirteenth Amendment so strongly that he signed 14 copies of it, but died before he could see it passed on December 18, 1965. Explore the text that forever abolished slavery in America with a document...

Who built the Transcontinental Railroad and why was it important? Your class can learn about the laying down of these tracks by reading a short passage. Pupils then respond to five questions related to the text.

What will happen in Hatchet by Gary Paulsen? Kids read a series of possible events that will occur in the novel and mark whether they agree or disagree with the probability of each event happening.

Reinforce reading comprehension skills with a two-page worksheet offering a story about a young girl, her dog, and an important life lesson. Scholars read the text then show what they know through four short-answer questions. 

Practice language convention usage with this brief proofreading exercise. Together your class can verbally correct grammatical mistakes in a short paragraph about Ida B. Wells. Then individual learners can rewrite it or mark the hard...

After reading about a book that leads two friends on a treasure hunt, class members respond to four short answer reading comprehension questions. Skills include describing the characters, retelling the story in their own words, writing...

Practice with paragraphs while thinking about careers! Learners examine and discuss two sample paragraphs, marking the different elements (topic sentences, body, concluding sentences), and try out writing their own paragraphs. Focusing...

Strong writers support their points with direct evidence and details. A series of free-response questions from the 2011 AP® English Language and Composition exam require the use of details to obtain a good score. The first prompt...

The big idea in this poetry unit plan is that structure and content work together to create meaning. Class members learn how to identify and mark the metrical patterns and line lengths used in poems. They study the structure of various...

Scholars read newspaper articles relating to a longer school day and complete note-taking organizers as they read. They then form opinions and complete outlines before writing essays supporting their point of view. 

Want to explore the process of writing a persuasive essay and tie it in with the upcoming elections? Class members use Venn diagrams and the hamburger model of persuasive writing to write a five-paragraph essay on elections and...

Over four weeks, third graders participate in lessons that boost spelling, grammar, reading, and writing skills. Scholars explore spelling patterns, suffixes, singular and plural possessive nouns, quotations, and conjunctions....

Ta DUM, ta DUM, ta DUM, ta DUM, ta DUM. The force will be strong in the hearts of your young Jedi as they use their lightsabers to strike the accentted syllables in lines from Ian Doescher's William Shakespeare's Star Wars: Verily, A New...

Launch a study of Maya Angelou's "I know Why the Caged Bird Sings" with the Youtube video of Alicia Keys singing her "Caged Bird." Groups then read Angelou's poem and discuss the symbols employed. Although the text of the poem is not...

Students consider indicators that mark a country's progress, examine how last year's State of the Union address has affected U.S. foreign policy, research issues deemed important in that speech, and create report cards assessing the...

Here is a quick activity that could help your kids with their reading comprehension. They practice a classic strategy that gets them to start asking questions about what they are reading, while they are reading it. They write out...

Gradually build understanding of author's point of view through a scaffolded set of exercises. Moving from direct instruction, to collaborative work, and eventually to independent practice, these steps will assist your class in...

The activity focuses on reading chunked text. Peers grouped by specific ability levels take turns reading a text with proper intonation, expression, and phrasing.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail" serves as an exemplar for a mini-lesson on semicolons. Working alone or in small groups, class members first circle all the semicolons in the letter, and then consider how this...

"First Appearance," Mark Twain's tale about overcoming stage fright, serves as a model of a personal narrative and gets young writers thinking about milestones in their own lives. After examining student models and considering the...