Only a thorough understanding of history can save us from repeating it. Practice close reading skills with an eighth grade unit that focuses on 19th century America, including European immigration into Ellis Island and Frederick...

Students construct an insect model. In this "insects" science and art lesson, students complete a KWL chart about 'insects," then view several interactive websites to become familiar with insect traits. Students construct an insect model...

Show what you know about social media! The 16th and final lesson in The Social Media Toolbox gives pupils the opportunity to share their social media experiences with their school communities. Groups identify the most important messages,...

Scholars investigate news literacy in the twenty-first century. They use technology, legal decisions, writings, and digital privacy to analyze the topic. Using what they learned, a group assignment looks into both the challenges and...

Pupils work in small groups to collaboratively write a concluding paragraph for their opinion letters about Jackie Robinson's legacy. Then, scholars share their opinion, reasons, and evidence with a classmate. 

I Have A Dream ... that after the lesson, all individuals master the reading, writing, researching, listening, and speaking skills the biography project helps them develop. Martin Luther King, Jr. serves as a topic example for a model...

Would your ideal science lab be filled with bubbling beakers and zapping Tesla coils? Or would it contain state-of-the-art computer technology and data analysis? Dream big with an innovative lesson that connects math and language...

Here's a great comprehension worksheet that models for young readers how to focus on short sections of a complicated text and then to create a summary of the entire document based on their understanding of the sections.

After viewing and analyzing documentaries and working in groups to storyboard and prepare, your class should now be ready for the production stage of the documentary process. The eighth lesson in the series, this plan provides...

Encourage class members to become engaged citizens by researching an issue they are passionate about and then producing a video to present to policymakers, the public, and their peers. Everything needed for the unit is contained in...

Ready, set, write! Scholars work on the end-of-unit assessment by completing a writing prompt. They then look at the model performance task from instructional activity two to create a rubric for scoring the exercise. Using turn and talk,...

Could you live without your phone? What about cars, steel, or clothing? Class groups collaborate to produce presentations that argue that either the telephone, the gramophone, the automobile, the textile industry, or the steel...

When you're putting together a great story, you've got to consider the source! Scholars discover the dangers of errors in reporting during the 14th activity in a 16-part Social Media Toolbox series. Groups collaborate to create a source...

Credible leaders should be able to articulate who they are, what they believe, and what they stand for. This activities in this resource are designed to help future leaders develop their personal credo by responding to the prompts on the...

When you think of one topic, related ideas and details invariably follow. That's concept mapping! Jot down ideas with a straightforward graphic organizer that works both electronically and as a printed resource.

Thinking about designing a project for your social studies or environmental science classes? Use an overview of a project that prompts class groups to research an environmental issue.

After reading Elvira Woodruff's George Washington's Socks, young readers and writers embark upon writing their own historically based story, with a focus on developing ideas and details throughout the piece. In small groups, class...

Scholars examine the techniques content creators use to boost their search rankings. After watching a short "Search Boosters" video, groups select a story from the "News or Noise? Media Map" and analyze the devices used in the story. The...

Third graders discover architecture and functionality by constructing a bridge.  In this bridge engineering lesson plan, 3rd graders utilize cardboard, straws, towel tubes and plastic bottles to create a model bridge similar to ones...

In the tenth instructional activity of this unit, young scholars learn to categorize information as they continue researching their colonial trade. During guided practice, the teacher models how to read informational text slowly while...

Fourth graders view examples of help-wanted ads as they plan and create their own writing in the fourteenth instructional activity of this unit on colonial trade. The engagement of the class is captured when the teacher shares an actual...

In instructional activity 13 of this unit on colonial trade, young researchers learn about apprentices as they prepare to write help-wanted ads for the specific trade they have been researching. To begin, the class listens closely as the...

Have your young readers practice phonetic analysis skills with onsets and rhymes. Groups of young scholars create animations in PowerPoint to demonstrate combining beginning letters with rhyme patterns.