You can't go wrong with Star Wars! A video set to the Star Wars theme song presents a problem solving situation. The task? Determine how many small Post-It notes will fit on a bulletin board. The problem requires individuals to compare...

Silly journal and essay prompts may be fun to write, but they don't model the kind of writing needed for college papers and standardized tests. The 15th part in a series of 24 covers the concept of reading to write—during and after...

Learn the stories a formula holds. An interesting lesson takes a unique approach to teach how to use formulas. Beginning with a formula, learners predict what the variables stand for and then use the formula to make calculations and tell...

People may not be able to jump over the moon, but scientists can still study it! The moon is covered with mons (mountains) and mars (seas). Aspiring astrologists learn about the moon's features and phases in a PowerPoint presentation. In...

Understanding different verb tenses begins with knowing how to decode words. A lesson on the -ed suffix with unchanging base words introduces readers to the past tense. Teachers present the skill with oral reading and spelling...

After reviewing notes from the previous lessons, small groups obtain a scenario card that describes a situation in which bullying is happening. Peers discuss the event and brainstorm two solutions using the STAR method then present their...

After completing an online activity about the Mayflower, scholars draw a picture about what they know of the Thanksgiving holiday, including a one-sentence summary. A reading of If You Were at the First Thanksgiving by Anne Kamma is...

More practice makes perfect. A review packet helps pupils remind themselves of the content of the unit. They determine whether points are solutions to linear equations, graph systems of equations and inequalities, and solve systems of...

The right to vote was hard-won after decades of organizing by women and their allies. Using a series of video clips featuring women's historians, class members consider the efforts behind the Nineteenth Amendment. Possible extension...

Challenges to voting rights is not a new thing. Using President Lyndon B. Johnson's 1965 "The American Promise" speech on voting rights as a starting point, young historians research current voting rights laws and challenges.

Build a strong classroom community with a closing routine that asks each participant to share something they appreciate about their classmate(s), issue an apology if they may have hurt someone's feelings or an "aha" moment when they...

In many places in the world, people go to great lengths to get books to read. This beginning-of-the-year activity uses pictures of people reading in extraordinary situations to stimulate effective listening and speaking using the...

Your class continues to explore the history of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In addition to learning about the background of this text, learners work on the skill of identifying and understanding key academic vocabulary....

Lesson 10 in a series of human rights lessons focuses on the skills of finding evidence and summarizing. Your young readers work to compare the two texts they have read in this unit: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights...

Delve into Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan with close reading and evidence-based, text-dependent questions. Part of a unit series, this well-sequenced, Common Core designed instructional activity draws on material from the...

Explore multiple perspectives through a jigsaw activity that will improve your pupils' understanding of the characters in Esperanza Rising as well as their understanding of strikes and human rights. Tapping into prior knowledge, and...

Come up with a list of requirements for this expository essay on Esperanza's character in Esperanza Rising as a class and use the list to guide class writing. Here, learners will complete the first paragraph, discuss their notes for the...

Pupils take part in a close reading of the poem, If by Rudyard Kipling, in which they delve deep into its meaning and identify its rules to live by. As the grand discussion progresses, learners then relate the poem's rules with those...

Listen to the low, stifled sound that arises from the souls of your ninth graders when overcharged with awe. Inspire them with a captivating instructional activity about "The Tell-Tale Heart." Learners analyze how Poe uses the story...

Build a solid understanding of trigonometric transformations through exploration. Learners work in teams to analyze the effects of different algebraic components on the graph of a sine function. 

How do film adaptations differ from their literary counterparts? Scholars watch and analyze the 2011 Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) production of Shakespeare's Macbeth. Pupils complete a Quick Write analyzing how the RSC production...

How do writers use evidence from literary texts to support analysis and reflection? With instructional activity 17 of 20 from the Grade 8 ELA Module 1, Unit 2 series, learners gather resources to prepare for an end-of-unit assessment....

Music has the power to bring topics alive. Learners take on the role of sound director in their film planning and choose the songs to accompany their photographs. They must also support their decisions with evidence and reasoning as they...

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,...