Engage further in Esperanza Rising with a focus on close reading and metaphor. Class members zero in on the tenth chapter, examining characters and big ideas. Pupils discuss the text in small groups and as a whole class, and...

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...

Determining a theme or central idea is greatly emphasized in the Common Core standards. Target that skill though big metaphors and central symbols in Pam Muñoz Ryan's Esperanza Rising. Help your class reach the standard through...

Close the unit on Esperanza Rising with an in-class analytic essay on how Esperanza changes over the course of the novel. Writers can use any of their notes and work from the unit as well as their drafts of the first two paragraphs of...

Plant respiration can be a difficult concept for young biologists to grasp; with a hands-on lab, learners can collect and graph data, then calculate the metabolism rate for the plants they studied. If you do not have a respirometer,...

Round and round and round she goes. Where she stops, nobody knows. This activity uses a common arcade game of chance, the spinning wheel, as a platform for computing expected values, interpreting results, and applying this knowledge to...

Growing writers explore what it takes to develop and support a thesis statement with pre-fabricated ideas provided by the Virginia Department of Education. Learners take notes on what makes a thesis statement and a topic sentence, and...

Allow your class to figure out what they will be studying through an inquiry-based anticipatory set that involves analysis of mystery documents and practice with making inferences. The lesson plan document includes a detailed description...

Study allusions with a research and presentation project. Pupils are assigned a specific allusion, the phoenix for example. They research the origins, compose a summary, explain the concept, and explore this allusion within various...

To memorize, or not to memorize: that is the question. Whether 'tis nobler to suffer the fear and anguish of committing a poem to memory, to endure the heartache, to shuffle off this fear, and face the stares of classmates with the hue...

Build understanding of theme with an activity designed for The Cay and the Common Core. Small groups or pairs use graphic organizers to determine themes, find and record related details from the text, and formulate theme statements. In...

If you're looking to set your class up for writing effective arguments, try out this idea. While originally created with freedom as a guiding idea, the activity could easily be adapted for other themes. As a class, create a chart of...

Starting off with examples and explanations of English subjects and pronouns, this resource explores Spanish subject pronouns in great detail. Each subject pronoun is described and paired with examples. Additionally, the material...

Young geographers choose a country to research and design a book explaining how their country applies to the five themes of geography, including three facts or details for each of the themes.

Improve your pupils' language skills with these discussions and activities. There are four topics included here, and each is paired with discussion prompts (small group and whole class), student handouts, and teacher notes. After...

Engage your English language learners' vocabulary acquisition superpowers with a set of materials about superheroes. Pupils create their own superhero alter-egos by choosing from a list of superpowers, deciding on sidekicks and...

This textbook takes the learner from the basic definition of slope through derivatives, integrals, and vector multivariable calculus. Each section is composed primarily of examples, with theoretical introductions and explanations in...

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...

Take the next step in the writing process with a lesson plan geared towards the completion of writing an evidence-based essay about a rule to live by, as Bud did in Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis. Pupils collaborate with their...

Just because a story is on the news doesn't mean it's being presented fairly. Analyze news broadcasts with a lesson focused on evaluating television journalism. At home, kids watch a news show and note the stories presented, including...

Water, water, everywhere — but will there be enough to drink? Check out these detailed lesson plans to meet NGSS water cycle and CCSS literacy standards in your science classroom. Learners do a close reading of a challenging, poetic text...

After completing an assessment task where they express numbers as the difference of squares (i.e., 9 = 5^2 – 4^2), class members note any patterns that they see in the problems.

Classes continue their study of organic compounds in a detailed lesson covering alcohols, phenols, and ethers. Naming these compounds, classifying them, and describing their preparation and use are some of the topics covered. Through...

Provide guidance and practice of the useful skill: solving rational equations using both an algebraic and graphical approach. Pupils solve increasingly more difficult rational equations using algebraic methods. After, they...