Learners will share ideas about class mobility. They create a timeline that chronicles milestones in their own lives, and synthesize their learning by writing personal essays about their class status and aspirations for the future.

Teams select a society to investigate and create a chart comparing and contrasting the status of girls in that society with their own. They then craft and illustrate a personal narrative written from the point of view of a girl living in...

Journal writing can be a fun way to bring history to life. Upper graders read a series of journals from the time of the westward expansion, specifically the pioneer journey along the Oregon Trail. They compose an ongoing journal from the...

What were the virtues and values that helped form America? Pupils watch and discuss a video, read biographies of early Americans, chart the differences between early American religious movements, write journals and letters, draw, and...

Students create an online "community journal". In this communities lesson, students use a writing template to send e-mail to various people to learn more about their community. The journal is passed from person to person.

Students write their thoughts about political cartoons, photographs, and articles in their journal and then discuss them in class.

Pull quotes from a text and craft responses to the quotes you chose. First, read a  short excerpt from Mary Claire Wilfert's oral history. Then, read the contemporary poem "Robert's Cove," pulling quotes and writing responses as...

The second lesson in a historical fiction series encourages pupils to develop a character profile of a colonial person using research acquired in the previous unit. Learners prepare their historical fiction narrative by responding to a...

Inspire your class to write about role models and personal heroes with this resource from The Learning Network. Class members read a New York Times article excerpt about basketball star Jeremy Lin and how he inspired the author. After...

Conduct a classroom conversation about communication using this resource as a jumping-off point. For this The Learning Network activity, learners read an excerpt from The New York Times opinion piece, "The Flight From Conversation," and...

A great resource for informational texts as well as writing topics, the New York Times website provides writing prompts about various news articles through The Learning Network. This particular worksheet provides a very short...

Eighth graders utilize a variety of reading and writing skills in completing social studies activities on "The Big Lie." students express their understanding of right and wrong actions based on the characters through a personal response...

Students use online race updates of the Iditarod race and musher information to create a journal that one of the racers might have kept while participating in the race between Anchorage and Nome.

A reading of a New York Times review of the movie Beloved launches research into how the Civil War affected the lives of people living during this period. Creative thinkers select a person from an included list of historical figures and...

Sixth graders discover the importance of information sources by researching the United States History.  In this research gathering lesson, 6th graders examine a historical painting of George Washington and analyze what it means,...

Have your middle and high schoolers analyze instances of celebrities using racial slurs or making prejudiced comments in public. After reading an article, they consider the roots and effects of prejudice and bias. As a class, they...

Students examine their own political party affiliations and political beliefs. After reading an article, they discuss how students at Duke define their political philosophies. They brainstorm events, people and experiences that have...

Learners identify a pivotal event in world history that they would have liked to have witnessed. They then research this event and write a first-person account of it as if they had been present. Their first-prerson account is modeled...

Young scholars read a first hand account of John F. Kennedy's assassination. They write an essay describing how a world or national event affected them.

Students investigate the life of Martha Wayles Jefferson. In this American history lesson, students examine excerpts of the journals kept by Thomas Jefferson's wife. Students infer what life at Monticello may have been like....

Bring U.S. history to your language arts class with this lesson. Middle schoolers complete an interview for an oral history project, and discuss the importance of oral histories - and how they embellish written accounts. They write...

Learners investigate the crash of a bus carrying an Ohio baseball team to a tournament at a site where 82 other accidents had occured previously. They interview local police and insurance agents about sites in their own locales where...