President John F. Kennedy bought 1,200 Cuban cigars the night before he enacted the Cuban trade embargo in 1962. Should the United States maintain the embargo? Using the website, pupils explore the topic to prepare for a class debate or...

Why did the Founders make it so challenging to amend the US Constitution? To gain an understanding of why the process is so difficult, class members engage in a Constitutional Convention simulation. Groups draft, propose, and debate...

To better understand the migrant experience during the Great Depression, pupils analyze two primary resources: photographs by Dorothea Lange and a U.S. Map that shows the Dust Bowl. They compare and contrast Lange's images to Steinbeck's...

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...

Kids love to be the experts! With four themes from The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas, small groups work together to answer specific questions addressing each theme. They then stand in front of the class and field...

Have you ever been asked to explain a leap year/leap day? Use this response to reading worksheet to support your scholars in finding out what it is, and its importance to our calendar. This resource is made up of eight questions...

Build reading comprehension and critical-thinking skills as learners focus on discerning fact from opinion. First, introduce the two terms as you test prior knowledge and explain their meanings (there is a scripted explanation here for...

What archaeological evidence remains of ancient Egyptian burial and mortuary practices, and what can this information tell us about ancient Egyptian society?

In this asking questions instructional activity, students will read the answers to 10 personal questions about a woman named Sally Jones. Then students will thing of the personal questions that would elicit these answers.

In this asking questions worksheet, students will read the answers to 10 personal questions about a woman named Helen Burnley. Then students will think of the questions that would elicit these responses.

In this CIA worksheet, students read the article, answer true and false questions, complete synonym matching, complete phrase matching, complete a gap fill, answer short answer questions, answer discussion questions, write, and more...

Students watch a video and ask questions about internet usage and mobile safety. Students chart out scales on why young people chat to others on the internet and on mobiles. Students determine the main difficulties that young people...

For this Rosa Parks worksheet, students read the article, answer true and false questions, complete synonym matching, complete phrase matching, complete a gap fill, answer short answer questions, answer discussion questions, write, and...

In this hospitals worksheet, students read the article, answer true and false questions, complete synonym matching, complete phrase matching, complete a gap fill, answer short answer questions, answer discussion questions, write, and...

In these two reading and comprehending a friendly letter worksheet and a poem about a Frog worksheet, 3rd graders read a letter from a third grader and answer questions about it. Students answer 11 multiple choice questions. 

Students respond and make predictions as they read an excerpt from The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle.  In this The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle lesson plan, students read aloud and respond to questions that require them...

Students observe two-dimensional shapes and work on the challenge that what is observed is as important as what is not observed. Students determine constructions, rules and connections. Full references listed for further reading and...

In this A Separate Peace study guide worksheet, students define 3 vocabulary words, provide examples of 1 literary term, and respond to 15 short answer questions regarding chapter 6 of the John Knowles novel.

Elementary schoolers discover that the world is at their fingertips as they acquire new vocabulary. Several suggested activities and strategies are provided here, building new reading and oral vocabulary. 

Everyone likes a poem about a cat, especially when it includes other rhyming words that end with -at! Kids read the lines and then respond to three reading comprehension questions.

Assist your pupils with literary analysis by discussing and exploring theme. This plan, the twelfth in a series of fourteen, builds in some time to explore theme as a class. Learners also blog about the main event in their stories and...

Introduce class members to basic biographical information about Ernest Hemingway. Groups read three brief paragraphs, and then respond to fact-based questions using material drawn from the readings. The exercise would work well with...

A unit plan uses short texts to teach literary elements such as theme and characterization. Included are passages by authors such as Walter Dean Myers and Sandra Cisneros. Activities include quick writes, filling in graphic organizers,...