Pupils explore "The Minister's Veil" by Nathaniel Hawthorne. In this short story lesson, students read a summary of the short story and answer prediction questions.  Pupils then read the story and write a short story of their own.

Middle schoolers read short stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and write summaries. In this summary writing lesson, pupils discuss how to write a summary. Middle schoolers then select a topic and practice writing using skills discussed.

Learners recognize the difference between the short a sound and the long a sound, then compile a list of words containing short a and long a sounds.

Sixth graders create a cloze activity based on an article of a current event. They switch worksheets and the next group chooses the words they feel are missing and justify their word choices.

Students create a robotic dog for story time. In this story lesson, high school students bring a robotic dog to an elementary school. They read the story Robot Dog by Mark Oliver and then show their robotic dog. 

Students experience and study cause and effect as they assess the consequences man faces when time travel is attempted. They determine, in their imaginations, what time period they would like to visit. Each student then listens to,...

Consider the causes and effects that led to the internment and relocation of Japanese Americans during WWII. Learners read the story "Baseball Saved Us" and selected chapters from Farewell to Manzanar. Then, they view a slide-show, and...

Mean girls and bully packs are favorite topic for films and TV shows that focus on the destructive power of cliques. High school freshmen are asked to reflect on both the positive and negative aspects of cliques by reading a short...

Poems carved into the wooden walls of the Asian immigrant prisons on Angel Island provide upper elementary graders an opportunity to study not only the story behind the poems but to also focus on the figurative language employed by the...

Did Scopes violate the Butler Act? Why did so many Americans follow the Scopes trial? See analytical reading in action with a fantastic five-day lesson plan in which class members consider the historical context that provoked public...

Scary stuff! Whether approached as the first horror story or a "serious imaginative exploration of the human condition," Frankenstein continues to engage readers. Here's a packet of activities that uses Mary Shelley's gothic...

Why do we read primary source documents? What can they give us that other writings cannot? Provide your learners with any of the primary sources attached here (there are seven), and have them complete the graphic organizer (which opens...

Scholars summarize sections of a book and compile them to create a book trailer. They are assigned sections of a book to read and summarize before recording as short video segments. The segments are put together in order to create a book...

Students read a short novel while filling in a graphic organizer for problem and solution.  In this sociology lesson, students use a prior knowledge and relate the text to theirselves and to think about their own...

Teenagers get the real information about marijuana use based on the history of tobacco legislation and research. As they read an educational passage about marijuana laws, science, and changing attitudes, they address their preconceptions...

Trace a survivor's story using a timeline, map skills, poetry and/or prose and photography, and make a visual representation of a survivor's journey through his or her life as a culminating activity for the class and the survivor....

Students read "The Magic School Bus in the Human Body" and discuss the importance of maintaining a healthy body. They create a hinge and joint paper skeleton, follow the journey of a hamburger through the digestive tract, jump rope and...

If you are looking for a great way to present natural selection in humans, look no further. This handout is intended to accompany the 14-minute video The Making of the Fittest: Natural Selection in Humans, which can be found on the...

November is National Novel Writing Month, so if your young authors are embarking on this journey, be sure they understand plot elements. This collaborative lesson plan fits into the context of the larger NaNoWriMo project; however, the...

Scholars get to know famous Dutch painter, Vincent van Gogh, as an artist as well as a person. After reading personal letters and analyzing paintings, participants paint two self-portraits that represent their personality. Then, write a...

Eyes on the finish line. Serving as the first part of the end of unit assessment, learners answer questions based on a text about how to write a graphic novel. Using what they've learned, they then create a storyboard about the invention...

For classes tackling To Kill a Mockingbird, this lesson plan sets readers up for discussions or essay writing with questions and prompts. The prompts encourage individuals to explore beyond the novel itself, looking at...

What's more fun than an afternoon at an art auction? A morning with a grammar instructional activity! After reading a short story about Jillian's trip to the art auction, learners jot down every noun from the passage, labeling each one...

This set of daily spelling activities is intended for use with the story, Little Rabbit's Tale. Learners use the high frequency and spelling words found in the story to complete 4 different activities. They write the long e...