Learners use maps to locate the countries of Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia. In groups, they compare and contrast the three countries in regard to their culture, morals and values. They read various examples of folktales and write their...

Students work on their career portfolio. In this written communication lesson, students discuss the purpose of cover letters, read sample cover letters, and then write their own.

Get the scoop with a fun, engaging newspaper project. After analyzing the parts of a newspaper, including the headline, subtitles, and pictures or images, young journalists get to work by writing their own stories in a newspaper article...

Follow the format of Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles with a journal-writing activity. Readers choose a character and examine the character's life and circumstances through brainstorming, research, and discussion before...

“What are we? Humans? Or animals? Or savages?” Ah, the central question of Lord of the Flies. As part of their study of William Golding's riveting novel, readers complete an anticipation guide and respond to a series of survey...

Fans of Sherlock Holmes may be surprised to learn that in addition to stories of the famous deductionist, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle is also the creator of Professor Challenger. An irascible, unpredictable scientist, Challenger was featured...

Designed for teachers who use Tangerine in the classroom, this resource provides background information on the novel, issues raised by the story, and literary devices Bloor employs. A good addition to your curriculum library.

High schoolers test wood splints that have been soaked in mystery solutions to identify the different colors it produces when lit. The lesson concludes with a reading passage and analysis questions.

Considering including Juliet Marillier's young adult novel, Wildwood Dancing as part of your language arts curriculum? Check out an overview that examines some of the themes and issues presented by the novel. 

Design your unit on The View From Saturday by E.L. Konigsburg with a concept and vocabulary analysis resource. It outlines the plot, literary elements, vocabulary issues, and any possible considerations for planning a differentiated...

How many of your pupils play an instrument? A musical science lesson will help all of them understand how string instruments work. Young scientists construct a string-and-pulley system to test frequency and pitch. The lesson...

Students make thematic connections and organize their ideas using a Venn Diagram. In this Venn Diagram instructional activity, students compare 3 different stories from a novel and fill in a Venn Diagram. Students then discuss their...

Tenth graders examine the role that aesthetics play in the publication of books. In groups, they apply the concept of physical affectation on each reader's experience to literature. They also compare and contrast the varied types of...

Readers select a character from Call of the Wild, record their responses to a series of prompts in a spiral notebook, and use details from the novel to support their thinking. The spirals are then used as source material to support...

In instructional activity 13 of this unit on colonial trade, young researchers learn about apprentices as they prepare to write help-wanted ads for the specific trade they have been researching. To begin, the class listens closely as the...

Lesson 7 focuses on building academic vocabulary and writing an explanatory letter with supported textual evidence. For the first five minutes of the lesson plan, the educator reminds the class of how to read and refer to the accordion...

Writing a paragraph from details found directly in a text is the central focus of this thorough and explicit lesson plan. Using the stories Nasreen's Secret School and Rain School, third graders are lead step-by-step...

The seventh lesson plan in this unit on colonial trade assesses fourth graders' ability to use details from an informational text to make inferences and create a piece of informative writing. The included assessment begins with learners...

Write what you know, sound advice for any writer and something many famous authors are known to have done. Use these materials to explore how Shakespeare's life influenced his plays. This resource is packed with readings, video segments,...

Students restate facts and details in text to inform and organize ideas and have a choice of four activities to enhance learning,

Use the Visual Thesaurus to predict the subject matter of Rick Riordan's book The Lightning Thief. A pre-reading activity encourages middle schoolers to use context clues and word meaning to discover what the book is about. After...

Everyone has a different opinion about the characters they read about in books. Have your class explore forming an opinion and finding evidence to support it as they read and discuss what they think about a particular character. They...

Considering using Tolkien's The Hobbit for book circles or whole-class reading? Check out this packet that provides an overview of the novel, some interesting background materials, and links to additional resources.

From large to small, show your class how to organize them all! Included within the guide is everything you need to take their knowledge of classification from the cellular to the species level. The worksheets focus on...