The Secret Life of Bees provides high schoolers an opportunity to connect the events in the novel to events in America’s history. After choosing a topic from a provided list, individuals research how the event affected the Civil Rights...

Learn more about a famous person in history and record this information on a biography format worksheet. After conducting research on a person of interest, biographers record information about their...

Have you ever wanted to learn more about a subject after you finished a great book? Guide ninth graders through an inquiry-based research project as they finish the first chapter of Temple Grandin's Animals in Translation. Having...

Part of being a strong researcher is knowing if you're headed in the right direction. Class members study their research frames formulated in the previous lessons of the unit and decide what parts of their inquiry paths need revision or...

Many have debated which came first, the chicken or the egg, but this lesson plan debates which came first, the hydrocarbons or the carbonate reef. After a discussion on deep-sea corals, scholars receive a set of questions to research and...

How do you help a child with dyslexia succeed as a writer? Here is a resource for those who need guidance in creating writing lessons for their students with dyslexia. It discusses research-based strategies that can be used and...

Travel back in time to the Stono Rebellion. Young historians research historical figures who played a role in African Americans' fight to escape slavery. Scholars research material, complete handouts, participate in group discussion, and...

For some, getting to the polls to vote is no easy task. Voting may mean needing to choose between a job and civic duty. But what if Election Day was a national holiday? After reading an article about the pros and cons of designating...

Students conduct field research of a historical site in order to discover a more complete understanding of a time period. They choose one particular historical figure and write a short poem about the site from the historical person's...

Culminate your unit on Native American tribes with a clear, concise writing prompt. It instructs young writers to complete a report about any Native American tribe, and to include information about the belief systems and traditions of...

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...

According to A.A. Milne, "[A] quotation is a handy thing to have about, saving one the trouble of thinking for oneself." However, as part of a larger series of handouts discusses, quotations also have the ability to enhance a piece of...

Game on! Pupils take their end-of-unit assessment, writing an opinion paragraph about the importance of sports in American culture. To support their opinions, they use evidence from the informational articles they've read throughout the...

What do you want to do when you finish school? Most high schoolers have an idea of what they'd want to do, but little idea of how to achieve this goal. After researching a career of their choosing, learners identify qualifications,...

After choosing a famous person your learners admire, they write a scene where they pretend to meet their chosen person. They identify a specific event they'd like to discuss with them, and write a dialogue detailing their fictitious...

It's no secret, writing is a lot more enjoyable when it's about something we care about. This simple exercise engages children in producing original writing, while allowing them to share their personal interest with others.

Imagine a day in the life of a child who has to work 12-14 hours a day, seven days a week. After viewing images and reading stories of child laborers, class members select an image and write a richly detailed narrative about a typical...

Pages and pages of engaging activities, worksheets, and writing projects on teaching folktales and fables await you! You don't want to miss this incredible resource that not only includes a wide range of topics and graphic...

How do poets convey emotion and represent their views of life? Pupils learn more about Whitman and Dickinson through the unit and analyze their bold reinvention of craft and style for poets to come. Looking at classic pieces such as...

Louisa May Alcott's Little Women is a literary masterpiece as well as a timestamp of the formative mid-nineteenth century in America. Using a primary source set of photographs, letters, and portraits, readers discuss the ways...

There's an elephant in your classroom. That's right — a big, awkward elephant named Dissection. Sure, you'd like to talk about him ... but how? Whether you're a seasoned teacher or fresh out of student teaching, the topic of dissection...

Learners work together to research a historical event. They create their own poems based on their research. They share their poems with the class and discuss the historical event further.

Improve writing skills using methods from Robert Gay's Writing Through Reading; Gay espouses reproducing the work of successful writers to build the ability to convey original ideas effectively. Young writers transcribe, paraphrase,...