Using adjectives to create vivid descriptions is the focus of exercises in this resource. A cloze reading activity asks class members to add missing adjectives to passages from Mark Teague's The Lost and Found. They then read...

"What is the theme of this story?" The very question can spark fear in the minds of readers and incinerate confidence. Here you will discover an exercise that shows how writers use the tools of setting, plot, conflict, and...

Familiar with the systems-based sports drawing of experimental artist Lee Walton? If so, this drawing exercise if for you. Young artists observe an activity over time, develop a coded language for the activity, and then draw a...

Learners use their experience with leadership, as well as a thought-provoking quote and discussion with their classmates, to help them define the concept of leadership.

As part of a unit study of Bud, Not Buddy, readers compare Buddy's list of rules to live by with those that Steve Jobs enumerates in his commencement address to Stanford's 2005 graduating class.

Designed as the culminating activity after a unit study of the Holocaust, class members assume the voice of a world leader, write a speech, and participate in a simulation of the Stockholm International Forum on the Holocaust.

As part of a study of slavery during the US colonial period, class members investigate why enslaved people ran away, the risks inherent in escaping, and the methods used to locate them.

1983 Supreme Court case Marsh v. Chambers, which centers on whether opening a legislative session with a prayer violates the Establishment Clause in the First Amendment to the US Constitution, is the focus of a series of discussions and...

After watching a documentary on the Supreme Court case Republican Party of Minnesota v. White, class members research how the First Amendment and free speech issues influence judicial elections and then conduct a mock judicial election.

Pique your pupils' interest before reading Peter and the Starcatchers with an anticipation guide. Given a list of 10 statements, learners choose true or false based on what they think the book is about. They then discuss in small...

Readers of Paradise Lost draw parallels between Milton's tale and Gene Zion's Harry the Dirty Dog, an illustrated children's book.

Making predictions is an excellent reading strategy. Work on building this into your pupils' toolkit of strategies by trying out the process outlined here for reading the very beginning of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. The...

On your mark, get set, GO! The class sprints toward the conclusions in a race analysis activity. The staggered start of the 400-m foot race is taken apart in detail, and then learners step back and develop some overall race strategy...

Statistics is made approachable, and dare we say fun, in this activity on using box-and-whisker plots to analyze and compare data sets. Specific emphasis is placed on interpretations and explanations while graphing, and in using the...

An in-class reading of Shel Silverstein's The Missing Piece Meets the Big O introduces class members to the journey motif that forms the basis of The Hobbit.

To understand the controversy surrounding the US 2000 presidential election, class members investigate the rationale behind the Electoral Collage, the intimidation involved in the election of 1876, and the 2004 American League...

What is a party caucus anyway? And what part do caucuses play in the primaries? Everything future voters need to know about the four stages in the presidential selection process is provided by this resource. The 2012 US...

How do you balance a set of data? Using a ruler and some coins, learners determine whether the balance point is always in the middle. Through class and small group discussions, they find that the mean is the the best estimate of the...

Class members are introduced to a project-based learning unit on US immigration with an activity that asks them to analyze sheet music and other primary source materials to uncover issues raised by immigration.  

As Ken Jennings said, "There's just something hypnotic about maps." Certainly, the longer you look at them the more you can learn. For this project-based learning lesson, individuals study both historic and present-day maps of...

Is there such a thing as fate/luck? Can one fight destiny? As part of their study of Chinua Achebe's purpose in writing Things Fall Apart, class members answer these questions from Achebe's point of view and then from William...

"Eneke the bird says since men have learnt to shoot without missing, he has learnt to fly without perching." As part of their study of Things Fall Apart, class members read Paul Hernadi and Francis Steen's essay, "The Tropical Landscapes...

How many ways can you create a dilation? Many! Individuals strengthen their understanding of dilations by using various methods to create them. The new technique builds on pupils' understanding of the ratio method. Using the ratio,...

Is it bigger, or is it smaller—or maybe it's the same size? Individuals learn to describe enlargements and reductions and quantify the result. Lesson five in the series connects the creation of a dilated image to the result. Pupils...