Sharpen your pencil and grab a ruler, it's time to draw some quadrilaterals! Given the definition of a parallelogram, rectangle, and rhombus, learners draw examples and nonexamples of each figure. The three definitions are...

Common Core is all about getting your learners to open their minds and think about the why and how. This problem has them thinking about unknown numbers and their relationship with one another when we round 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.

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...

You can't see patterns in a jumble of numbers ... so organize them! Learners take a set of data and use a line plot to organize the numbers. From the line plot, they find minimum, maximum, mean, and make other conclusions about the...

Target audience, covert message, explicit and implicit appeals. As part of an investigation of rhetorical devices used in campaign ads, class members examine and deconstruct the appeals in logos from...

How much can opinion influence a news story? A standalone resource discusses the importance of John Brown's Raid through the lens of journalism. Learners analyze two different texts, one from the perspective of the North and the other of...

Historical fiction novels give readers a chance to step into someone else's shoes. An educator's guide from Penguin Common Core Lesson Plans provides resources to accompany three historical fiction novels written by Ruta Sepetys: Between...

How can a gender theoretical lens shape the way Ophelia is perceived in Hamlet? That is the question writers must answer in an explanatory essay to conclude their study of Shakespeare's revenge tragedy.

Beyonce's "Halo" and Bruno Mars' "Grenade" provide eighth graders with an opportunity to consider how a writer's choice of words can create a very different tone even when the subject is the same. After a close reading of both lyrics,...

Critical events force change. World War II forced a change in perceptions of and attitudes toward women. When thousands of men joined the military American factories were left shorthanded. Young historians investigate how media was used...

Jane Elliott's controversial blue eyes/brown eyes experiment detailed in the film A Class Divided leads to a discussion of privilege, social power, and opportunity. Viewers note how the children react to the experiment, share their...

The perception of fairness in elections becomes more important with each passing election. Using data from a C-SPAN poll, budding historians consider the differences between how people perceive elections. The resource includes videos of...

Teach your freshmen stress management techniques that help them cope with distress and stress. Class members create a Relaxation Station where they practice the C.O.P.E strategy for dealing with stress. They then choose from a menu of...

The results of World War II made waves all the way to suburban life today. Examine the flight from the cities using images and documents from the 1950s building boom, including a quote analysis and political cartoons. The resource...

Why did African American voters switch from the Republican Party to the Democratic party during the Depression Era? That is the question young historians attempt to answer as they study primary source documents from the period. The focus...

Scholars work in pairs to describe their homes and draw a picture of their partner's home. Next, individuals discuss their ideal home in small groups and follow up their discussion with a written description. 

A paragraph from John Steinbeck's Travels with Charley provides English language learners with an opportunity to practice strategies for answering guiding questions about the academic text. Class members locate keywords in the annotated...

To understand the consequences of the 1704 attack on Deerfield by combined French and Native American forces, groups research primary and secondary resources related to four Deerfield families involved in the attack.

After viewing a short PowerPoint about Nat Turner's rebellion, class groups examine Alabama's 1833 slave codes. Individuals then develop a mini-legal brief arguing against one particular slave law.

Class pairs examine eight runaway slave advertisements from the mid-1800s to develop an understanding of the conditions slaves faced and of race relations.

As you explore an excerpt from Upton Sinclair's The Jungle with your class, discuss how his descriptions of the meat-packing industry caught the public's attention and helped to promote change in the Progressive Era.

Fifth graders practice scanning skills to answer questions on the French and Indian War.

Students investigate different online tutorials as they study graphing. In this graphing lesson, students apply the concept of graphs cross curricular and use it to make predictions. They define the purpose and theories behind graphs.