Leave a message after the beep! Using the fun resource, pupils brush up on their communication skills by practicing taking and receiving phone messages. Additionally, they recreate an interoffice memo and create a meeting agenda to...

Four lessons make up a poetry unit that introduces high schoolers to spoken and written poetry. Class members also examine poems as social commentary and connect these poems to various novels and plays. A great way to incorporate poetry...

Many factors shape the identity of persons, communities, and even nations. Tweens and teens have an opportunity to consider the many aspects of identity as they create a graphic that reflects who they are. Class members first brainstorm...

Ninth graders consider how perceived standards of beauty influence body image as well as the relationship between body image and eating disorders. The class brainstorms traits the media presents as beauty standards for males and females,...

Everyone wants to feel heard and valued. Provide learners with an opportunity to share their thoughts and have them heard with this closing routine. Participants use an exit card to share their response to prompts that ask them to share...

Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole. All were forced off their ancestral lands in the southeastern United States as part of the Indian Removal Act of 1830. Young historians research the tribes' reactions to this removal and...

With all the stuff available online, good essays are just a click away. But talk about tracking! Writers beware! New tech can now identify plagiarism, and the consequences of presenting someone else's work as your own are severe. Here's...

Remember when everything was Fantastic! Fabulous! Awesome! Iconic! A series of activities encourages young writers to move beyond these overused descriptors and instead choose a more precise language.

Robbers see a house from a different perspective than real estate agents. That's the big idea in a lesson about point of view. Groups assume the role of either robbers or real estate agents, note important details in a description of a...

Lesson 6 of this extensive unit finally has your class begin to work their way through specific articles from the text of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Before examining the rights actually detailed in the...

Revision is an important part of the writing process. Focus on revising topic sentences and details with the plan described here. This is part of a unit, so pupils have already filled out a graphic organizer about traveling...

A language arts instructional activity helps young writers identify elements that make up historical fiction. First, it guides them through elements of fictional pieces with vocabulary cards. Then, pupils work collaboratively to...

Explore linear inequalities in a contextual situation. Using data from the first lesson of the series, groups graph linear inequalities to predict future shooting percentages. Their work focuses on defining regions and relating their...

Force your way to a better understanding of vectors! Pairs of young scholars work together to apply the right amount of force to move an object along a straight line vector. They use calculations to determine the magnitude and direction...

Some things are worth doing again. Scholars take a look to see which ideas Martin Luther King Jr. revisits and refines in his "Letter from Birmingham Jail." To help with the process, readers answer guided questions, look at word...

Scholars grapple with whether the title character of Katherine Paterson's novel, Lyddie, should sign a petition about working conditions at the factory. They engage in close reading and discussion before adding their thinking about the...

Scholars complete a mid-unit 2 assessment, analyzing how César Chávez supports his claims in his 1984 speech, "Address to the Commonwealth Club of California." Learners focus on paragraphs 18 and 19 of the speech, answering text-based...

Writers consider what makes a story powerful as they listen to a short story about Frederick Douglass. Once finished, small groups complete a worksheet to analyze what makes the story so enduring.

In conclusion ... Scholars analyze the model essay Adversity Faced by Townspeople in the Middle Ages to gain a better understanding of introductory and concluding paragraphs. After studying the author's strategies, learners begin...

Students ask themselves questions while reading to comprehend the material and improve their memory. They should ask why, when, where and how questions when they are reading an article. Students explore the different strategies on what...

Students, five of the "best" readers in the class, get a script and read over their part of the lesson before they begin to "teach" the class.

Students develop their own strategies to solve basic addition and subtraction facts. In this addition and subtraction lesson plan, students use strategies they already know and new ones to solve problems.

Sixth graders recognize strategies for selecting nonfiction texts. In this book selection lesson, 6th graders practice procedures for knowing if the book is just right for them. Students select from a variety of texts and share their...

Third graders use mental-math strategies to solve two-digit plus two-digit addition problems. They observe and discuss online demonstrations, solve word problems as a class, and independently solve problems and describe their solutions...