Help your writers get started with these hooks! Twenty-five opening lines from the "Lives" column in the New York Times Magazine act as prompts for creative writing. Have your learners choose one prompt and write an original essay....

A thorough unit on literary analysis and character development culminates in a final writing assessment. Prompted to compare the parent-child relationships in Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club and H.G. Bissinger's Friday Night Lights, high...

Students criticially read an unfinished creative writing piece, answer factual questions concerning the piece, and then finish the story or create their own story about their own neigborhood and possible environmental issues.

S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders is still relatable to teenagers today, even though it was written more than 50 years ago. Explore how the figurative language of the story works to establish characterization, and how foreshadowing lays...

Students are introduced to the history of showing the human anatomy. In groups, they measure their height and arm spans to create a graph and determine if their measurements support Vitruvius' work. Individually, they make their own...

Inform teenagers about safe driving techniques. Young journalists use the Internet to investigate safe driving practices and technologies then publish a manual for the teen drivers in their life.

Use this communication skills lesson to emphasize evaluating a speaker's main point and argument. After reading Martin Luther King's, "I Have a Dream Speech" and John F. Kennedy's speech, "I Believe in an America Where the Separation of...

Students read and discuss an extract about teenagers in India and complete related activities.

Students research the working conditions in the late 1800's and the evolution of child labor laws. They discuss how the laws affect them today and if they are fair. They write a paper summarizing the laws and the view of the laws.

Students use this design as an electronic reading and writing guide to Henry David Thoreau's famous essay, "On Civil Disobedience." They use activities to familiarize students with the political issues of Thoreau's time. Comprehension...

Sixth graders investigate the food guide pyramid. They conduct Internet research, and plan a three day nutritional menu appropriate for teenagers. Students include three meals per day and a snack for each day on their menu, and...

Tenth graders discover how various writers approach the themes of : alienation and solitude, living life "deliberately" and "phonies." Through reading, journaling, class discussion, and writing assignments they realize the power of the...

Students consider the plight of Holocaust victims. In this World War II lesson plan, students discuss the number of Jews who were persecuted during the war and read biographies by Holocaust survivors. Students compose essays on personal...

Young scholars investigate nonviolent lifestyles by researching the biographies of Martin Luther King Jr and Gandhi.  In this peace activity, students define the term Ahimsa and describe Gandhi's lifestyle.  Young scholars...

Fourth graders read about archaeology as a career. They develop a list of questions they would like to ask an archaeologist and then actually interview an archaeologist on the future of archaeology as a career.

The aim of this unit is for students to develop their persuasive writing and information gathering skills using various forms of information and communication technology. It is hoped that the context of 'teenage problems' will provide an...