You want your class to meet all of the Common Core standards, and here is one way to tackle the first speaking and listening standard. Given a theme to focus on from "How Much Land Does a Man Need?" by Leo Tolstoy, small groups come up...

A useful study tool, learners create decks or download pre-made decks to review. The app tracks your progress and allows you to customize your experience with each deck. Why not try it out and test yourself and your pupils on thousands...

Pause in your reading of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead to take an in-depth look at the characters. Learners examine a chosen character by drawing a body and assigning quotes and traits to specific areas of the body, thinking...

Designed for teachers who plan on using Markus Zusak's  The Book Thief, this packet includes background information about the author, themes addressed in and issues raised by the novel, a list of research and project ideas, and...

Synonym dominoes, anyone? As part of the activities designed for kids who have mastered the basic concepts in the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt thematic unit That's Amazing! kids are offered a variety of activities that include...

Before you begin reading Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan, read over this comprehensive handout that gives you a plethora of information regarding the story's summary, organizational structure, central...

New to using Tuesdays with Morrie? Check out this five-page resource that provides an overview Mitch Albom's book, its features, themes, and literary devices. The packet also includes suggestions for research projects.

Follow the format of Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles with a journal-writing activity. Readers choose a character and examine the character's life and circumstances through brainstorming, research, and discussion before...

Slavery in India, Sudan, and Mauritania? What about in the United States? Groups research modern slavery in these four countries, collecting factual evidence (What), determine their feelings about this evidence (So what),...

America has always been seen as a melting pot to the world. Scholars research the concept of blending cultures in the United States and how it is changing over time. The final lesson of a four-part series analyzes the changing...

When given too much data to simply memorize, it helps to sort it into manageable groups. The second lesson in the six-part series of Cosmic Chemistry challenges groups of pupils to take a large amount of data and figure out how to best...

Are you looking for background information on Cervantes and his Don Quixote? How about a study guide and discussion questions or project ideas? Even journal prompts, tests, and quizzes? A 98-page teaching guide simplifies the quest with...

Using everything they have learned about writing paragraphs over the past few lessons of the unit, class members compose an informative paragraph independently. This is an authentic assessment of their ability, since learners have...

Partners use a Brochure Planning Guide to create brochures giving advice to consumers about products based on the research they finished about working conditions. After planning the brochure, they complete a sketch outline and then...

Sometimes, it's fun to follow the rules. Using their drafts of an evidence-based essay from previous lessons, scholars write their final informative essays about rules to live by. Next, they choose and share quotes from their essays that...

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...

This is just the transition phase. Scholars participate in a mini lesson about using transitions in writing. They then have a brief peer critique of the introduction and conclusion paragraphs for their end of unit assessment. Learners...

Time to revise! Using a writing evaluation rubric, scholars participate in a peer editing process to provide feedback on each others' informative essays. Next, pupils begin revising their drafts based on the feedback they receive. 

Body paragraphs are the building blocks of every essay. Pupils view and discuss a model essay using a rubric to evaluate one of its supporting paragraphs. Next, scholars use what they've learned to continue drafting their own literary...

Let me draw you a picture. Scholars read a quote from Roger Tory Peterson and discuss his views on drawings. They then create their own drawings of an ant or butterfly to add to their science journals. 

It's time to demonstrate knowledge. With the instructive resource, pupils complete the second part of the end of unit assessment. They develop sections two and three of their storyboards about an invention, add visual elements, and then...

Scholars submit their final performance task, a letter to a publisher about an athlete's legacy. As a culminating activity, they share their work with classmates in small groups. 

Students listen to and read legends and see that these legends helped the Aboriginals explain their everyday life. Through their stories and legends we find that Aboriginal values, attitudes and cultural identities are shared.

Imagine how the wolf would tell the tale of Little Red Riding Hood or The Three Little Pigs. Young writers re-imagine classic tales by adopting the point of view of another character in the story. After reading models like The True Story...