How does a new version of a Shakespearean play change in the adaptation process? Use this New York Times' Learning Network lesson to consider texts that have been produced in different media. Middle schoolers examine the latest...

Prepare for a mid-unit assessment based on Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club with a brainstorming and discussion lesson plan. Focused on two chapters from the novel ("Rules of the Game" and "Two Kinds"), the lesson plan guides tenth graders...

With a couple of neat diagrams on student handouts, your life science or health class will examine the contents and serving sizes of healthy foods. They dissect a slice of pizza and scrutinize the nutritional value of its components in...

What cultural concepts must readers understand in order to connect to Things Fall Apart? As part of their study of Chinua Achebe’s novel, class members research Nigeria and the Igbo culture to create a collaborative, web-based,...

What was the property again? Tired of hearing this from your pupils? Use this table to organize properties studied and as a reference tool for individuals. Learners apply each property in the third column of the table to ensure their...

Follow in Jules Verne's footsteps and take a journey to the center of the earth! Middle schoolers work together to design a trip inside the earth using their knowledge from the previous lessons in the unit.

Students write a story.  In this writing style and illustration lesson, students review elements of Dr. Seuss' writing and illustration style and read a few more books written by him, examining the writing style.  Students work...

Young poets use Kidspiration to draw a flower, personify the flower, and write a poem from the flower's point of view. Sharing these poems in small groups will reinforce learners' knowledge of personification. 

What is the difference between formal and informal letter writing? Who gets a formal letter? What about an informal letter? This reference page presents different introductions and phrases you might see in each type of letter, and then...

Help your pupils sharpen their letter writing skills. They compose business letters that include greetings, headings, closings, and a professional tone for a philanthropic organization requesting information. Use this resource to...

Practice persuasive writing skills in this thorough lesson. After selecting issues and discovering viewpoints, middle schoolers write letters or brochures created to express the individual's perspective. The ideas are presented to the...

Your middle schoolers can become stronger writers with a lesson covering the basics. They compose effective thesis statements and introductions, discuss different ways to capture a reader's attention, and compare a poorly written...

Beyond Paul Bunyan and his blue ox, tall tales can be a great way to teach young writers about word choice and voice in their writing. Using Jerry Spinelli's Maniac Magee  and the Six-Trait Writing process, they begin to write...

Give classes confidence in completing the square with a resource that develops the process of completing the square of more complex problems, including fractions and values greater than one. It then uses quadratic modeling for...

Enrich your unit on Arthur Miller's The Crucible with a list of reading questions based on Bloom's Taxonomy. Kids answer questions and provide context for the knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and...

How do humans and animals impact the environment? What is land division? Youngsters tape off a 12x12 inch square in an outdoor natural space. They sketch everything they see, then compare their drawings as a class. They will then be...

This lengthy, and very thorough collection of study guide worksheets should help learners who are studying the Inca culture to solidify their understanding of the culture. The worksheets are meant to be used as the class goes through the...

Young scientists investigate the water cycle through a lettuce seed experiment. For this experiment, learners plant lettuce seeds inside of a ziplock bag in order to create a small greenhouse. They observe condensation and precipitation,...

Fifth and sixth graders follow Lewis and Clark from St. Louis to the Pacific and back again. They read online journal entries made by Lewis and Clark to gather information. The official Lewis and Clark website is used by learners to...

“It’s not about what it is, it’s about what it can become.” You’re never too old for Dr. Seuss and using The Sneetches and The Lorax is a great way to introduce readers to allegories, parables, and literary symbolism. The lessons...

Can a negative perception of a president's foreign policy harm his or her historical legacy? A project that winds the clock back to the date of Theodore Roosevelt's death puts students at the editorial desk of a fictional newspaper....

First graders, after generating a list of possible writing topics, begin the writing process and participate in peer-editing and publishing their own works.

Pupils write and create a pamphlet describing the occupation they are interested in. They use the steps of the writing process to present the facts about their occupation.

Use folk tales as inspiration for learning about and using personification in creative writing. Learners brainstorm together in order to practice personification before writing their own poems or paragraphs about a household object.