After watching and discussing a video on the Voyage of Cabrillo, individuals craft their own origin story and design and build an artifact they feel best represents their history.

Students consider the structure of folktales. In this writing skills lesson, students list the attributes of folktales that they read in class. Students then complete handouts based on the elements of the tales as well as types of tales...

Learners examine how to write article summaries of abstracts. In this writing skills lesson, students edit the noted sections of an abstract that is already written on the Old Testament Abstracts.

Helpful for an American literature or history unit, this lesson prompts middle schoolers to examine slavery in the United States. They read slave narratives that were part of the Federal Writers' Project and then conduct their own...

Sit back, relax, and transport to 1787! This lesson plan on the Constitution begins with guided imagery of the Constitutional Convention. The class reads A More Perfect Union: The Story of Our Constitution in an...

High schoolers explore world literature through completing several varied exercises. In this compare and contrast lesson students compare and contrast stories and how time and culture impacts the stories.

"Waiting to Move," a photo essay by Ciril Jazbec, brings into sharp focus the threats posed by climate change. Class members examine images of Shishmaref Island and the Native Alaskan Inupiate coastal villages that are impacted by rising...

Sixth graders investigate Germany during World War II. In this world history lesson, 6th graders research the Nazi's during World War II writing a summary of what they find after listening to the story known as The Butterfly.

High schoolers examine the culture and history of the Hmong. Using story cloths, they investigate how they were used as expressions of their culture. They discover the Hmong's economic conditions and how they were able to form a new...

After watching West of the West's documentary The Lone Woman of San Nicolas Island, class members imagine how Juana Maria/Karana may have felt about living alone on the island for 18 years and craft a blackout poem or a narrative in...

Pair your reading of Farmer McPeepers and His Missing Milk Cows with the questions and activities provided here. Learners answer questions about the text, create story maps, put together brochures, relate math to the story, practice...

View the video "Global Citizens: Canadians Reaching out to the World" with high schoolers. They will use the internet to locate stories about activism (link provided) and write a summary of each. Additionally they will research careers...

Not all technology is digital. Teach learners about the low-tech maker movement with a photo essay about six artisans from California and two articles about the local creator movement. After tackling the photo essay in small...

Students read and analyze a classic Eastern European folktale. In partners, they read the story, take notes, define vocabulary terms, and write a summary of the folktale.

Students read and research American Indian creation stories as a way to understand the origins of American Literature. They conduct Internet research utilizing Internet search engines. They create an online report page as well as write...

Students write the story of Rosa Parks from the perspective of someone who was sitting on the bus that day.  For this Rosa Parks/biography lesson, students read the story of Rosa Parks and discuss it in small groups. ...

Middle schoolers complete a writing assessment task to demonstrate their ability to craft a narrative based on a variety of informational texts. They view West of the West's documentary Magic Isle, read three print resources about...

Dazai Osamu’s short story, “A Sound of Hammering” is the focus of a three-day investigation of modern Japanese literature and life in post-World War II Japan. The events in Osamu’s story mirror those in his own life, and give a...

Students explore paintings, photographs and writings about the Holocaust using the internet. Researching the various websites, they will discover different human experiences of Holocaust victims. After researching, students write about...

Seventh graders listen to a variety of folktales sharing experiences of slavery. As a class, they compare and contrast reading a story and telling a story. They participate in a role play activity to discover the journey of a slave and...

Learners discuss the role of the media in public opinion. They use the internet to research when the media has had an impact on war. They write an essay about their research and any conclusions they have made.

Young mathematicians gather data on a topic, graph it in various forms, interpret the information, and write a summary of the data. They present their data and graphs to the class.

What was it like to enlist as a soldier in the Civil War? By using enlistment papers, young scholars consider this question. After they've looked at the primary source and discussed it, they create a short story of a fictional soldier to...

Work on your map skills with a packet of activities about the river basins in the Democratic Republic on Congo. Learners study the maps provided before answering the geography questions and writing an acrostic poem about the region.