An informative installment of the Writing for Specific Fields series helps readers learn how to interpret and write about fiction. The website details nine easy steps for writing a literary analysis—a useful method for all readers!

Despite the slightly off-putting title, the instructions and activities detailed in these project guidelines for researching a noteworthy figure will serve as a fantastic supplement to your next famous person research...

This is how long we mow the lawn together. The assessment requires the class to work with combining ratios and proportional reasoning. Pupils determine the unit rate of mowers and calculate the time required to mow a lawn if they work...

Number towers use addition or multiplication to ensure each level is equal. While this is common in factoring, it is often not used with algebraic equations. Solving these six questions relies on problem solving skills and being able to...

Help plan a road trip with linear equations. Scholars consider two different rental car companies and write equations representing the cost for each company. They graph the system of equations to determine the conditions under which each...

Art analysis might help uncover some of life's most puzzling questions, such as the mystery behind Mona Lisa's smile. The handout, from the Writing for Specific Fields series, is particularly useful for those interested in pursuing art...

They say when you are told something enough times, you eventually begin to believe it's true. Sadly, Max in Freak The Mighty believed he was stupid and dumb, so he learned to be alone. That changed when he met another outcast, Freak....

Global warming isn't just an issue on land; deep ocean waters are also showing troubling signs. Young scientists learn more about deep water corals and the many recent discoveries researchers have made. Then they examine data related to...

The practice of developing lyrics by elaborating with sensory details and examples continues in the third lesson on songwriting. This time class members examine Jesse McCartney's "How Do You Sleep?" Using procedures established in the...

Willa Cather's novel My Antonia is full of vivid imagery. Encourage your pupils to visualize and translate images from the text into original writing with this guided imagery activity. Learners listen to an excerpt, take a moment to...

Use song and dance to help your youngsters identify their feelings and embrace learning. Starting with a brainstorming activity, class members talk about learning new things and how this made them feel. After listing to the song, and...

Here is a (great) lesson on using parentheses! The task requires the expression of ages using algebraic expressions, including the distributive property. Pupils use their expressions to determine the individual ages.

Explore the unique characteristics of polymers. A complete lesson begins with a presentation introducing polymers. Following the presentation, young scientists develop a laboratory plan for creating substances using polymers. They...

All things November in a set of 32 bell ringer ideas to get you through the month. From writing about November to writing about colors and feelings in fall, these bell ringers are fun and allow creative writing practice.

Narrative or expository? That is the question readers face on a two-part comprehension worksheet that asks kids to read a short passage about these two different types of writing, and then to answer a series of comprehension questions...

Ring in the spring with a study of adverbs. These spring worksheets cover when and how to use adverbs, provide plenty of adverbs to try out, and use images of spring as inspiration for learners to tap into as they write original sentences.

How can an unfamiliar place help you learn something about yourself? Use a narrative writing prompt as you culminate your unit on Jane Yolen's The Devil's Arithmetic. Kids consider the ways that, like the main character from the...

Describing a problem efficiently doesn't solve it, but a well-crafted argument can move readers to action. High schoolers focus on structuring problem statements by reading examples of strong essays and working in groups to create...

What elements make up a successful argument? A helpful resource describes aspects of an argument such as the claim, evidence, counterargument, and audience. Perfect as an individual assignment for a flipped lesson or collaborative work,...

It, this, and which are commonly used to describe...who knows what? Sometimes it's difficult to understand what each of these words refers to. Highlight this problem for your class by showing them the example sentences shown here. After...

Statistics come front and center in this unit all about analyzing discrete data. Real-world situations yield data sets that the class then uses to tease out connections and conclusions. Beginning with the basic histogram and...

After viewing The Last Roundup, a documentary that examines the transitioning of Santa Rosa from a privately owned island to a National Park, class members adopt the point of view of Tim Vail, a member of the family that once owned the...

As the instructor reads aloud several quotes from five chapters of the story Matilda, class members mime their interpretation of the scenes. Then, after reading "Miss Honey" and "The Trenchbull" (chapters seven and eight), the...

Practice electric vocabulary using multiple methods. Learners begin by watching a video that explains vocabulary related to electric currents. They match vocabulary cards to practice and then create an electric circuit. Using the...