Even though they may not be tested on standardized assessments, social skills are vital for students to develop during their years in school. Through a series of discussions, activities, and role-playing exercises,...

What is the difference between a proactive person and a reactive person? Scholars explore the topic, and many others, with helpful lessons, discussions, role play activities, and games. Each activity supports one of the key principles...

Teach your middle schoolers to use their ears to their highest potential! Pupils practice active listening skills and reflect on how careful listening might prove to be important in and out of the classroom.

Practice makes perfect when it comes to learning grammar with this ESL resource. Offering a great way to teach about relative clauses, this lesson plan engages students with a series of partner, small group, and whole class speaking...

Socratic seminars are a great way to encourage the development of critical thinking, speaking, and listening skills. And Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol is a perfect text for such a seminar. Use the questions in the packet to...

Ensure that your pupils listen to one another in constructive ways by introducing them to active listening skills through discussion, role playing, and partner work.

As learners build the "girders" of conversation by staying consistent on a particular topic, they avoid the "wrecking ball" of an off-topic comment. To help students develop this important conversation skill, this resource provides...

Your young historians will compare and contrast the details of the American flag today with an an image of the nation's flag from the post-Civil War era, and identify the flag's importance as a national symbol through analysis...

Is your class reading Pride and Prejudice? In order to link scenes to the themes in Austen's novel, pairs take on the confrontation between Lady Catherine and Elizabeth (Chapter XIV). After writing their own version of the...

What does empathy look like? Encourage your pupils to put themselves in another person's shoes with several writing and discussion activities that relate to a featured short film. Over the course of the activity, individuals collaborate...

Learners compare and contrast sine and cosine graphs in order to describe their characteristics in a collaborative activity. As they explain their reasoning, learners strengthen their writing and vocabulary skills associated with...

Use fables as a fun way for English Language Learners to gain confidence and fluency in their reading and speaking skills. After reading a fable in class, they retell their story to a group of their peers. When this jigsaw activity is...

Receiving credit can be both a benefit and a curse. Prepare your learners to make wise credit choices by studying how credit influences credit scores, identifying the different components of credit cards, and exploring major consumer...

Class members come up with a hypothesis on the number of decimal digits in the product of two decimals. Learners work in groups to complete several decimal multiplication problems. The results help groups develop a conjecture on the...

Analyze magazines as a class, looking carefully for the target audience, advertisements, and topics presented. Small groups then work as a publication team and receive a magazine that they have to "sell." Each individual has a different...

Young explorers study the scarcity and importance of a continuous supply of fresh water in Cape Verde. They research the five main ways that fresh water is obtained in these countries. Each research group prepares a presentation, and...

Put on your best smile, or a least a better one, for this lesson on superlatives and comparatives. English language learners first fill out a graphic organizer by finding other people in the class who are taller than they are, shorter...

Designed with many of the Common Core standards in mind, this 10-lesson unit is brimming with ELL strategies, teacher's notes, and the best of core instructional methods for teaching the common elements of folktales, and exploring...

Greed is the theme of the West African folktale, Anansi Goes to Lunch and this multidisciplinary collection of lessons. First, scholars listen to a read aloud and participate in a grand conversation about the book's key details and...

Do you really need that new laptop/phone/dress/jacket/etc.? Financial decisions require us to distinguish between our wants and our needs. Through discussion and the evaluation of scenarios on provided worksheets, this resource...

Introduce your young adults to the important understanding that the money they receive from their paychecks is a net amount as a result of deductions from taxes. Other topics covered include federal, state, Medicare and social...

Compelling discussions are the result of open-ended, challenging questions. An introduction to Paideia discussions includes explicit directions about how to prepare readers and how to model the kinds of questions they should develop...

Bilateral suborbital hematoma? Call an audible? 404? Have fun with “the twittering or warbling of birds,” or as 14th century French speakers would say, have fun with “jargon.” Groups match specialized jargon with plain speech, decode...

Thor, Loki, Iron Man, and Captain America. As part of their study of Greek and Roman gods and heroes, middle schoolers compare the characters in The Avengers to Greek counterparts. Individuals then create their own superhero,...