Engage your learners in global events. The makers of the film Invisible Children began the Kony 2012 Campaign to bring awareness to the Lord's Resistance Army. You can show your class the video Kony 2012 and spark discussion with the...

Class members investigate the Jim Crow Laws, Executive Order 9066, the Chinese Exclusion Act, and the Indian Removal Act to gather information about not only the challenges encountered by diverse groups of Americans, but their...

Visit the Magic Treehouse and take your class on a trip through time with a reading of the children's book Mummies in the Morning. Using the story to spark an investigation into Egyptian culture, this literature unit engages...

Stop, thief! Do your pupils understand the consequences of plagiarism? Lesson three of six in a series of college and career readiness activities demonstrates the dangers of taking credit for someone else's work. Learners engage in...

Learners will share ideas about class mobility. They create a timeline that chronicles milestones in their own lives, and synthesize their learning by writing personal essays about their class status and aspirations for the future.

Young geologists discover the important role that rocks and minerals play in our everyday lives through this series of hands-on activities. Starting off with a lesson that defines the difference between plants, animals, and...

Over the course of three classes, tech-saturated youth review their cyber portraits, map their virtual lives, examine their relative anonymity, and establish a "virtual conscience" to guide choices that foster privacy protection and...

Is electricity created in the outlet? Using posters of several energy systems, collaborative groups identify and describe the parts of their systems. The groups also look at the environmental impacts of the systems and present...

Students explore English by completing an interactive language history activity. In this word recognition instructional activity, students discuss word formations and the phonetic relationship between letters. Students identify the...

Class groups investigate the economic and political implications of a country's policies on genetically modified foods, craft a position paper detailing that policy, and share their findings with the class. Armed with this...

What are the different ways that people can invest in their human capital for a better future? Pupils participate in an engaging hands-on activity and analyze data regarding unemployment, the ability to obtain an education, and median...

Learners discuss what they like about parks and make a list of different things they like to do there such as swing, run, play ball, ride a bike, or go on a hike. They discover the locations of some examples of National Parks and that...

Students explore the role, functions, and conditions in which lactic acid is produced. They share ideas to complete a KWL on the vocabulary for the lesson then research these ideas futher on the internet using a set of prompting...

An authentic and engaging way to practice literacy skills, this lesson plan calls for young language arts pupils to conduct interviews with classmates and family members. First, pupils watch as the teacher models the interview process...

Biodiversity is essential for every habitat, but many species are at risk due to pollution and other factors. Explore several different species native to Illinois in a gallery walk with posters that learners have created after research...

Help young conservationists appreciate the important role that trees play in ecosystems around the world with this collection of six engaging activities. From a shared reading and class discussion of Dr. Seuss' The Lorax,...

Working in groups or individually, learners study images of important events that occurred at, or directly affected, the White House, and share their findings of a specific event. They then post the image of their event on a...

Drama is ever-present in our daily lives and eloquently depicted on stage. Middle schoolers practice writing scenes based on different prompts and frameworks, and then perform those creative scenes for their classmates. The...

Youngsters visit the classroom library to complete various reading activities, pushing their motivation to read! They will discuss different library books and read two specific books that use "Building Block" reading skills. They also...

On day one of the "Organic Mechanic Part I" lesson, learners try to remove the waxy coating of an apple and consider pesticides that may be represented by this addition to our food. On day two, they research pesticides online and...

Review selections from Shel Silverstein's A Light in the Attic and recognize characterization and tone used. Discuss and compare the various tones of each poem. Learners complete a character map and a pair share activity as well....

Students participate in Valentine's Day writing and literacy center activities. In this writing and literacy lesson, students develop Valentine's Day journals using recycled cards and small blank sheets of paper. They write sentences...

How can our perspectives of borrowing and returning influence the way we view credit? Pupils explore the concept of debt, how it impacts our ability to obtain credit, and finally the ways in which we can work to alleviate debt.

Young scholars write the ending to <i>It's a Secret</i> by John Burningham.  For this creative writing activity, students are read the first two pages of <i>It's a Secret</i> and they continue writing what...