Which option would most children choose: One marshmallow now, or two marshmallows in 10 minutes? Learners watch the social experiment on video and discuss their observations. They then read articles and work in small groups to analyze...

What is your attitude on health and illness? By considering their own experiences, students will reflect on and discuss their attitudes toward health and illness while educating each other by researching illnesses in small groups,...

In order to give young scientists experience with critical thinking skills, introduce them to a current controversy and prepare them to debate. Choose a topic, such as genetically modified organisms, and assign groups to represent...

Young historians discover the experiences of runaway slaves after reading the brief biography and narrative excerpt of Henry "Box" Brown, who escaped slavery by having himself shipped away in a crate and popularized his...

This detailed overview of a curriculum unit suggests using travel literature to engage and stimulate your third graders’ interest in reading. The suggested reading list includes fiction and non-fiction materials and offers urban children...

Middle schoolers read and review informational texts, analyze cause and effect, and distinguish fact from opinion. They assess a "one-minute mystery" you read aloud for cause and effect relationships. Resource includes complete set of...

Students participate in a memory experiment to discover how the eye works. After reading an article, they analyze a new technique which examines how the brain registers sight. They develop their own memory game and conduct trials using...

Students watch a video of people telling about their experiences with a mental illness. They compare and contrast the life stories they saw to reinforce how mental illnesses are biological illnesses that affect a person's thoughts,...

Students experiment with the concept of magnetism. Working in small groups, students design an experiment to test the magnet attraction of various substances. After completing their experiments, students research magnetism and it's...

Students use information from a variety of media to evaluate different artists' views on the human relationship to nature. From these sources, class discussion, and personal experience, students will synthesize a thoughtful,...

High schoolers experience Zen philosophies reflected in artwork, poetry, and architecture. Students will explore these connections and expand the discussion to include a professional author of their choice.

Students are introduced to the characteristics of the short story. Individually, they use their own personal experiences to write a poem about their families to get them used to writing. Next, they practice reading various short...

Learners observe their environment and write detailed, sensory-specific sentences about that environment. This lesson can be extended to include the creation of a personalized story or movie of the experience (student examples are...

Sixth graders read and discuss the book, The Diary of A Young Girl, by Anne Frank, analyzing the autobiographical writing style of journal writing. They write their personal thoughts, feelings, and experiences of their own daily...

Sixth graders be immersed indirect experiences which are opportunities for students to reflect, look back, debrief or abstract from their experiences what they have felt, and thought, and studied.

Learners create a career exploration experience for elementary students. In this career exploration instructional activity, learners select a career field d to read about to elementary children. Students then present the Career...

Students read a recent article about the likelihood of a decrease or increase in prices of a specific consumer good. Using the Internet, they examine current events and make predictions about their effect on the economy. They write an...

Students use the internet to research an aspect of interest to them about the Tijuana Estuary. After the unit on the estuary is completed, they reflect on their experiments and thoughts in a paper. They also participate in a field trip...

Middle schoolers review John Lawson's writings to discover the impact they had on emigration to America. Using the writings, they analyze the influence of them and review the early settlement of the colonies. They write their own essay...

Third graders read Freckle Juice as a shared literature experience. This lesson plan has many good ideas of extensions you can do as your students go through the story.

Students define conflict and violence, and determine the difference between the two. They find positive aspects of conflict while analyzing a conflict which they experienced. They organize their thoughts using a webbing activity.

Students explore acrostic poems. In this interactive poetry lesson, students visit the ReadWriteThink.org website to view characteristics and samples of acrostic poems. Students develop acrostic poems by using the interactive site.

"The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson is a great story to share with your class, and this lesson focuses on just that story! The eighth in a fourteen-lesson series on short stories, the plan has learners study some vocabulary, read the...

Combining descriptive and expository writing skills, middle schoolers create a character sketch about someone they know well. They use a graphic organizer to help them discuss a model character sketch and organize/write one of their own....