Agnes Varda’s autobiographical “The Beaches of Agnes,” models for young filmmakers the cinematic self-portrait. Far from “old and plump,” Varda is a giant of filmmaking and will inspire your pupils. After watching a clip of this famous...

“There is nothing that becommeth a maid better than soberness, silence, shamefastness, and chastity, both of body & mind.” This line, from Thomas Bentley ‘s The Monument of Matrons published in 1582, typifies the way women were...

“Compared to war all other forms of human endeavor shrink to insignificance.” “War is not healthy for children and other living things.” These two views of war, embodied in George Patton’s statement and Lorraine Schneider‘s famous 1966...

Imagine using narrative essays to encourage change. This multi-week unit plan does just that. After reading a series of articles from Tyson Miller's Dream of a Nation: Inspiring Ideas for a Better America, class members examine the...

Middle schoolers aren't too young to feel strongly about politics, social issues, consumer rights, or environmental problems. Demonstrate the first steps toward social change with a project about action-oriented writing. Eighth...

Have your English language learners review basic house-related vocabulary. This section focuses mainly on the different pronunciation between the letter v and b. Clear audio clips are provided, and many fun, interactive exercises are...

A complete resource from BBC World Service provides informational text for English or ESL classes to teach vocabulary, grammar, and reading skills. Learners participate in small group work, whole class discussions, and role-plays to...

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...

English language learners choose their own pace with this online resource. The website is written primarily in Spanish, and this lesson focuses on clothing vocabulary and using present tense and continuous present tense forms. There are...

Students identify the food groups and agricultural sources of pizza ingredients. They construct a construction paper pizza, identify the crops grown for pizza ingredients, and make and eat English muffin pizzas.

What, there was a crocodile escape? Read, analyze, and examine a newspaper article with your class about the crocodiles that escaped in Vietnam. Your English language learners note the facts and key vocabulary in the story and answer...

Explore communication in this interview skills instructional activity. English learners identify the techniques native English speakers use when speaking directly to a potential employer. They read handouts detailing seven steps to...

English and math have more in common than you think. Make a connection between a compound sentence and a compound inequality with an activity that teaches learners the difference between an "and" and "or" inequality through solutions...

Have a discussion, review nouns, and practice speaking using ASL. Lesson 18 of 30+ extensive lessons on using American Sign Language covers classifiers, coded English, and asking questions. Each link embedded in the lesson provides a...

A class discussion on reference materials opens up a lesson on how to use these important resources. They discover that dictionaries, glossaries, and thesauruses are called word reference resources, and they practice using them. The...

Fourth and fifth graders define the term media literacy, then come up with examples that they share with the class. The types of media studied are auditory, visual, and written. Learners get together in pairs and perform a media...

Here is a fine instructional activity on teaching ways to use context clues. Upper graders split up into groups and use sticky notes to cover up five words in a passage of text. The passages are rotated to the other groups, and learners...

How far would your pupils go to be able to have access to books? Revisit Heather Henson and David Small's That Book Woman and challenge class members to take on the role of Cal or the Book Woman. By putting themselves in someone else's...

Show your class how to read a map and decipher all of the markings and features. Start out by connecting maps to their homework from the night before and their current reading, in this case That Book Woman, and a related informational...

Ease into informational text with the lesson plan suggested here. Part of a unit series, the lesson plan draws from previous lessons and acts as a natural moment to add in informational text. Class members read one section of My...

Ask your learners to synthesize what they know about Waiting for the Biblioburro by writing a well-organized paragraph. Young writers focus on using transition words and including specific details in their paragraphs. The plan allows for...

Focus on similarities and differences with a jigsaw activity that requires pupils to compare Waiting for the Biblioburro to other texts they have read. To prepare, class members first respond to text-dependent questions, moving on to...

Expose your class to Waiting for the Biblioburro, narrative nonfiction that will act as the bridge between ficiton and informational texts to come. Class members do a close reading of the text, looking at excerpts instead of the whole...

What kind of text features help children build a strong vocabulary? Class members use text features such as headers to unpack new vocabulary words. They create vocabulary journals in which they will write what they think the definition...