"O pun" the door on this activity. Have your pupils compare the puns and word play in scenes from Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night to those in Gary Blackwood’s The Shakespeare Stealer. Warm up and introductory activities, as well as...

Study and research the American Civil War in this explanatory writing lesson. Middle schoolers complete six activities to learn about the American Civil War and soldiers' views of the war. The lesson includes several options to complete...

What is a ‘Zine? Although the referenced PBS video that launches this study of self-published magazines is not available, the activities detailed and the step-by-step directions for creating ‘Zines would engage young writers. This...

Pogrom, schlepped, meshuga. Kapo, reich, Wehrmacht. As part of a unit study of Maus I and II, readers use a list-group-label (LGL) strategy for vocabulary drawn from Art Spiegelman's famous graphic novels. The focus of the activity is...

Finally! Here are some new and fresh ideas, across the curicullum, that can be used around the Thanksgiving holiday. The lesson is divided up into two sections: Beyond Turkey - Activities for Younger Students and, Beyond Turkey -...

Guide your readers to explore character traits. As a class, discuss and record the traits of a commonly-known fairy tale character. Then do the same with the main character in the class novel. Finally, have learners use magazines...

Is your opinion significant? Help your class discover the influence their opinions hold and encourage them to make a positive change in their community. To start, they get in teams and brainstorm why their school should have more healthy...

Here is an interesting take on the old timed-fluency activity. In pairs, learners work together to see how fast they can read two sets of high-frequency words. Peer one reads a word from his list; peer two works fast to find that word in...

Whether new to the KWHL strategy or not readers of Briar Rose will benefit from the detailed procedures and templates designed for Jane Yolen’s novel. Links are provided for research into the Holocaust and activities reveal the many...

If you need a lesson for your poetry unit, use two poems by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow ("Rain in Summer" and "The Slave in the Dismal Swamp") and a resource on Elements of Poetry. The lesson plan guides you through activities...

A discussion of the Supreme Court’s Opinion of Tinker v. Des Moines generates a discussion of the Bill of Rights and the First Amendment. Although the key elements of this lesson are based on a video that is not included, the activities...

Included in this resource are a variety of activities to do while reading Willa Cather's My Antonia. The activities, which range from mapping out Nebraska to writing activities about pioneer living, are all designed with one...

Create a language mosaic to reveal the linguistic diversity in your community. Pupils interview a person with a home language other than English and contribute to a bulletin board display representing the variety of languages spoken. The...

Step into the hopeful and tragic world of Anne Frank with this lesson plan on reading in context. After complete a variety of activities related to the first two scenes of The Diary of Anne Frank, eighth graders participate in a...

Learners make art based on the ribbon work of the Woodland Indians. Background information on the art form and procedure are laid out in an easy to follow step-by-step format. 

Tenth graders analyze animated Disney movies. They demonstrate their awareness of how the artful use of language can affect and influence others. They evaluate how both genders and cultures are portrayed in mass media.

Kindergartners will cut, paste, and label the words that contain a short or long e sound. They can build their phonemic awareness as they say each word to determine which e goes where.

Do your learners need help setting financial goals? Do they need to practice setting long-term goals? Keep teens accountable by providing the goal contract and encouraging them to check in with their goals! Give middle and high schoolers...

Stress the importance of authenticating online resources and understanding the sources of websites' information with this activity. Using a Web-based activity, the lesson prompts young learners to think critically about determining the...

High schoolers deconstruct advertising messages by analyzing parody ads and exploring the purpose of satire. Then they create their own parodies based on real ads discussed in class. A creative activity to extend any study of media,...

Learners read as many high-frequency words as possible in a given amount of time. Peer one reads a word from a list, and peer two points to the corresponding word as they are seen on the table. This activity is timed and peer evaluated.

Add additional meanings to root words! Scholars show what they know about suffixes and root words with a activity that challenges them to create words and complete sentences. 

Readers of Bud, Not Buddy demonstrate their knowledge of the Great Depression with a list, group, label vocabulary strategy. Included are complete directions for the activity that will also introduce class members to the new vocabulary...

Class members create literary mandalas for two characters from Maus, Art Spiegelman’s graphic novel about his father’s experiences with the Holocaust. After finding quotes that reveal three good traits and three bad traits of each...