Does your class have the write stuff? Young career seekers try their hand at composing business letters in the second of six career and college readiness lesson plans for seniors. Pupils practice writing cover letters, thank you notes,...

Business etiquette is a big deal! Are your scholars prepared to impress in the business world? The third in a series of six college and career readiness lessons focuses on basic behaviors in business situations. Groups research specific...

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...

Let their futures take flight! The sixth and final installment in a series of career and college readiness lesson plans pulls it all together for graduation-bound seniors. Individuals comb through their action plans and describe the...

For employers and recruiters, the first step in their quest to find good candidates is the paper screening process. They look at a candidate's application and resume and push forward the files of those who meet their requirements. Thus...

Let's ask an expert. Scholars divide into groups to research and become experts on either ants or butterflies. Learners use task cards and text on their topic to complete a note catcher. At the end, they share their information with a...

Want to use sequence maps in your narrative writing unit? Young writers work to create personal narratives about their summer vacation. They write a narrative of their vacation and create a display using summer clothing shapes made from...

Assess your new learners' writing abilities and knowledge of literary terms with these diagnostic activities. Part of a back-to-school unit, this is meant to provide the teacher with information about the ability levels of their class....

Full of tips about structure, audience, and evidence in a persuasive essay, this presentation would be a great way to start a writing unit in your class. One slide advises young writers to make up quotes and statistics in their essays....

From the purpose of punctuation to its proper uses, guide your learners with this presentation. Great visuals dissect sentences to show where a comma belongs and the different parts of a sentence. Help your class use commas only when...

See the variety of verbs spelled out in these slides. From infinitives to intransitives, each verb is defined and shown with examples. Relationships of verbs to other parts of a sentence are clearly explained. This complex subject is...

Play with words and word meanings involving the suffix -er. After reading a sample list of words, young readers look up each one in the dictionary to decide which words refer to people, animals, or objects, or have three or more...

Young scholars discuss plate tectonics and the layers of the earth's interior. They use eggs as models of the earth and answer questions regarding which part of the egg would represent which part of the earth.

Follow this outline to write persuasive essays with your 11th grade college prep classes. Using the internet, they research a topic, citing their sources correctly. They work with a partner to peer edit their rough drafts, checking for...

Learners of all ages participate in a unique review activity. They work in a small group setting on individual review questions designed by the teacher. Each individual answers a key review question on a notecard or sticky note and...

As a way to understand Memorial Day, build citizenship, practice vocabulary, and discuss current international conflicts, learners create their own Memorial Day. They design their own memorial after learning about the various types of...

Using a pre-test, this lesson starts by establishing differentiated learning groups. Each group practices determining area and perimeter using interactive web sites small groups are then pulled aside and given additional support as...

Are you teaching a high school language arts class and stumped for writing topics? Five pages of writing prompts for all kinds of writing should help you out. Many of these prompts refer to texts that are not included in this resource,...

How is a story like a peanut butter and jelly sandwich? Use making a sandwich as a metaphor to remind your writers that a good, solid beginning, a rich and rewarding middle, and an ending that brings everything together spices up a...

What are the three types of irony? High schoolers engage in a lesson about the use of irony while reading O.Henry's short story "Gift of the Magi." They'll discuss rising action, climax, and resolution in the text before highlighting the...

Analyze poetry in a group setting. Middle and high schoolers read lyrics to a Tom Petty song and free write about the song's tone, setting, and speaker. They then complete the same activity in a group setting using seven poems. The...

Kathy Henderson’s book And the Good Brown Earth introduces the class to how a vegetables grows and changes over time. They use different types of lettuce to do a close study of this quick-growing vegetable. Learners consider the look,...

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...

Whether you are teaching a newspaper unit in language arts, covering the First Amendment and censorship in social studies, or focusing on writing ethics in journalism, a unit based on the foundations of journalism would be an excellent...