The Grapes of Wrath. The Jungle. Native Son. The Things They Carried. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian. To address a current social, political, economic, or environmental issue, class groups pair the reading of a...

Your parents were both in different countries. You were born in the US. Documents and application forms ask you to identify your racial or ethnic classification. Which box do you check? Class members collect documents...

Travel back to 1787 as young scholars investigate the creation of the US Constitution. After first working in small groups to create sets of classroom rules, students go on to read a summary of the Constitution and watch a short video...

Get creative coloring the MyPlate food group plate! Each food group—grains, dairy, protein, vegetables, and fruit—is labeled within their portioned section of a plate that sits next to a fork. 

Explore the habitats around you with an activity that takes kids out of the classroom to learn about the local variety of habitats and the living things that call them home. In small groups, scholars investigate their surroundings,...

There are so many things to discover about the sun! Pupils discuss their knowledge of the sun, explore its features, apply their knowledge by labeling photographs, and then reflect on their learning by working in groups to draw and label...

How do you create a map of the ocean floor without getting wet? Middle school oceanographers discover the process of bathymetric mapping in the third installment in a five-part series of lessons designed for seventh and eighth graders....

One can never be too prepared. Pupils prepare for their upcoming mid-unit assessment by writing their group norms for small group discussions. Additionally, scholars read and listen to a poem, comparing the two experiences using a Venn...

Students practice grouping skills by sorting footwear of the class as a whole group. Activity can be extended by having individual students sort a variety of colored items using a sorting mat.

Use political cartoons for a multiple-perspectives strategy, as pupils learn about the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand. After an anticipatory discussion, they are split into 2 groups. The class reads a primary source account...

Tired of wasting time trying to get your class to split up into groups? Engage in an activity to help your charges manage time. Learners reflect on a time they were left out or rejected, and then practice forming groups of three within...

Looking in the cabinet can be fascinating! Examine the various departments of the Executive Cabinet in this group research project, which jigsaws so each small group has a different department and presents to the class. Groups create...

Students consider the notion of beauty and what impact the media and popular culture have on it. In this cross curricular lesson, students examine print ads, write down and share their thoughts on them. Then students form literary groups...

In this literature circle reflections learning exercise, students write down a discussion prompt and then respond to the prompt before and after meeting with a group. Students self-assess their own reading and responses. Students answer...

Students discuss what causes conflicts amongst groups especially pertaining to Native American tribes. In this conflicts lesson plan, students have discussion questions that they verbally answer and write in a journal.

Students explore the impact and effects of race identity during adolescence by discussing their perceptions of race and by conducting an obersavation-based study of the ways in which students choose to group themselves in their school.

In this milk group activity, students locate and circle the following milk products, plus one extra word, in a word search puzzle: milk, skim, cheese, butter, teeth, yogurt and bones.

After viewing a map of lights at night over a variety of geographic formations, young topographers connect the location of light clusters to geographic features that encourage human settlement. They list causes and effects of large...

Divide your class into groups to study the validity of online sources. One group looks at the authority and accuracy of four listed websites, another group looks at advocacy and objectivity, and the third group looks at currency and...

Can my windmill pick up a weight? Given the same set of materials, groups design and build the most efficient windmill. On the first day, groups concentrate on getting a windmill to spin, while on the second day, they modify their...

Motivate young scientists to stand up and take action with this environmental science lesson. To begin, the class works in small groups brainstorming actions that support the conservation of the earth before creating and implementing an...

Bring history to life for your young scholars with a Fourth of July lesson series. After a class reading of the Declaration of Independence, students translate this pivotal document into layman's terms before working in small...

A bully, a victim, and a bystander—far from the beginning of a joke, cyberbullying is no laughing matter. Bystander or upstander? As part of the study of cyberbullying, high schoolers first read a series of articles about cyberbullying...

Two activities ask high schoolers to consider the role of alcohol culture in their lives. First, groups analyze the types of appeals used in newspaper ads for alcoholic drinks and compare those images with what they have observed....