The content in this lesson is of a controversial nature. Please review to make sure it is suitable for your class. A video, The Meatrix is shown to the class, and then they discuss the emotionally-charged language that it uses. They are...

Here is a fine lesson 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 must use their...

Create a respectful classroom community and boost children's self-esteem with this collaborative activity. Working in small groups, children take turns filling in each other's tree of self-esteem with compliments, personal...

The last activity in a nine-part series has teams create a Google Earth map using the data they collected during a field trip. Using the map, groups analyze the results and make adjustments to the map to reflect their analysis. A short...

Group work and participation is used to perform a specified translation or reflection. In this geometrical translation lesson, small groups of pupils are each given a shape to plot on a coordinate grid. Each shape is then translated or...

Do your young readers have difficulty visualizing what they read? Although the activity described here is for The Call of the Wild, the strategy could be used with any narrative. At the conclusion of each chapter of Jack London’s novel,...

What qualities make a good leader? The activities in this packet are designed for a convention of recognized school leaders but could easily be adapted to any classroom. Groups generate a list of qualities they believe are essential for...

Eleventh graders examine the political demands put on one of four groups living in America during WWII. Each class member is asked to research and write a paper describing the homefront experience for women, Hispanics, African-Americans,...

Develop a better understanding of "Blackbeard's Ghost" with this differentiated lesson. Working in groups on a creative project, middle schoolers can reinforce their reading comprehension and literary analysis skills. Use this...

Provide pupils samples of different types of poems including haikus, narrative, nonsense, shape, and rhyming poems. In groups, class members read the poems, establish their general meaning, identify poetic devices, and rate the poems,...

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...

Identify the Earth's major volcanoes with an earth science lesson. Elementary and middle schoolers locate major volcanoes on a world map. Then, in groups, they research how the volcano affects the region in which it is located.

A unique lesson on the solar system, and some of the mathematics associated with it, is here for your high schoolers. Pupils are put into groups of four, and each group is assigned one of the planets from our solar system. They must...

Middle schoolers, in groups, investigate and demonstrate the science behind the development of lightning and thunderstorms.

Looking for an excellent lesson that incorporates math, science, and technology? Groups of three students use a viewing tube to perform an experiment, and discover how to organize their data into an Excel spreadsheet.  This is a...

How did the women in France feel about their country’s involvement in World War II? Class groups are assigned a country involved in WWII, and individuals within the group adopt the point of view of leaders, laborers, businessmen, women,...

Second graders take a field trip to a nearby church or other historical building and examine it from a mathematical perspective. In groups, they calculate the seating capacity, describe the window patterns, differentiate types of...

What do you use to chop an onion or brown the meat? Learners with special needs read through a taco recipe, then use it to complete three different academic development activities. They circle the best utensil for the job, match each...

Class members take center stage as groups perform scenes from Ian Doescher's William Shakespeare's Star Wars: Verily, A New Hope. Actors are encouraged to add stage directions to the script, as well as create costumes and props to...

Class members come up with a hypothesis on the number of decimal digits in the product of two decimals. Learners work in groups to complete several decimal multiplication problems. The results help groups develop a conjecture on the...

Integrate math, science, and speaking/listening with a collaborative hands-on activity. Each group works with a single penny, examining it with the naked eye and recording observations. Repeat using magnifying glasses. Then repeat with a...

Once learners are ready to choose a bank, how do they make a smart decision for their financial needs? Scholars help each other by jigsawing the research in groups. After introducing checking and savings accounts with the attached...

Working in groups or individually, learners study images of important events that occurred at, or directly affected, the White House, and share their findings of a specific event. They then post the image of their event on a...

Groups make a model of an Ocean Commotion exhibit based on what they saw during the fieldtrip. These dioramas can be used as an informal assessment of student knowledge acquired at Ocean Commotion.