Focus on presentation techniques with this lesson, which prompts middle schoolers give an impromptu speech. They practice public speaking by giving a short unprepared speech. Some preparations are made to include an introduction, body,...

Help your students to vary their sentence structure with this presenation, which teaches them to use relative pronouns and adjective clauses to change the order of their sentences. The presentation details different ways to write the...

Students explore English by completing an interactive language history activity. In this word recognition instructional activity, students discuss word formations and the phonetic relationship between letters. Students identify the...

Students write a topic sentence to a paragraph and explain that it introduces the main idea. After a whole-class demonstration, students write a complete paragraph with their topic sentence and supporting sentences. There are some...

Here is a way to practice using Spanish vocabulary about school. This exercise offers real-life examples of school items, oral practice, and ideas for working in pairs. Note: Using real-life examples is a great strategy in teaching a...

Is your essay coherent? Does it make sense? Is it formatted correctly? Does it adhere to standard English conventions? This helpful and informative slide-show walks learners step by step through the editing and proofreading process. Each...

Does your class dread using semicolons? Use this resource to join two independent clauses using either a comma, semicolon, or colon. Several examples and six practice sentences are available at the bottom for learners to choose the...

Checking boxes on any admissions application is par for the corse. How much does race selections factor into admissions decisions? Kids read a New York Times article on the topic and then answer seven who, what, when, where, and why...

When the perspective changes in a question, the verb form has to change, too. Give your learners this PowerPoint print-out, and identify questions that have a perspective change. The last slide asks the learner to change the verb forms...

Having a debate doesn't mean you're fighting. Introduce middle schoolers to debate with a resource which distinguishes between an quarrel and a debate, describes the debate process and format, and presents some possible debate topics.

A class newsletter? The possible extensions for this activity are endless. After examining examples of news print-outs from hotels or workplaces, class members develop their own articles and produce a newsletter. A great way to keep...

How do lighting types affect energy efficiency? Explore different types of lighting and the energy they use. Pupils learn about types of lights and calculate the energy used during a typical school year. They discover that being...

Young hydrologists observe a waterwheel which helps them investigate the transformations of energy that occur when the blades of a hydro-turbine are turning. They work together in pairs and pretend to be engineers who are building a new...

Turn your pupils into teachers! Here is a lesson that requires groups to research an energy source with the provided handout, create a poster, and present their information to the class. Connections are made to practical aspects of...

What can bulldozers and screen doors have in common? Use this lesson on fluid power to find out. It begins with some simple teacher demonstrations, includes a couple of videos, and culminates with an inquiry-based activity to investigate...

What should be the role of the federal government during an economic crisis? That is the question at the center of this introduction to a study of the New Deal. Class members examine letters to the state government asking for help,...

Many people, when searching online, will type in what they are looking for without much thought. But what's the next step, if they don't get the desired results? Careful selection of search terms. Your class can develop a sense for...

Raise children's awareness about the importance of conservation with this hands-on science lesson. Start by breaking the class into groups and having them collect trash from around the school or local park. Students then use the provided...

What makes your pupils happy? Find out with a lesson centered around this theme. Class members come up with things that make them happy and write about them in preparation for quick group project. Learners watch and discuss a short film...

Your young historians will read excerpts from three parts of the United States Constitution—Article One, the Thirteenth Amendment, and the Fourteenth Amendment—and discuss how they each address the issue of slavery. 

If you'd like your class to write in varied sentence patterns, use a learning exercise focused on adverb clauses to enhance their writing. After reading a short explanation and example of adverb clauses, young grammarians underline the...

How do 2-D properties relate in 3-D? Lead the class in a discussion on how to draw and see relationships of lines and planes in three dimensions. The ability to see these relationships is critical to the further study of volume and...

Why are some immigrant groups in the United States embraced while others become disenfranchised? To answer this question, teams investigate why groups emigrated to the US, why some of these these peoples were...

An activity focused on tolerance encourages class members to consider how they might respond when they or someone else is the target of oppression and discrimination. After researching how some key figures responded to the...