What a great lesson, upper graders are sure to love. They explore costume design and the relationships between theatre, culture, and history. They research three time periods, write a response about two of them, then create a composit...

How did jazz influence Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man? Class members read some of Ellison's non-fiction writings about blues and jazz, listen to records, watch videos, and engage in student-centered discussions. They then produce podcasts...

To whom it may concern ... Scholars undergo the process of writing a letter to an authority figure. The lesson asks writers to compose a formal letter requesting a music therapy space. Pupils learn how to submit a project proposal to any...

Introduce your class to ekphrastic poetry with an exercise that asks them to examine Edward Hooper's painting House by the Railroad and Edward Hirsch's poem "Edward Hopper and the House By the Railroad." After a close reading...

Practice the skill of compare and contrast. First, show learners the different pairs of artwork in the project packet (included). Then, each learner chooses one of the pairs and finds the similarities and differences between the...

Gustav Holst's The Planets provide young musicians an opportunity to examine how composers can create a suite: a collection of smaller pieces grouped to explore a single topic. After listening to "Jupiter," they examine "Mars" in...

Hip Hop? Country? Punk? R and B? So many styles. Young song writers consider the emotional effects of various style options before selecting the style best suited to the emotions they want to express in their song. The sixth in a...

Students analyze and critique theater events by evaluating and constructing meanings from improvised and scripted scenes and from theater, film, television, and electronic media productions.

Chinese and Japanese calligraphy is beautiful and significant in both culture and tradition. Engage your class in this expressive fine art form through a lesson on using, holding, and creating brush strokes common to Japanese writing...

Young scholars create original costumes and make-up for a puppet presentation of a scene from Shakespeare in this week long creative project. Performances of the Shakespeare scenes end this lesson geared towards state and national...

Why is Apple suing Samsung? Give your English language learners a bit of reading comprehension practice. First, they read the short passage provided, and then they complete 10 activities. There are true or false questions, matching...

Students create and present a theme-based exhibition. In this design lesson, students categorize objects to reflect a specific design theme and create their own theme-based collections. Students research a museum collection to discover...

Students practice looking skills as they reflect upon the differences between viewing original works of art and reproductions. In this art viewing lesson, students interpret a work of art using formal analysis and research done for...

Learners read and write an artist's statement. In this artist's statement lesson plan, students read Dorothea Lange's artist statement before writing one of their own about their photography. They examine their own photography and use...

Fifth graders investigate bullying and nonviolent ways to deal with bullies.  In this conflict management lesson, 5th graders discover the definition for the word ahimsa and examine ways to incorporate that philosophy into their...

High schoolers identify life situations which require various writing responses, use the power of the written word to obtain results, practice writing responses to real-world events, and demonstrate the skills needed to recognize and...

Fifth graders write a paragraph titled "All About Me" in the computer lab after they have drawn graphic organizers to fill in background information about themselves and used a "10-Point Writing Checklist" to do peer editing.

Students read an artist's statement by Dorothea Lange and write a statement based on their own photographs. In this photograph and writing lesson, students examine the relationship between photography and the artist's statement. Students...

Learners create plastic bag costumes for a short scene developed in the classroom. Performances and assessment occur at the end of this quick lesson. A very creative mini-project for theatre arts classes.

You set the rate! Step into the shoes of a taxi driver in New York City, and also pretend to be a person who uses taxis to get around town. The class will conduct collaborative research to learn about the history of taxis. Then, they...

Students write a composition comparing and contrasting two portraits. In this comparing and contrasting instructional activity, students will observe two portraits and compare them through their writing. They then will write a letter to...

Learners compare and contrast the Lincoln portraits using a Venn diagram and included analysis tool. In this presidential photography lesson, students write a journal entry and a letter as if they were Abraham Lincoln. Lastly learners...

Learners explore the work of Stephen Sondheim. In this musical theater lesson, students examine the musicals Merrily We Roll Along and Sunday in the Park with George. Learners identify and anaylze linear and...

Sixth graders conduct research on the internet to discover the principles of drawing using one and two point perspectives. After examining street scenes by Edward Hopper and postcards of Main Street USA in Disney, they write about and...