If a field trip to the summit of Mount Everest isn't in your school budget, make the trek virtually! An interactive lesson allows class members to follow Sir Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay's trail up the mountain, and provides...

Women rose to the challenge when the nation's war effort called them—but were sent home when the GIs came back from World War II. Young historians consider whether the United States valued women's contributions during the war using a...

For this literacy learning exercise, students draw a picture of themselves and then compose a sentence that is descriptive of who they are.

Young scholars comprehend and interpret a read-aloud text and participate in literature response groups. Students make personal connections to a story by writing and telling about a time they experienced a similar situation or emotion as...

Students listen to the story Jeffrey and the Sloth and relate the story to how it feels to have writer's block. In this Jeffrey and the Sloth lesson, students use this book to inspire their creative writing process. Students create their...

Learners read and discuss a film review of the animated movie Antz and then write a monologue from the perspective of a non-human organism.

Sixth graders write a narrative. They choose options for plot and climax within the context of an outdoor survival story.

Eighth graders review narrative tenses. In this narrative tenses instructional activity, 8th graders read a story, answer comprehension questions, and complete a worksheet. This instructional activity is designed for students who are...

Students role-play as immigrants coming to America during the early 1900's. They conduct Internet research printing out pictures and reading biographies. Students use the information gathered to create scrapbooks in which the write...

Fifth graders practice creating suspense in writing. For this narrative lesson, 5th graders read stories that create suspense through the use of cliff- hangers. They use cliff-hangers in their own writing. 

In this letter to the editor worksheet, students brainstorm and fill in the blanks to a graphic organizer that would help them write a letter to an editor. Students complete 12 spaces in the graphic organizer.

Learners use the author's writing as a model to achieve vivid description and engaging humor in compositions of their own. They examine the ways a writer can capture and hold a reader's attention and write a short personal narrative...

What factors help people achieve goals? What factors prevent people from achieving goals? What are the elements that need to be in place to make a team function well? Using Damien Lewis’ Desert Claw and John Francome’s Winner Takes All,...

Help your class create collective poetry following a simple, engaging model from Teaching Tolerance (tolerance.org). Each young poet writes five things on an index card: sayings from others, favorite sound, favorite place, favorite...

Fifth grade reader/writers create an alternate ending to an episode in Roald Dahl's James and the Giant Peach in which our protagonist "loses" the chance to magically solve all his problems. Prompts students not only to write creatively...

Do talk back! The transcript of one side of a telephone conversation launches a study of dialogue. Class members imagine the response of the speaker on the other side of the conversation and record these responses on the provided...

Three lesson plans are shown on this site, two of which pertain to Read 180. Start the year with the first instructional activity by having your learners create a brochure about themselves. In the computer lab, they find clip art and...

In a single, soundly-designed class period, high schoolers define good character, think-pair-share about thought-provoking quotes on character (More options would enhance the discussion, worth searching online for other quotes to add.),...

Tenth graders analyze the use of literary elements in W.W. Jacob's "The Monkey's Paw." Literary analysis is accomplished by a review of the plot and order of events in the story. Learners work in pairs to match the events from the story...

Learners analyze William Faulkner's 'As I Lay Dying' and his use of multiple voices. In this William Faulkner lesson plan, students analyze Faulkner's use of multiple voices in narration. Learners examine the Bundren family through the...

Students explore Irish culture by participating in a creative writing activity. In this good will writing activity, students define "Irish Blessings" and utilize computer software to create a template for a blessing they will write....

Students compare the consequences of the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco to Hurricane Katrina's impact on New Orleans as a basis for investigating the transformative effect of infamous United States natural disasters.

Fourth graders discover similarities and differences in the lifestyles and geography of Utah and Japan. They use a Venn Diagram to compare and contrast daily life and geography in Utah with daily life and geography in Japan. They make...

As part of their exploration of the American dream, class members examine primary source materials to compare immigrant experiences of those arriving early in our country's history to those arriving in the US after World War...