American women have been working toward equal rights since the ink dried on the Declaration of Independence. Focused on the words and actions of Sojourner Truth, Shirley Chisholm, and Venus Williams, a language arts lesson takes eighth...

Help your class examine humanity's unpredictable nature through "Life Steps Almost Straight." Learners read various works from philosophers such as Viktor Frankl, The Buddha, and Nietzsche to gather textual evidence and explain their...

Should a criminal's punishment match the crime? An argumentative writing plan explores this question as class members investigate a variety of mixed-medium sources by experts in the field, form evidence-based claims, and support them...

Only a thorough understanding of history can save us from repeating it. Practice close reading skills with an eighth grade unit that focuses on 19th century America, including European immigration into Ellis Island and Frederick...

In order to make evidence-based claims, one must be able to draw explicit information from text. From here, learners take that information, analyze the text to develop a deeper understanding, and connect with the information in order to...

Close reading doesn't mean to literally read text close to your face, but rather to pay attention to particular details in order to develop a deep and purposeful understanding of text. The first part of a five-part resource provides an...

Look closely, some details are hidden! Scholars learn how to find attributes by first examining characteristics in illustrations and then move to locating details in text with close reading. The teacher models good practices for...

Sorry, Charlie. Scholars take a close look at Apology by Plato. Activities analyzing the text help pupils understand, make, organize, and write about claims. Learners work in groups, complete claim tools, and evaluate thinking by filling...

Pupils work in small groups to answer guided questions and discuss the details they found. They also read independently, improving strategies they learned to approach and question text.

Take another look—there are probably more details than readers realize. Scholars analyze nine texts in a five-part unit that contains 21 activities to find textual details. Activities include close reading, independent reading,...

Take a ride in The Red Convertible by Louise Erdrich. Students read the story and discuss whether a car is really a character. After carrying out several activities using graphic organizers and tools for making their claims in The Red...

Pay close attention! After finding details in a picture, scholars begin to find details in videos and text. They work together in groups, discuss in pairs, and carry out independent reading to answer guiding questions. Organizers, tools,...

Scholars dig deep into the text of W.E.B. Du Bois The Souls of Black Folk and analyze his position that black people must be aware of how they see themselves as well as how the world sees them. The instructor and readers work through the...

Investigate negative exponents of-ten. Pupils use the pattern of increasing powers of 10 to determine negative powers of 10. The scholars write the powers in expanded and product forms and make the connection to exponents using a...

You'd feel bad if someone called you by the wrong name — and equations are no different. Young mathematicians learn the vocabulary associated with equations and expressions identifying these components in sample equations.

How many different interpretations of the mean are there? Scholars place numbers on a number line and determine the mean. They interpret the mean as the average value and as the balance point.

Not all pie graphs are about pies. The class conducts a survey on favorite fast food categories in a lesson on data representation. Pupils use the results to create a circle graph.

Congruent figures: two figures that want to be just like each other. Individuals learn to distinguish between figures that are congruent and those that are not. Measuring the lengths of line segments and angles helps in this endeavor.

Point your class in the right direction in plotting points with three activities that give scholars a chance to learn about and practice plotting points on a coordinate plane. They draw figures on the coordinate plane and list out the...

Estimate the value of one of the most famous irrational numbers. The hands-on instructional activity instructs classmates to measure the circumference and diameters of circles using yarn. The ratio of these quantities defines pi.

Here's a perfect way to introduce perfect squares. Individuals color in the diagonals of squares and record observations about patterns. They connect their diagrams to exponents of two and perfect squares.

Score a resource on ratios. Young mathematicians learn about different ways to express ratios. Using sports data, they write statements about the statistics in ratio form.

How similar do figures have to be to be similar figures? Individuals learn to identify similar figures by verifying that angles are congruent and sides are proportional. Additionally, they match the corresponding parts of similar figures.

Wrap up a lesson plan on surface area with a resource that asks scholars to use the idea of wrapping paper to investigate surface area. They draw representations of rectangular prisms on graph paper to find the areas of the respective...