Students will investigate how different variables (such as type of seed, growth medium, amount of water, amount of light, and temperature) affect seed growth. The activity is designed to take students approximately 10 hours over a 2-week period.

In this lesson, students will learn about the geography and topography of China and surrounding countries, discover how ideas, cultures, and goods were exchanged through the Silk Road, relate the ideas of trade and globalization to today, and then write a travel journal entry as if they were a participant in trade along the Silk Road.

In this lesson, students write a short article for an imaginary music magazine in which they interpret the lyrics of a popular song.

Some of the most the most essential works of literature in the world are examples of epic poetry, such as The Odyssey and Paradise Lost. This lesson introduces students to the epic poem form and to its roots in oral tradition.

In the magazine article, “The Story of an Eyewitness,” Jack London describes the effects of the San Francisco Earthquake of 1906. His account describes its immediate aftermath and utter destruction of the city by the ensuing fire. The National Archives article provides a brief third-person account of the San Francisco Earthquake that can be used to compare and contrast first- versus third-person accounts of the same event. In this CCSS lesson, students will explore this history through text dependent questions, academic vocabulary, and writing assignments.

Guide your students in discovering what primary and secondary sources are and how to use them with this interactive lesson from Wisconsin Public Television Education. During this lesson, students watch video clips from the documentary "Wisconsin Hometown Stories: Neenah-Menasha," identifying the primary and secondary sources and how the sources provide evidence for events in a story. They also explain where they can locate primary and secondary sources, such as in libraries and historical societies. As a final task, students create an outline for a presentation telling about an event. They use primary and secondary sources as evidence to support the facts in the event’s story.

This article emphasizes the importance of focus on composition in the writing process.

In this lesson, students construct a necklace in order to visualize a plan for including a central idea, supporting facts, and a clincher sentence in a written piece.

In this lesson, students read sample essays in order to learn how to write effective expository essays of their own.

A teacher's guide to Aldous Huxley's, A Brave New World. Included are chapter-by-chapter discussion questions, writing prompts, and activities.

A teacher's guide to Agatha Christie's, And Then There Were None. Included are chapter-by-chapter discussion questions, writing prompts, and activities.

A teacher's guide to Harper Lee's, Go Set A Watchman. Included are chapter-by-chapter discussion questions, writing prompts, and activities.

A comprehensive teacher's guide to Agatha Christie's Murder on the Orient Express. Included are chapter-by-chapter discussion questions, writing prompts, and activities.

Many factors contributed to the eventual success of the American colonies as they revolted against British rule. American leadership, the timely support of international allies, and international respect and recognition played major roles in the struggle for independence. Several documents and engravings held by the National Archives help to illustrate these important factors that led to the founding of the United States.

This lesson focuses on the American Revolution, which encouraged the founding fathers' desire to create a government that would, as stated in the Preamble, insure domestic tranquility and provide for the common defense.

Students are presented with a paired critical reading activity uses excertps from Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird and a New York Times article "˜History of Lynchings in the South Documents Nearly 4,000 Names"™ to exlplore the deep and painful history of racial injustice in the south. Included are close fiction/non-fiction analysis, varied media resources, and writing assignments.

In this resource from the New York Times, a paired critical reading activity uses excertps from Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird and a New York Times article ‘History of Lynchings in the South Documents Nearly 4,000 Names’ to exlplore the deep and painful history of racial injustice in the south. Included are close fiction/non-fiction analysis, varied media resources, and writing assignments.

Students are asked the question, "What do we need to do to prevent or control an outbreak of yellow fever at our school if it occurred today?" Students will work in small collaborative groups to examine the problem of epidemics in past and modern times. Students will develop their own public health policy that reflects the challenges of a modern day outbreak of yellow fever at school. Students will present their findings in the form of a written letter/report and multimedia presentation to the class and to the Principal. This lesson utilizes documents from the North Carolina State Government Publications Collection.

Students are invited to explore the cultural offerings around them "” from architecture to books, dance, fashion, film, food, music, theater, TV and video games "” and write reviews about what they experience. The New York Times models along with advice from current Times critics to help them through the process.

In this lesson, students study issues related to independence and notions of manliness in Ernest Hemingway’s “Three Shots” as they conduct in-depth literary character analysis, consider the significance of environment to growing up and investigate Hemingway’s Nobel Prize-winning, unique prose style. In addition, they will have the opportunity to write and revise a short story based on their own childhood experiences and together create a short story collection.

In this video from American Masters: Harper Lee: Hey, Boo, learn about the small town of Monroeville, Alabama, Harper Lee’s hometown and the inspiration for the fictional town of Maycomb, the setting for To Kill a Mockingbird. Through archival interviews, photographs, and present-day commentary (including an excerpt from an interview with Harper Lee), students will learn what life was like for people living in the South during the Great Depression.