Students explore the nature and structure of expository texts that focusing on cause and effect and apply what they learned using graphic organizers and writing paragraphs to outline cause-and-effect relationships.

Students read an example of allegory, review literary concepts, complete literary elements maps and plot diagrams, create a pictorial allegory, and write diamante poems related to the theme of change.

Students build their understanding of the terms "compare" and "contrast" by participating in class discussions, using Internet resources, working collaboratively, and by visually representing information in a Venn diagram.

Students make sense of dollars and cents when they study the importance of saving and budgeting in this lesson.

Interaction and adventure draws high school and elementary school students together as they analyze stories about the Lewis and Clark expedition.

History takes on new dimensions in this interactive multimedia lesson that emphasizes the B-D-A approach to research as students investigate the experiences of people with disabilities since the early 1800s.

Students read Avi's "Nothing But the Truth" and examine the First Amendment and student rights, and then decide whether the rights of the novel's protagonist, Philip, are violated.

Students make predictions about "Bridge to Terabithia" and its characters, complete character studies, and relate the characters' experiences to their own as they identify ways to make and keep friends.

Nonfiction may be dull for some students, but this lesson helps them focus on the main ideas. Through awareness of section headings, students learn to sort and categorize main concepts.

After reading "All Quiet on the Western Front", students discuss the novel's ironic ending, then compose alternate titles and endings for the book, and design new book covers.

In the essay "Mother Tongue," Amy Tan explains that she "began to write stories using all the Englishes I grew up with." How these "different Englishes" or even a language other than English contribute to identity is a crucial issue for adolescents.

In this lesson, students explore this issue by brainstorming the different languages they use in speaking and writing, and when and where these languages are appropriate. They write in their journals about a time when someone made an assumption about them based on their use of language, and share their writing with the class. Students then read and discuss Amy Tan's essay "Mother Tongue." Finally, they write a literacy narrative describing two different languages they use and when and where they use these languages.

Writing gets personal when students interview family members in order to write a personal narrative about that person.

Students create a Detective's Handbook based on a detective mystery they have read. The handbooks include expository and descriptive writing, as well as a letter.

The activity includes a series of exercises, in which students view the literal representations of idioms and then examine the metaphorical meanings of the idioms.

Fact Fragment Frenzy provides elementary students with an online model for finding facts in nonfiction text, then invites students to find facts in five sample passages.

Picture books provide the basis for an analysis of fairy tale elements before students write their own original tales.

After reading a short memoir and reviewing the genre, students choose how to create a memoir of a family member who is at least a generation older. Students first select a family member to interview, and then craft a set of interview. Students create written memoirs, focusing on one or two unifying themes, and can be presented as a photographic collage, a series of panels telling a story, a painting, a video, a musical composition, a sculpture, or another creative way. Students accompany their work with an artist̍s journal, explaining why they have chosen the particular method of presentation and analyzing their own successes and shortcomings.

Social injustice occurs every day all over the world. In this lesson, students research a few historical examples of social injustice, including the Holocaust, the Trail of Tears, and Japanese internment.

Using various reading strategies and resources, students explore the issue of food waste. They also create persuasive arguments and blog posts examining this topic.

The Flip Book is designed to allow users to type and illustrate tabbed flip books up to ten pages long. Students and teachers can use the flip book for taking notes while reading, making picture books, collecting facts, or creating question and answer booklets.