Literacy in History & Science Grades 6-8 Common Core Activities: Task Cards, Escape Room, Close Reading

Bring real disciplinary reading into your middle school history or science class with one pack that both teachers on a team can use, because every activity is labeled History or Science.

What's inside

• Teacher Guide (4 pages): what's inside, standards alignment by activity, pacing ideas, LOW PREP setup and tips for history and science teachers
• Task Cards + Station Rotation (15 pages): 32 task cards in 14 formats across 4 stations (2 History, 2 Science), 4 station signs, a station overview and a student recording sheet
• Escape Challenge: Lockdown at the Harbor Museum (11 pages): 6 locks (number, word, directional and color sequence) built on 1787 founding documents, an Erie Canal map, a pH procedure and real oxygen data, plus teacher setup, mission brief, team code sheet and hint cards
• Close Reading & Writing Packet (21 pages): 4 original fact-checked passages (the Constitutional Convention with paired 1787 primary sources, the Erie Canal with a map, graph and timeline, stream health with field data, and a sugar-dissolving lab), text-dependent questions, annotation guide, vocabulary toolkit, two evidence organizers, argument and explanatory prompts and a student-friendly rubric
• Answer Keys (5 pages) with sample responses, and a terms of use page (57 pages total)
• Interactive Slides (20 slides, .pptx): drag-and-drop sorts, timelines, map labels, sequence strips and type-in boxes for PowerPoint or Google Slides

Standards: RH.6-8.1, RH.6-8.2, RH.6-8.4, RH.6-8.6, RH.6-8.7, RH.6-8.8, RH.6-8.9, RST.6-8.1, RST.6-8.3, RST.6-8.4, RST.6-8.7, RST.6-8.8, RST.6-8.9, WHST.6-8.1, WHST.6-8.2

LOW PREP: Print and go. Card pages are in station order with dashed cut lines, the escape challenge runs with or without real locks, passages print in black and white, and the slides are ready to assign.

License: Single-classroom license. For school or team licenses, send a message through the store's Contact page.

Designed by a classroom teacher and instructional coach. Illustrations are created with AI tools; all content is written and reviewed for standards alignment and classroom use.