BrainPOP Lessons organized by Topic.

A Wrinkle in Time

Explore every wrinkle of Madeleine L'Engle's classic science fiction tale.

Active and Passive Voice

Active or Passive? Learn how to give voice to your sentences!

Adjectives

Watch this thrilling, informative, amazing, and entertaining movie about adjectives! (And then rewrite that sentence.)

Adverbs

They beautifully describe verbs, adjectives, other adverbs, nouns, and even whole sentences!

Agatha Christie

It’s no mystery why she’s the best-selling novelist of all time.

Alexander Hamilton

Meet the ten-dollar Founding Father whose way with words and mastery of money helped shape America into the financial powerhouse it is today!

Alice Ball

Meet Alice Ball, the brilliant young scientist who developed the first effective treatment for leprosy.

Antonyms, Synonyms, and Homonyms

What’ll you have on your bagel—lox or locks? Tim and Moby will teach you about grammar, pronunciation, and how words relate!

Bass Reeves

Explore the almost-lost legend of one of America's greatest lawmen.

Biography

Discover what makes a biography, and learn the source of memoirs--the writer’s life!

Business Letter

Tim and Moby send salutations and talk about how to write and structure a business correspondence.

Capitalization

Big letters, small letters: Knowing when to use them makes for proper grammar!

Characterization

How do we connect to the characters in stories? Writers use characterization to bring them to life: describing what they look and act like, their identity and personality, and other traits.

Charles Dickens

Don’t say “Bah, Humbug”! Dickens survived childhood poverty to become one of the greatest novelists ever.

Citing Sources

Articles and movies and books, oh my! Learn how to format MLA citations for every type of source in your bibliography.

Clauses

Independent or dependent, nouns or adjectives, Tim and Moby know how clauses make sentences work.

Colons

Tim and Moby on how these two little dots are so useful: You'll see them as salutations, as independent clauses, and as indicators of a related sentence to come. You'll even see them on your digital clock!

Commas

The Punctuation Pros are here to school you on all the rules of correct comma usage, so you can communicate clearly and effectively!

Concept Mapping

Learn how to use concept maps to navigate your knowledge!

Conducting an Interview

Questions and answers are just the start—learn what else it takes to conduct a great interview!

Conjunctions

Either conjunctions are important for coordinating phrases, or they’re not! (Hint: They are.)

Context Clues

Learn to figure out unfamiliar words!

Contractions

What’s a contraction and how’s one made? Tim and Moby help you use an apostrophe to combine words.

Copernicus

Meet Nicolaus Copernicus, the man who dared to theorize that the universe didn't revolve around him—or anyone else on Earth, either!

Critical Reasoning

People make claims all the time—learn how to figure out which ones hold up!

Debate

For effective arguments, the power of rhetoric is not open to debate!

Diagramming Sentences

Learn how to diagram all the parts of a sentence, from adjective to verb! But what on earth is a predicate?

Dialogue

How to recognize and write dialogue in novels, screenplays, and scripts.

Dictionary and Thesaurus

Tim and Moby teach you to look up and learn more about words and their meanings!

Edgar Allan Poe

Calm your tell-tale heart: This movie about macabre author Edgar Allan Poe isn’t nearly as frightening as his tales!

Emily Dickinson

Discover one of the most unique and influential voices in American verse

Etymology

Tim and Moby talk you through the study of words—their origins, meanings, and how wars change language!

Eugenie Clark

Explore the sea with Eugenie Clark, a trailblazing marine biologist and science communicator with a passion for sharks.

Fact and Opinion

Figure out the difference between what’s true, what’s not true, and when bias presents opinion as truth. Tim asks: Can you prove it? Well, can you?

Five-Paragraph Essay

Whether your essay is expository, descriptive, or persuasive, a five-paragraph format can help you organize your ideas and make a strong, well-supported argument. Write on!

Frankenstein

Meet the gothic monster of all monsters—and the woman who gave Frankenstein life!

George Washington

The founder of our country, the first commander-in-chief, and a darn good general--George Washington wasn’t perfect, but he’s a truly revolutionary figure.

Homer

Grab your toga and get ready for some epic tales of the ancient cultures of Greece and Troy.

Hyphens and Dashes

To avoid the all-too-common errors involving hyphens and dashes—and there are many—watch this movie start–finish!

I vs. Me

Getting personal with first-person pronouns is the object of this movie! Or is it the subject?

Idioms and Clichés

Every village needs an idiom. But using cliches makes for lazy writing!

Interjections

Oh Boy! The exciting part of Grammar! Interjections!

J. R. R. Tolkien

Take a trip to Middle-earth with Tim and Moby, and learn about fantasy author J.R.R. Tolkien!

Jack London

Tim and Moby follow the tracks of Jack London; sailor, adventurer, politician and famous author.

Kurt Vonnegut

Tim and Moby talk foma, wampeters, and granfalloons in our movie on author Kurt Vonnegut!

Lewis and Clark

Follow Lewis and Clark as they explore the U.S. interior and meet more than 50 Native nations!

Lord of the Flies

Tim and Moby introduce you to William Golding's great novel about lost children and the island society they create!

Main Idea

Wait, what was that all about? Get to the gist of it, and learn how to find the main idea!

Making Inferences

Help student readers engage deeply with texts by combining clues they come across on the page with existing knowledge to form ideas—that’s inferring!

Malcolm X

X marks the name of one of the most important leaders of the Civil Rights movement. Learn about the life and legacy of Malcolm X.

Mansa Musa

Learn about Mansa Musa, the man who put the African empire of Mali on the map!

Marco Polo

His adventures in China are the stuff of legend, but his impact is an indisputable fact. Explore the legacy of Marco Polo!

Mark Twain

Tim and Moby introduce you to the great American writer and satirist, Mark Twain.

Maya Angelou

Explore the inspiring life and literature of this Pulitzer Prize-winning writer, poet, and dancer!

Misplaced Modifiers

Avoiding misplaced modifiers is essential to good grammar and concise writing. So, where exactly do I put this adverb? If only I knew!

Mood and Tone

Find out how mood and tone affect the style of a piece of writing!

Note-Taking Skills

Taking notes helps you learn while you listen!

Nouns

They’re plural, they’re proper, and good luck speaking without them! Tim and Moby talk nouns.

Outlines

Tim and Moby show you how to research and organize your thoughts on a topic before you write!

Pablo Neruda

Meet the famous Chilean poet, statesman, and political activist.

Parallel Structure

Use the simple rhetorical technique of parallelism to make your writing stronger and more persuasive!

Paraphrasing

Learn how to use quotes or when to summarize to paraphrase, not plagiarize!

Parts of Speech

An explanation of the basic parts of speech: nouns, verbs, adjectives, and adverbs.

Personal Pronouns

Find out how personal pronouns refer to their antecedents.

Plot

There's more to a story than a thrilling climax! Learn the structure of most stories, from exposition to resolution and all the action in between.

Pocahontas

Forget the fairy tale. Learn the true history of Pocahontas, the Native woman who connected two cultures in the early days of U.S. history.

Poetry

Tim and Moby get all poetic on you! The rhyme, rhythm and verse of one of the oldest literary forms.

Point of View

First person, second person, third person, oh my! Tim and Moby give you perspective on point of view in writing.

Possessives

Hey--that’s mine! Discover the grammar of ownership by using apostrophes, possessive nouns, and pronouns.

Prepositional Phrases

Learn what a preposition is and how to identify prepositional phrases.

Prewriting: Choosing a Topic

Learn some prewriting strategies that will help you to generate ideas and find a topic that gets you going!

Prewriting: Organizing Your Thoughts

Save time by organizing your thoughts and mapping out your writing!

Public Speaking

Don’t be scared, be prepared! Tim and Moby’s tips for delivering a successful report or speech.

Punctuation

Punctuation’s function? It helps us understand who’s talking about what!

R.J. Palacio

Meet the bestselling author of >Wonder, the reading-list perennial about a fifth-grade boy with facial differences.

Rachel Carson

Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring kickstarted the modern environmental movement and inspired millions. One book really can change the world!

Reading a Newspaper

It’s one of the best ways to stay informed: Find your way around a newspaper, from byline to headline, sports to culture.

Roald Dahl

Meet the writer who brought you James and the Giant Peach, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and other timeless adventures!

Roots, Prefixes, and Suffixes

Expand your vocabulary by learning all about prefixes, suffixes, and root words!

Run-On Sentences

Whoa, Partner! Where’re you going with that sentence? How to contain run on sentences.

Semicolons

Nope, semicolons don’t help you digest your dinner. Tim and Moby introduce you to a strange and useful punctuation mark!

Sentence Fragments

Do your sentences have all their parts? Tim and Moby predicate this movie on the fact that there are clauses other than Santa!

Setting

Learn how setting “sets” the rules and possibilities of a story, and how it works together with other story elements.

Show, Not Tell

See how writers can make narration come to life using vivid descriptions!

Similes and Metaphors

There’s no comparison to this movie on how these simple poetic devices can improve your writing.

Sonia Sotomayor

As a girl growing up in the Bronx, Sonia Sotomayor dreamed of being a judge. With drive, smarts, and a passion for hard work, she became the first Hispanic justice on the Supreme Court.

Strengthening Sentences

Don’t be passive: Put some muscle in your modifiers and volume in your vocabulary! Learn how to keep your readers interested.

Subject and Predicate

Ah, Subject and Predicate: Working together to bring you sentences since the earliest days of the English language!

Subject-Verb Agreement

See how a subject's number affects the verb that agrees with it. It’s so nice when verbs agree!

Tenses

Learn how to describe the past, present, and future. It’s all about conjugation, baby!

Test-Taking Skills

Multiple-choice, standardized, quiz or exam? Other than study hard, how can you do best on a test?

Text Structures

Attention, critical readers: Identifying the structure of an informational text can make it easier to understand, and help you retain the info!

Theme

Learn how authors use story elements like plot and characterization to develop a theme

They're, Their, and There

What’s wrong with there word choice? A whole lot! Learn the difference between the contraction, the adverb, and the possessive pronoun.

To Kill a Mockingbird

Learn about gossip, racism, and small-town justice in Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird.

Types of Sentences

An explanation of declarative, imperative, interrogatory, and exclamatory sentences. Watch this! OK?

Types of Writing

Is your writing meant to tell a story, to share facts, or to persuade? Whichever it is, you’ll be using one of the three main types of writing: narrative, informational, or opinion.

Verbs and their Objects

Take action! Learn how to identify and use verbs, direct objects, and indirect objects.

William Shakespeare

He could do comedies, tragedies, histories and poetry. Learn about the greatest playwright in the history of the English language!

Writing In Sequence

Writing’s easy once you learn about sequence! Tim and Moby give you directions on using timelines to create order from beginning to end.

Writing Process

The main idea of this movie is learning how to organize, proofread, and publish your writing!