Develop informational reading skills that your students can bring to every academic textbook, newspaper article, or political speech they encounter. With lesson plans, projects, and reading passages, a collection featuring resources that address every Common Core standard for eighth grade informational reading supports any reading curriculum. The 8th grade standards are addressed in the notes of each listed resource.

Readers of informational text must be able to determine the central idea of a text and and analyze how writers develop these ideas. The resources in this collection are designed to help readers develop these skills. Take a look at the attached notes for each resource to find the aligned Common Core Standards for 9th and 10th grade reading information text.

Seventh grade is a great opportunity to take your literature unit to the next cognitive level. Challenge middle schoolers with a collection of Common Core aligned projects, lessons, and activities, all designed to enhance the learning experience with different works of literature.

Transform drafting into crafting with a collection of materials designed to enrich your seventh grade writing unit. Each resource addresses one or more Common Core standards for persuasive writing, informational writing, and narrative writing, and connects to various novels and subjects across the middle school curriculum.

Expository writing aims to explain, describe, define, instruct and/or inform. Here are some resources that will inspire your writers, encourage them to think critically, and help them formulate their own ideas. Take a look at the attached notes for each resource to find the aligned Common Core Standards addressed.

Through a close reading of excerpts from fiction (Black Swan Green) and nonfiction (Letters to a Young Poet), class members analyze how authors use specific words and figurative language to develop their central ideas. All 11 lessons in the unit are designed to address Common Core standards.

Temple Grandin describes how autism allows her to have a unique perspective into the world of animal behavior with her book Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of Autism to Decode Animal Behavior. Ninth graders take notes and annotate the text, delving into different areas of investigation to find textual evidence for Grandin's claims.