Curated OER
Close Reading Passages of Literature
Encourage kids to think deeply about what they are reading with five thought-provoking questions about one passage. After choosing a passage that is intriguing or confusing to them, learners write a summary, explain what they like or...
What So Proudly We Hail
The Meaning of America: Enterprise and Commerce
Using Mark Twain's The Man That Corrupted Hadleyburg, invite your learners to consider the concept of virtue in a democratic society devoted to gain and self-interest. This stellar resource guides your class members through a close...
What So Proudly We Hail
The Meaning of America: Freedom and Individuality
What are the strengths and weaknesses of American individualism and independence? Explore these principles through a close reading of Jack London's To Build a Fire, and engage in high-level discussion with your class by analyzing the...
Curated OER
CTBS Reading Practice #2
This is a basic reading comprehension practice instructional activity. Learners read 3 passages: folktale, Richard Cory, and an informational text about the Roosevelts. They then answer multiple choice questions that test reading...
What So Proudly We Hail
The Meaning of America: National Identity and Why It Matters
Combining a close reading of a classic American text with the study of history can be a very powerful strategy, and this is most certainly the case with this resource using Edward Everett Hale's The Man without a Country. Consider themes...
Curated OER
Literature Study Guide - The Hobbit
With several online resources for J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit, as well as many reading and literary analysis activities, this novel study guide is a great way to keep your young readers organized during a book report. The guide includes...
Scholastic
Reading Poems From the Academy of American Poets Chancellors
Start a lesson on poetic voice with a peer to peer discussion on what characterizes the strength in the voice with which a writer chooses to express himself/herself. In pairs, readers are tasked with reading and creating T-charts for...
For the Teachers
Cause and Effect Matrix
Study cause and effect in both literature and informational text with a lesson designed for several different reading levels. After kids review the concept of cause and effect, they read an article or story and note the causes and...
Curated OER
Picturing America: Images and Words of Hope from Romare Bearden and Langston Hughes
A carefully crafted three-day lesson integrates poetry and visual art. By analyzing and comparing Langston Hughes' poem "Mother and Son" and Romare Bearden's collage "The Dove," readers explore the theme of hope. The lesson activates...
Curated OER
Ordinary People: Cubing Strategy
Readers of Ordinary People employ a cubing strategy based on Bloom’s Taxonomy to analyze, from multiple perspectives, an excerpt from Chapter 10 of Judith Guest’s novel. The excerpt, a rationale and complete directions for the activity...
Penguin Books
A Teacher’s Guide to the Penguin Edition of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath
The dry Oklahoma landscape in America's Dust Bowl sent many farmers in search of the promised land. A teacher's guide to John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath discusses the characters' desire for a better home along with other themes and...
Curated OER
Journey to Topaz: Directed Reading Thinking Activity
Have you used the directed reading thinking activity in your classroom? Doubling as either a prereading strategy, or a during reading strategy, it helps readers connect the historical background of the text to the text itself. As the...
Star Wars in the Classroom
"Shakespeare and Star Wars": Lesson Plan Day 6
How can a screenplay create meaning and drama in ways that other forms of writing cannot? That is the question class members must answer as they compare the cantina scene of the screenplay for George Lucas's Star Wars: A New Hope with...
Curated OER
Literature and the Language Arts
Reading involves more than simply picking up a text and saying the words aloud. A practice guide introduces readers to key skills such as making inferences, finding the main idea or theme, and using context clues. Each skill contains a...
Curated OER
It's All in the Way You Say It
High schoolers unearth multiple meanings based on connotation and cadence. After defining denotation, connotation, and cadence, readers evaluate similar words to compare connotations. They then play with how cadence affects meaning by...
Curated OER
Performance-Based Assessment Practice Test (Grade 9 ELA/Literacy)
Ready your pupils for Common Core testing by providing them with practice. For this assessment, learners read and respond to a variety of different passages in both multiple-choice and essay format. An online version is also included.
Curated OER
Performance-Based Assessment Practice Test (Grade 10 ELA/Literacy)
Get an idea of how your class members might perform on the Common Core tests with a comprehensive practice test. The assessment includes literary and informational passages for learners to read an analyze. Pupils respond to a series of...
Curated OER
End-of-Year Practice Test (Grade 9 ELA/Literacy)
What better way to prepare your class for Common Core testing than with a practice test? The practice test includes several reading passages, both literary and informational, and learners respond to multiple choice questions about these...
Curated OER
Reading Comprehension: 1984
In this reading comprehension worksheet, students answer questions based on chapters 1-12 of '1984'. Question type varies from matching, true / false, fill in the blank and multiple choice.
Great Books Foundation
Discussion Guide for Little Women
Start with the question in mind with a discussion activity on Louisa May Alcott's Little Women. With four focus questions, note-taking prompts, and discussion points, readers practice answering thematic questions based on textual evidence.
Curated OER
Literature Study Guide: Siddhartha
Though this book report form is labeled Siddhartha, the multiple-page format would work for any novel you are reading in class. Complete with a reading schedule, a summary page, a list of generic literature response questions, and a list...
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Les Miserables Quiz
In this online interactive reading comprehension worksheet, students respond to 12 multiple choice questions about Hugo's Les Miserables. Students may submit their answers to be scored.
Curated OER
Making Connection, Using Metaphor
Chief Seatle's "Letter to President Pierce, 1855" provides the text for a skills exercise that asks readers to consider how writers use metaphors to contribute to the meaning and impact of a work. Participants then apply what they have...
Shmoop
ELA.CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.1
Does your ELA class need some practice with the specific skills outlined in the Common Core standards? Then this is the perfect resource for you! One in a series of connected lessons that cover the standards for reading literature,...