Given the two-sentence skeleton of a news story about a car theft/joy ride, budding writers create their own version of the story varying diction and sentence structure to heighten interest and complexity in their writing. Resource...

SMART boards a great way to create interest in any subject - even grammar! Using the provided SMART board lesson, have your 10th graders come up to the board and combine two independent clauses using a "glue" word (coordinating...

It's the classic scene: Tom Sawyer is whitewashing a fence. Expose your learners to Mark Twain's humor while reinforcing reading comprehension. Eighth graders are encouraged to read and reread, achieving as much exposure to the text...

Good readers question text as they read. The Question Answer Relationships Strategy (QAR) used in this resource with The House on Mango Street, provides readers with a concrete approach for questioning Sandra Cisneros' text and...

Teach learners how to communicate and collaborate in a discussion on a shared project with this rich activity. It asks participants to channel their unique imaginations to produce a fictional "groupworld", while adhering to proper...

Before there can be peace, we have to understand conflict. Introduce the concept of conflict through a two-part activity that combines discussion, collaboration, and writing. The first in a 15-part series examines the multiple meanings...

Looking to introduce some text-based questions into your ELA lessons? Practice the kinds of skills the Common Core demands with the seven text-based questions and the essay prompt provided here. Designed to be a three-day lesson, day one...

“We the people . . .” Thus begins the Preamble to the Constitution. Using a close reading approach, class members examine an excerpt from Linda Monk’s article that traces how the interpretation of these words has evolved. Some of your...

Combine vocabulary development and a study of verb tenses with a general introduction to sports. Class members get acquainted with the language associated with sports, and then complete a project to design and describe their own...

Deep mathematical thinking is found with just a coin and a number line. Combining computing some probabilities in a discrete situation, and the interpretation of a function, this simple task gives learners a lot to think about on...

Invite learners to determine which affix and base word combinations create new words. This activity allows pupils to play around and create words that match specific meanings.