EngageNY
Building Background Knowledge About the Hero’s Journey, Part 2: Acts 2 and 3 Plus Focusing on Key Vocabulary in “The Hero’s Journey”
It's all in the details. Scholars read acts two and three of The Hero's Journey and collect important details from the text. They share their notes with their peers and listen for key words from the story. They then turn their attention...
EngageNY
Close Reading of Waiting for the Biblioburro: Finding the Main Message and Taking Notes
Expose your class to Waiting for the Biblioburro, narrative nonfiction that will act as the bridge between ficiton and informational texts to come. Class members do a close reading of the text, looking at excerpts instead of the whole...
NET Foundation for Television
1850-1874 Homestead Act Signed: The Challenges of The Plains
Start a whole new life in a land known as the Wild Wild West! Learners analyze maps, personal accounts, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, songs, and video clips to uncover life under the Homestead Act. Using their new skills, class members role...
EngageNY
Continued Close Reading of Bullfrog at Magnolia Circle: Text-Dependent Questions and Vivid Words and Phrases
As 3rd graders continue reading Bullfrog at Magnolia Circle, they focus on the concepts of predator and prey in the fifth lesson plan of this unit. Scholars further develop their ability to answer questions using evidence from the text...
EngageNY
Continued Close Reading of Bullfrog at Magnolia Circle: Text-Dependent Questions and Vivid Words and Phrases
In the third activity from this unit based on the book Bullfrog at Magnolia Circle, learners focus on using specific details from the text-to-answer questions about the habitat of bullfrogs. While reading the text, young...
Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation
The Chinese Exclusion Act
As part of a study of Angel Island Immigration Station, young historians examine the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the first restriction on the United States immigration based on race and nationality. They complete a matrix identifying...
Curated OER
DR-TA Reading Strategy
Foster critical thinking skills by using the DR-TA Strategy with Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal.” Class members read portions of the essay, stop and discuss what is happening, make predictions based on evidence from the text, and...
iCivics
The Road to Civil Rights
Here is a fantastic resource on the civil rights movement! It includes reading materials and worksheets, and particularly highlights major legislation and the role of the judicial branch in the federal government in addressing the...
Anti-Defamation League
What Is the Dream Act and Who Are the Dreamers?
The DREAM Act (Development, Relief, and Education for Alien Minors Act) is the focus of a lesson that asks high schoolers to investigate the act's provisions and read statements by individuals who support and oppose the act. They then...
Anti-Defamation League
Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr., Hate Crimes Prevention Act
You, too, can prevent hate crimes! Middle and high schoolers read short biographies of Mathew Shepard and James Byrd, the two men for whom the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd, Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act (HCPA) is named. After learning...
EngageNY
Inferring from a Primary Source: Close Read of Colonial Times Inventory
Teach your class about colonial America through an examination of primary documents. First though, start vocabulary notebooks for content-specific and academic vocabulary. Pupils can keep this record during the entire module. Once this...
Warren County Public Schools
Small Group Discussion Questions
Support a class reading of the novel Song of the Trees by Mildred D. Taylor with this series of discussion questions. Covering a variety of topics from character and setting to historical accuracy and symbolism, these questions...
ReadWriteThink
Living the Dream: 100 Acts of Kindness
Inspire kindness in and out of school with a lesson plan that challenges scholars to perform 100 acts of kindness during the time between Martin Luther King Jr. Day to Valentine's day. Leading up to a celebration of friendship,...
Prestwick House
New (March 2016) SAT Reading Test Practice
The SAT. The ACT. AP exams. The very mention of these exams can cause the college bound to feel anxious. One way to combat Test Anxiety is to provide high schoolers with models of these tests and give them opportunities to analyze...
Novelinks
The Tempest: List-Group-Label (After Reading)
Collaborate with your class after reading William Shakespeare's The Tempest with a group labeling activity. As you note key concepts or words from the play on the board, class members suggest associations and connections...
Student Achievement Partners
"The Glorious Whitewasher" from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain with Mini-Assessment
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...
August House
Why Koala Has a Stumpy Tail
Learn about the animals of Australia with a language arts lesson about an Australian folktale called, Why Koala Has a Stumpy Tail. After reading the story as a class, kids discuss events and characters from the book, retell the...
Novelinks
The Tempest: QAR
Asking questions about a text is an effective way to improve reading comprehension. Apply the Question Answer Response strategy to your unit on William Shakespeare's The Tempest. As kids read each passage, they decide if the answer...
EngageNY
Reading Shakespeare: Understanding Shakespeare’s Language
Pupils participate in a drama circle to read Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream aloud. They work with partners to discuss Shakespeare's use of language and analyze how specific lines of dialogue within the play help propel the...
Berkshire Museum
Where’s the Water?: Acting Out Science Cycles
Young scientists transform themselves into rivers, oceans, clouds, and drops of water in order to explore the water cycle. After assigning and explaining to students their different roles in the activity, the teacher reads aloud a...
Folger Shakespeare Library
Pre-Reading Hamlet with "Hamlet: An Insider’s Guide"
Prove that Gertrude did kill Ophelia from practicing the word inflections activities with these pre-reading strategies for Hamlet. Thespians practice the line, “Is that your sandwich?” as they stress and accent different words, and...
EngageNY
Grade 9 ELA Module 1: Unit 3, Lesson 5
Class members continue their study of Romeo and Juliet by watching scenes from Baz Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet and then examining the figurative language Shakespeare uses in Act 1, scene 5, lines 92–109 when Romeo and Juliet meet at the ball.
Scholastic
Teaching with Aesop's Fables
Bring the applicable morals of Aesop's Fables to your classroom with a series of reading comprehension activities. With 12 different fables with activities and exercises, the packet focuses on the ways learners can apply the fables...
Curated OER
Drama: The New Friends
Reader's Theater is a great way to build fluency, intonation, and dramatic flare. The class reads the theater piece, "The New Friends" paying attention to how they express emotion and feeling as they read. They discuss the use of plot,...