Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address provides the text for a series of close reading exercises that model for instructors how carefully crafted guiding questions can help readers think critically about what they read, thus developing...

Encourage learners to think deeply about the information they read or hear. Through a series of life skills worksheets, your pupils will consider the need for objectivity, identifying missing information, and problem solving.

Inntroduce primary learners to essential critical reading strategies with an activity based on James Reeves' poem, "The Wind."  Learners listen as the poem is read, first as a riddle, and then re-read with the title visible. The...

Almost every profession today relates to websites in some way! The resource tasks the class to fill out three individual graphic organizers to help them analyze each website they visit.

Make note of what readers know, what to know, and have learned during a unit on Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea. As class members read the book, they jot down their ideas on a KWHL chart, and consider what they have...

Examine human resilience across two texts with a detailed unit. Over the course of a week, learners will conduct a close reading of excerpts from Unbroken and Farewell to Manzanar. The resource includes clear procedures for reading and...

Accompany a novel study of Hatchet by Gary Paulson with a unit consisting of 16 lessons focused on physical and emotional survival. Reading the story along with a variety of informational texts, scholars compare and contrast reading...

Engage conversation and explore the journey as you challenge young readers to interpret the german folktale, "The Fisherman and His Wife" written by literary brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm.

Six lessons make up a unit all about biographies. Scholars read about a remarkable life while taking notes and identifying characteristics of the biographical genre. Readers examine the tale's obstacles, accomplishments, and sequence of...

Are marches and protests an effective form of resistance? That is the question high schoolers seek to answer in this inquiry lesson as they compare the 2020 protests to historical ones. Researchers use Venn Diagrams to compare images...

As the saying goes, you are what you eat. A useful set of lesson plans encourage young readers to take a second look at their eating habits. Pre- and post-reading questions bring in reflective writing and discussion while extension...

Scholars generally agree on the emancipation of enslaved people in the United States. This inquiry-based lesson asks high schoolers to consider more than the claims of who freed the enslaved people but the significance of the issues...

There are lots of good reasons not to smoke. Make sure your middle and high schoolers understand each and every one with a lesson that prompts them to read anti-smoking posters, note the main points, and write a short response on the...

The I-STOP law was designed to regulate the distribution and tracking of prescription drugs. After reading an article about its signing and implementation, middle and high schoolers work together to come up with their own ideas for an...

Sometimes a novel is the best way to tackle a tough topic. A helpful educator's guide for the novels of Gayle Forman discuss tough topics such as teenage suicide. Discussion questions and writing activities encourage readers to think...

Encourage readers to determine if Hamlet's madness is actually divinest sense. Class members analyze the words of the play before studying related texts, including T.S. Eliot's "The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock," scenes from...

This multimedia activity challenges media-savvy learners to look at the critical issue concerning the inundation of technology and multitasking in the classroom, and its effects on the education of themselves and others. The tasks...

Family is a wonderful subject for little learners to get excited about. Family is also the theme for a social studies unit that uses literacy standards throughout. The guide outlines approximately three weeks of instruction and breaks...

What a skillful way to incorporate Shel Silverstein, a wonderful author, into the classroom. Composed of three tasks, children are led through a series of text-dependent questions that force them to unveil the meaning of Silverstein's...

Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome is the focus of an 11-page packet that includes three lesson plans, three worksheets, and a homework assignment. The first lesson introduces readers to the historical context of the novel. At the same time,...

Learning to break apart numbers into smaller pairs is a critical step young mathematicians take as they develop their number sense. To practice this skill, children are provided with sets of three numbers and are asked to pick the two...

A reading of Peggy Parish's Amelia Bedelia launches a study of idioms. Groups then select several idioms, write the meaning of the expressions, draw or select images, and use GIMP or Photoshop to create an idiom book. 

Elementary schoolers develop an awareness of the literary form known as the fable. They explore how authors write fables to pass along moral lessons. After reading and discussing many famous fables embedded in the plan, learners attempt...

Rich with primary sources and additional resources, this plan asks class members to think critically about newspaper coverage of the Holocaust. Focusing in particular on the analysis of the article "150th Anniversary: 1851-2001: Turning...