After reading and discussing chapter 10 of Victor Martinez's Parrot in the Oven: Mi Vida with a partner, individuals write about a time they had to exhibit real courage.

Imagine 28 instructional strategies, appropriate for all subject areas and all grade levels. Directed Reading-Thinking Activities (DRTA), Question-Answer Relationship (QAR) activities, KWL charts, comparison matrixes, classification...

After reading up to page 371 of Percy Jackson and The Olympians: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan, get insight into how Percy felt making a major decision through active discussion strategies that enable both academic...

Questioning a text is a very effective way for kids to develop their reading comprehension skills. Designed to engage all class members, a reading activity prompts pairs to develop and share their own questions about the ending of Neil...

Pay close attention! After finding details in a picture, scholars begin to find details in videos and text. They work together in groups, discuss in pairs, and carry out independent reading to answer guiding questions. Organizers, tools,...

Readers of The House of the Scorpion try to stump their teacher in a QAR questioning game. Pairs craft Right There, Think and Search, On Your Own, and the Author and You questions and the class members then take turns responding to...

As part of a Directed Reading Thinking Activity (DRTA) class members are asked to predict events in Patricia Polacco's Pink and Say based on illustrations in the story, on their knowledge of Steven Crane's The Red Badge of Courage,...

What self-management techniques help scholars achieve their goals? Readers review a list of strategies for managing stress, increasing motivation, and setting goals. They discover how to monitor their emotions, create checklists to stay...

What common challenges do refugees and immigrants face? Using the 9th lesson plan from the 20-part Grade 8 ELA Module 1, Unit 2 series, pupils read about the similarities between refugees' and immigrants' adaptation processes. Partners...

Class members review expectations for successful discussions before reading chapter one of A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park. They engage in a think-pair-share to discuss the gist of the text and add their thoughts to their Readers'...

Pairs of contradictory words introduce learners to paradoxes, the literary device writers use to get readers thinking deeply about their messages. An interactive lesson uses poems by Emily Dickinson and Wilfred Owen and excerpts from the...

Do students really need to be taught how to read cartoons, comic books, and comic strips? Yes. Just as they need to learn how to read other forms of graphic text such as diagrams, photos, timetables, maps, charts, and tables. Young...

Following a reading and thorough discussion of books—Anansi the Spider: A Tale from the Ashanti by Gerald McDermott and The Moon Book by Gail Gibbons—scholars complete three activities. First, they use playdough or cookie dough to create...

Take a break from reading to find the magic number with this vocabulary game using words drawn from Jerry Spinelli's Maniac Magee.  Participants match the definition to the word in each numbered square of the puzzle, then add...

Scholars boost their knowledge of the Civil Rights Movement with a lesson that challenges writers, readers, and historians to analyze primary sources and caption their observations. By way of reading, writing, discussion, independently,...

Oh, the dreaded writer's block! As part of a larger paper-writing series, an invaluable resource discusses obstacles and stresses writers face. Individuals learn to identify feelings associated with anxiety, as well as strategies for...

Turning 11 comes with a range of emotions. Explore those emotions by reading the short story "Eleven" by Sandra Cisneros. Readers analyze the main character's reactions to the events of her day. Then, they write an essay describing what...

To prepare for an assessment of how well individuals are progressing with their ability to identify and analyze figurative language and its effect on tone and meaning, pairs work through Chapter Four of Christopher Paul Curtis'...

Readers of Neal Shusterman's young adult science fiction novel, Unwind, engage in a silent discussion, posting their responses to a series of statements about characters in the story.

As part of their study of Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club, readers engage in a magic squares vocabulary activity.

Scholars become familiar with tagline literature with the help of the story, Alexander and the Horrible, No Good, Very Bad, Terrible Day by Judith Viort. After a read-aloud and whole-class discussion, leveled groups complete...

Prior to reading Victor Martinez's Parrot in the Oven: Mi Vida, class members are presented with a problematic situation and to rate their responses as well as predict the responses of a character from the novel.

Did you hear that? It's the main idea! Teach your class listening and note-taking strategies for determining the main idea by following the steps provided in this plan.

Introduce your freshmen to analogies with this packet of prompts that also includes strategies for solving these critical thinking puzzles.