Here are three guided reading lesson plan templates; each designed to meet the needs of a specific level of readers. Levels in focus are emergent, early, and transitional readers. Additionally, prompts to support your small group...

They Call Me Güero: A Border Kid's Poems by David Bowles is the focus of a five-week language arts unit unit. Fifth graders listen to various poems and participate in thoughtful discussions, examining vocabulary and learning new words in...

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...

The American Revolution is the theme of a five-week unit that focuses on reading, grammar, morphology, and writing. Scholars read and respond to texts, practice spelling and word work, and write paragraphs. Assessments gauge comprehension.

Beyond reading and arithmetic, one of the most important skills for graduating seniors to have is fiscal literacy and responsibility. Start them on the right financial track with nine lessons that focus on a variety of important...

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...

The reading of a contextual essay launches a study of Black Americans who served in Congress from 1870 through 1887. Young historians identify the African Americans who served during this period, investigate the ways they won national...

What do the Cold War and the Space Race have in common? Learners search for that answer and many more, helping them to build their knowledge of historical global politics and tensions between nations. Following the reading, they answer...

In his 2013 introduction to Fahrenheit 451, Neil Gaiman states, “Fiction is a lie that tells us true things, over and over.” In this extraordinary unit plan, readers "explore the power of written language to educate and...

Use Nathanial Hawthorne's immortal text on the influence of religion on the early American settlements, as well as its continued impact on American culture, with a unit that focuses on The Scarlet Letter. In addition to Hawthorne's...

Eyes on the finish line. Serving as the first part of the end of unit assessment, learners answer questions based on a text about how to write a graphic novel. Using what they've learned, they then create a storyboard about the invention...

Why do writers choose the language they do? Here's a resource that has the poet himself answer that very question. Joseph Coelho explains why he chose the words and images he used in his poem, "If All the World Were Paper."

What's the difference? Scholars analyze the similarities and differences between introductory and concluding paragraphs. Then, using a model essay as a guide, they write their draft position papers. 

Step up! Using the resource, scholars discover the six steps to writing an effective position paper. Next, they work on a graphic organizer to begin planning their argument-based essays.

Reflection is the best teacher. Using the resource, scholars complete the final part of their end of unit assessment, the fourth section of their storyboard about an invention. Next, they track their progress using a self-reflection...

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...

How can something be true even if it didn't happen? Invite your classes to investigate the truths found in the world of magical realism as they analyze short stories, poems, informational texts, video, and art from this genre.

Use the accompanying assessment to determine your class's prior knowledge on Martin Luther King, Jr. before beginning a lesson on the famous civil rights movement leader. The resource has young historians thinking about life for African...

Ready to prepare young scholars for their first placement test experience? Give them the support they need using a test-focused instructional activity. Fifth in a series of six junior-level college and career readiness instructional...

Hosseini Khaled's The Kite Runner and A Thousand Splendid Suns are the anchor texts in a semester-long course that explores Afghani culture and traditions.