The intricate craft of narrative writing can make a happy story feel exuberant or a sad story feel devastating. With 42 extensive lessons that include poignant discussion questions, standards-aligned self-reflections, engaging writing...

It may not be 4 o'clock in the morning when you have ended these labors, but it's still time to work on textual analysis. Study the resolution of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" through the thematic lens of guilt and confession,...

The text structure is vitally important when crafting a rise in tension. Explore Sophocles' choice to order his events in a particular sequence with a lesson plan about Oedipus the King. As the light of realization dawns on the...

Finish your unit on Temple Grandin's Animals in Translation with a two-part written assessment. As ninth graders refer to their notes, annotations, and discussion guides from the first part of the unit, they prepare for a writing prompt...

Are cattle prods beneficial for herding cattle, or do they cause more harm than good? Investigate Temple Grandin's claim about animal behavior with a lesson that focuses on pages 20-23 of the first chapter of her book, Animals in...

How much are you worth? Scholars read text dependent questions, and discuss how the text relates to self worth. They then work with partners by having written conversation to make inferences about the text. For homework, pupils correct...

Scholars listen to a reading and answer probing questions about If We Must Die by Claude McKay. Readers annotate their personal copies of the poem as they discuss its figurative language, vocabulary, and meaning. They then transfer...

Would you, could you? Scholars read World without Fish and focus carefully on the use of the words could and would. They chunk the text into smaller sections and write annotations on sticky notes to help with comprehension. To...

One fish, two fish, red fish, no fish. Scholars analyze World without Fish to determine the gist, identify vocabulary, and answer text-dependent questions. As learners read, they use sticky notes to annotate the text. They also work...

Create ID cards for characters.  Provide readers with a template that asks them to affix a photo, identify character traits and list evidence from the text to support this analysis. They indicate changes the character experiences at...

Young historians examine Lyndon Johnson's vision for a rich, powerful, and upward society as detailed in this excerpt from his famous "Great Society" speech presented at the University of Michigan in 1964.

As Theodore Roosevelt reminded Congress in 1908, corporation one is not corporation two. Readers of this excerpt from Roosevelt's Message to Congress have an opportunity to sharpen their comprehension skills as they study this primary...

As part of a study of figurative language Avi uses in his book, Crispin, individuals define the 10 terms listed on the worksheet and then locate severals examples of each in the text of the novel.

Who used to have the right to vote in the United States? Who has the right to vote now? Amendments to the US Constitution that have changed the definition of eligible voters are the focus of a one-page worksheet that asks class members...

Who needs luck when you've got grammar skills? Celebrate St. Patrick's Day in language arts class with a fun coloring activity that prompts young readers to color all adjective sections green.

Discussion questions for Walt Whitman's "Son of Myself" ask class members to reflect on the beauty that can be found in labor, the sense of identity that transcends divisions, and on the many riddles in Whitman's poem. ...

Memories of and interpretations of history change—that's the key takeaway from a lesson that has young historians compare the story of the Reconstruction Era as told by the historians of the Dunning School to the view of scholars today...

The firsthand accounts of what it was like to be an enslaved person in the mid-1800s riveted a nation and the issue ultimately led to civil war. Using excerpts from Frederick Douglass's autobiography, budding historians examine what it...

The process for adding an amendment to the U.S. Constitution is long and arduous, by design. High School historians study a series of documents about the Nineteenth Amendment and, using an interactive program, drag the documents onto a...

What do the myth of the phoenix bird and Ada Limón's poem "Instructions on Not Giving Up" have in common? Young scholars create a list of what they notice about both the myth and poem, then consider what the similarities might indicate...

True, you may be very, very dreadfully nervous, but a literary analysis unit will set your mind at ease. Learners study the narrator's point of view in Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart" and analyze how it contributes to a...

The manipulation of time is one of the most essential elements in Sophocles' Oedipus the King. As your language arts class participates in a jigsaw discussion activity, they work together to analyze the play's plot structure and...

Prophecy and blindness often go hand in hand, as in Sophocles' Oedipus the King. Explore Oedipus' thoughts about prophecy, fate, and responsibility with an activity focused on the discussion between Creon and Oedipus regarding the murder...

Scholars take another look at Japan's Fourteen-Part Message. They then take turns adding ideas to sentence starters to create ideas about the different perspectives of government. To finish, groups mix and mingle to share their sentences...