Develop an understanding of main ideas and thesis statements with your class by using this step-by-step presentation. The concepts presented will guide learners through essay focus, main idea, central points, coherency, and proper...

Thar she blows! An excerpt from Herman Melville’s Moby Dick provides the text for an exercise in finding the main idea. After recording the main idea of the passage, readers also provide two supporting ideas. An answer key is provided.

Young learners develop a deeper understanding of target vocabulary. In pairs, pupils independently complete a series of word clue cards, asking them to find information about key terms, including their definitions, synonyms, antonyms,...

Follow up a reading of The Giraffe and the Pelly and Me by Roald Dahl with this collaborative lesson on teamwork. Starting with a fun team game, learners go on to investigate examples of teamwork in the story before...

Looking for a way to introduce class members to the concept of symbolism and multiple levels of meaning? Readers examine two different passages about the beach and consider how the writers use concrete objects, and places to...

After reading Sandra Cisneros' The House on Mango Street, class members craft an essay in which they use evidence from a variety of vignettes to demonstrate how Cisneros develops Esperanza's character.

Learners annotate text from The Great Gatsby before working through a character development map. They then use text evidence in a final essay to describe the connection between central ideas and character development.

Women's voices are becoming more prominent in the world of literature, but for centuries, this wasn't the case. Young historians research a woman whose writings are considered to be lost, out of print, or forgotten. They develop an oral...

Oh, snap! Learners practice conversational English by learning the rules of the card game Snap. Then, they play the game in small groups before writing out instructions for another card game of their choosing. 

Practice the strategy of summarizing to gain meaning and knowledge from an informational text. Young readers highlight supporting details and main ideas, and then they use this to summarize two articles: "The Great Quake" and "What...

Use a traffic light to model a very basic paragraph plan. The Go, or topic sentence, is written in green and expresses an opinion about the topic. Information that supports the opinion of the Go sentence is written in yellow and the...

By sharing a summary about their favorite book or movie, your young readers can then discuss the main ideas of their beloved stories. The concept transitions to finding the main idea in poetry. Class members use textual clues in various...

Finding the main idea in a text can be rather difficult! Work with your class and develop this skill. This resource contains an excerpt from Act II, Scene 2 of Romeo and Juliet, and the reader must identify the main idea of Juliet's...

Readers are asked to identify the main idea and two supporting ideas in a brief passage about the Louisiana Purchase.

Using a paragraph from Jack London's Call of the Wild, readers demonstrate their ability to identify the main idea and supporting ideas in a passage.

A passage about solar eclipses provides readers with an opportunity to demonstrate their ability to identify the main idea and supporting ideas in an article.

Get your pupils thinking about some of the big ideas present in Mark Twain's Pudd'nhead Wilson with this anticipation guide. Learners decided if they believe a series of statements are true or false. A discussion follows.

Get your pupils' minds going with a brainstorm that goes from A to Z! Individuals fill out the chart with words, ideas, and concepts that start with each letter of the alphabet.

A reading of Kevin Lamb's short story "Lost in the Woods" launches a study of how writers use elements such as foreshadowing, mood, character development, setting, and conflict to engage readers. Class members then demonstrate what they...

What ideas and philosophies guided the Transcendentalist movement in America? Scholars explore the topic, reading texts by Ralph Waldo Emerson and Henry David Thoreau. Additionally, they write essays comparing the authors' structural...

As a review of persuasive techniques, groups develop a one-sentence slogan designed to entice others to purchase a produce or adopt a point of view. The group then craft a storyboard for a commercial for their product.

Cinderella wants to go to the ball and marry the prince. At the end of the story, she does! But how does the plot move from the exposition to the resolution? Teach language arts learners and fairy tale fans about the basics of plot...

Scholars complete a mid-unit 2 assessment, analyzing how César Chávez supports his claims in his 1984 speech, "Address to the Commonwealth Club of California." Learners focus on paragraphs 18 and 19 of the speech, answering text-based...

Half way there. Scholars work on the mid unit assessment for World without Fish. Learners work independently to complete the assessment. They then answer text-dependent questions and use sticky notes for annotating.