Readers learn together with a group discussion activity. As they read William Shakespeare's The Tempest, high schoolers prepare for a fishbowl discussion in which three or four learners sit in the middle of a large circle and...

The class explores the truths and lies regarding Zach's Lie through a well-written anticipation guide. First in a series of seven resources, the guide addresses themes within the text. The class collaboratively discusses their...

Enhance and extend instruction of "The Story of an Hour" by Kate Chopin with one or all of these ideas. You might want to cover characterization and summary, or improve understanding of context clues and irony. You can cover any...

The Amazon Horned Frog is the focus of a activity designed to encourage readers to ask and answer questions. A frog-themed poem opens the door to a whole-group discussion. Following a read-aloud of an informational text, a three-page...

Let's explore the rainforest by studying its inhabitants. Pupils continue reading an interview with a sloth scientist and answer text-dependent questions. Next, they engage in a class discussion to share the new facts they learned about...

Get your class going on one of the final assessments for a unit on short stories by introducing iMovie and its main features. In this tenth lesson plan in a series of fourteen, pupils take some time to explore iMovie before conducting an...

Your readers will “get to wanting” and will want to know things about Nightjohn with a DRTA activity based on Gary Paulsen’s novel. Introduce the book by asking class members to examine the cover and to make predictions about the subject...

Make reading more enjoyable and interactive with literature circles! Here you'll find detailed lessons to begin the literature circle process. Ten lessons introduce each role learners take on. Literature circle roles include...

What do a cheetah, Audi commercial, and air have in common? They're all topics of an engaging inquiry-based, hands-on workshop for educators about background knowledge, reading strategies, the CER model, and argumentative writing. The...

But for a fluke, 1862 could have gone differently during the Civil War. When Union troops found Robert E. Lee's battle plans for critical engagements in Maryland wrapped around cigars and tossed aside, history changed forever. Class...

Good readers make connections between texts. The SAT regularly assesses the ability to make those connections using paired reading passages, a topic discussed in an official SAT practice lesson plan on synthesis. During the lesson,...

Students read for detail. In this reading comprehension instructional activity, students read a passage and share their thoughts with a small group. Students reflect upon the passage and develop an oral summary of the text.

Model for readers how to develop effective questions with a request strategy for questioning. Text-explicit, text-implicit, and experiential based questions are the focus. Step-by-step instructions are included for the strategy that...

Introduce Romeo and Juliet with a KWHL strategy that asks learners to record what they know, what they want to learn, and how they will find this information on a large chart posted in the classroom. During the reading of Shakespeare’s...

Prior to reading chapter 17 of Dandelion Wine, partners look up and illustrate level three words found in Colonel Freeleigh’s many allusions. Pairs then share with the whole class. Detailed instructions for the activity are included. 

Prior to reading Flipped, Wendelin Van Draanen’s young adult novel about teen romance, class members engage in an anticipation guide activity. Individuals post their responses to a series of prompts, and after reading all the responses,...

Eleventh graders read and study Hamlet. Then they are introduced to close reading as a means of understanding what is being read--not only understanding the printed word, but also the nuances and connotations of language as it is used by...

Third graders read passages of text in an effort to improve their fluency and reading comprehension. In this language arts instructional activity, 3rd graders read passages that are at their reading level, and attempt to increase their...

As your youngsters begin to recognize the letters of the alphabet and their correponsding sounds, there are some they will be more familiar with than others. Cement their letter associations using this quick strategy, shown here with the...

Designed as a postreading activity for Act II of Cyrano de Bergerac, this resource uses the QAR strategy to get readers thinking deeper about the texts they're reading. Explicit directions for the teacher are included, so don't fret if...

Break your class into groups and have them read certain passages from the text Flipped (included here). After every two paragraphs, the groups stop to answer the questions included. Which questions provided are right there questions?...

Explore the theme of release and death in Lois Lowry's The Giver with a K-W-H-L chart. After noting what they already know, kids come up with a list of questions about topics that they would like to know about, as well as how they...

As a class, scholars read the poems, Humpty Dumpty, Peter, Peter, Pumpkin Eater, and Jack and Jill, in order to identify words with the same ending sound. Using their rhyming skills, learners brainstorm additional words...

Blundering, audacious, obscurest. Class members develop strategies for teaching each other vocabulary words drawn from The Hobbit.