With the end of the year quickly approaching it's time to find out exactly how much your sixth graders have learned. Specifically designed for the Common Core ELA standards, this practice test gives students five reading passages,...

Are the lessons of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar still applicable today? Explore themes, characterization, and plot structure with a thorough teacher's guide to the play. The resource covers the entire text and offers rigorous activities...

Take an in-depth look into Gary Paulsen's Hatchet with a concept guide. With a list and explanation of thematic motifs, types of conflicts, and vocabulary in the novel, learners will engage with the text in a whole new way.

As an assessment of their skill in crafting a compare and contrast essay, class members read and compare the portrayals of nature in excerpts from naturalist John Muir's My First Summer in the Sierra and from poet Emily Dickinson's...

Text annotations help readers track essential ideas. Pupils continue reading and annotating an informational article about Sudanese tribes, connecting it with A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park. They also begin writing about their...

James Hurst's short story "The Scarlet Ibis" provides eighth graders with an opportunity to sharpen their literary analysis skills. After a close reading of the text, class members highlight and annotate parts of the dialogue and...

Get deep! Teach scholars how to make connections between texts to deepen their understanding of a topic. Using the resource, pupils read and annotate a short informational text about Sudan's Civil War and refugee crisis. Next, they...

What would it be like to sell your eggs to a couple who can't have children on their own? Could you even imagine it? As most of us have never been in this position, this descriptive essay is really quite interesting. The reading itself...

The end of the year has arrived, which means it's time to find out exactly what your fifth graders have learned over the past few months. With the help of this Common Core-designed assessment that includes two narrative passages and...

How affected is Thinks Fall Apart by Chinua Achebe's personal biography? Using a four corners strategy, and evidence from their readings, class members debate the degree of biographical influence in Achebe's novel.

Whether you are planning on using Of Mice and Men for whole-class reading or as a selection for literature circles; whether you are new to John Steinbeck's novel, or it has long been a part of your curriculum, you...

How can you read a character's tone? What about a narrator's tone? Analyze Karen Russell's "St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves" with a lesson that focuses on how word choice can change tone and how tone can affect the development...

How do writers develop a central idea in a text? How can readers identify this central idea? These are the challenges class members tackle as they continue their analysis of "Letter One" from Rainer Maria Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet.

Common Core testing on your mind? Ease your class into the test by requiring pupils to take this practice test. The focus of this test is reading. Learners read several passages, both literary and informational, and respond to multiple...

Let's see how the story unfolds. Scholars examine paragraphs of Martin Luther King Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail" to determine how King unfolds his analysis of the church. Before arriving at an answer, learners work in pairs and...

Set up a solid foundation for learners going into Common Core testing by taking some time to complete this practice test. Class members answer questions about both literary and informational texts, with an emphasis on textual evidence....

What are the effects of competition in an academic environment? The competition between the main characters in A Separate Peace motivates a series of activities that asks readers to take a stance on competition, and then to develop a...

Common Core testing is approaching, so why not provide your pupils with appropriate practice? This practice assessment includes both literary and informational passages for class members to examine and answer questions about. Also...

How does our moral reasoning shape our identity? After a study of Kohlberg's Levels of Moral Reasoning, readers use Kohlberg's theories to analyze the speech, thoughts, and decisions of a character in A Separate Peace. They then...

Many regard John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath as the great American novel. The lesson plan combines a variety of strategies, including partner work, independent practice, creative writing, grammar instruction, and small group...

Students complete various activities linked to several stories and movies, to reinforce the concept of theme in a story.

Considering Carson McCullers' The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter for whole-class reading or as a selection for book circles? Check out this resource that overviews the organizational patterns, themes, plot structure, tone, and setting. 

Model for your high schoolers how to prepare for the essay portion of the AP Literature exam. For guided practice, pairs analyze metaphor, simile, tone or syntax in Norman Mailer’s “The Death of Benny Paret,” and then work independently...

Considering Christopher Crowe's Mississippi Trial, 1955 with reading groups or as a whole-class text? Check out the background information and instructional ideas in this seven-page resource packet.