Take 10
Author’s Perspective
Gradually build understanding of author's point of view through a scaffolded set of exercises. Moving from direct instruction, to collaborative work, and eventually to independent practice, these steps will assist your class in...
Curated OER
Analyze Author’s Techniques, Including Figurative Language
Paul Laurence Dunbar's poem "He Had His Dream" is the focus of a quick exercise. Pupils read the poem and answer four multiple choice questions and one short answer question about specific lines in the poem and the author's purpose....
California Education Partners
Eleven
It is difficult to articulate how growing up feels as accurately and beautifully as Sandra Cisneros does in her short story "Eleven." After seventh graders read the story and note the author's use of figurative language, they respond to...
Statistics Education Web
Text Messaging is Time Consuming! What Gives?
The more you text, the less you study. Have classes test this hypothesis or another question related to text messages. Using real data, learners use technology to create a scatter plot and calculate a regression line. They create a dot...
Curriculum Corner
Academic Reading Vocabulary
From A to Z, learners define, draw, and find examples of specific reading focus skills in an alphabetized reading vocabulary packet. Words include dialogue, theme, text structure, genre, paraphrase, and many more.
Curated OER
Letter of Complaint
Learners analyze this letter of complaint to the city council by answering nine short-answer questions. They examine author's purpose, word choice, claims, rhetorical questions, and general observations. There is a focus on constructive...
Shmoop
ELA.CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.11-12.8
It is no easy feat to wade through legal and political documents. And incorporating this type of informational text into a literature class can also be a challenge. Here’s a resource that includes suggestions for how to address this...
Humanities Texas
Primary Source Worksheet: Letter Regarding the Whiskey Rebellion
Analyze the federal government's direct response to the Whiskey Rebellion through this fantastic primary source analysis activity worksheet.
Reading Shakespeare
Shakespeare Literature Circles Role Sheets
Tired of those blank stares after your class reads a particularly complex passage from a Shakespearean play? Help high schoolers untangle that prose with a literature circle activity. Ten different roles prompt class members to focus on...
Curriculum Corner
Fiction Graphic Organizers
Analyze a fictional text with a four-page packet that explores a story's main character and moral, challenges scholars to ask and answer questions about the text, and to create a story map.
Shmoop
ELA.CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.9
As the saying goes: there are no new stories. Standard 9 for reading literature in the Common Core addresses this fact and requires that students be able to analyze how authors use the themes, stories, and characters of earlier works....
Syracuse City School District
Literary Elements
Address the literary elements in a piece of writing using these materials. The packet includes plenty of resources, and focuses mainly on theme, character, and point of view, with some materials for setting, symbolism, and author's...
Shakespeare Uncovered
Suits of Woe: Grief and Loss in Hamlet
“Thou know’st ‘tis common; all that lives must die/Passing through nature to eternity.” Grief, and the response to grief and loss, is the focus of a series of activities that uses Hamlet as a launchpad. Groups examine Act I, scene ii to...
Smithsonian Institution
Solomon G. Brown: Letter Writing
Personal correspondence in the form of letters is not as common as it once was. This resource presents an opportunity for you to introduce your class to letter writing and cover topics in social studies. Learners read a letter written in...
E Reading Worksheets
Tone Worksheet 1
Discern the tone in four selected poems with a straightforward assignment. Junior high readers analyze the authors' word choice and text structure to define a tone for each poem, as well as each poem's meaning.
Baylor College
Air: The Math Link
Inflate this unit on the science of air with these math skills practice and word problems. Accompanying the children's story Mr. Slaptail's Secret, this resource covers a wide range of math topics including the four basic...
Baylor College
Water: The Math Link
Make a splash with a math skills resource! Starring characters from the children's story Mystery of the Muddled Marsh, several worksheets create interdisciplinary connections between science, language arts, and math. They...
PBS
The Diary of Anne Frank
While designed to supplement a viewing of the PBS Masterpiece Classic The Diary of Anne Frank, this resource can also serve as an excellent informational text and activity source for your students on the historical context and timeline...
Mary Pope Osborne, Classroom Adventures Program
Mummies in the Morning Egyptian pyramids, hieroglyphics
Visit the Magic Treehouse and take your class on a trip through time with a reading of the children's book Mummies in the Morning. Using the story to spark an investigation into Egyptian culture, this literature unit engages...
K12 Reader
Different Perspectives: The American Revolution
Prompt your young historians to hone in their reading comprehension skills by considering the fascinating perspective that Rudyard Kipling offers in his poem, "The American Rebellion", which provides an alternative...
PBS
Does Art Imitate Life?
Write what you know, sound advice for any writer and something many famous authors are known to have done. Use these materials to explore how Shakespeare's life influenced his plays. This resource is packed with readings, video segments,...
Curated OER
Critical Analysis: "Behind the Formaldehyde Curtain" by Jessica Mitford
In this "Behind the Formaldehyde Curtain" activity, students analyze the purpose and the meaning as well as summaryize the text. Students determine three elements that the author used to make her point.
Pearson
Main Idea
The main idea of this resource is that you should take a look if you're planning to teach main ideas in your class! Cover just about everything you need to know about main ideas with a packet of materials that includes information and...
Curated OER
Book Club Discussion: Things Fall Apart
Students read and discuss Chinua Achebe's novel Things Fall Apart. Students are guided to analyze the text through consideration of the author's use of 6 literary devices. Students also evaluate the text according to their personal...