Creating a Bill of Rights isn't easy! Help your scholars experience what the Founding Fathers did by challenging them to write a Bill of Rights. Groups pretend they are a new democratic country and proceed to create that country's Bill...

Young scholars examine examples of the qualities of good writing skills and discuss how each of the traits add to the process of good writing. A variety of excerpts from literature provide samples for the exploration.

Use the revision process to polish your writing. Writers prepare works for job portfolios that include cover letters, job applications, resumes, and letters of recommendation. Prepare them for the future!

Good discussion questions, quizzes, and tests teach as well as assess. Readers of The Great Gatsby will learn much from the materials in a 36-page packet designed to help students prepare for the AP Literature exam. Included in the...

Imagine a list that includes Alan Abelson of Baron's, Bob Woodward of the Washington Post, and Mother Jones. High schoolers select a national columnist, read and annotate five columns by this author, noting the rhetorical...

Here’s a must-have resource for anyone using The Grapes of Wrath. Everything from guiding questions to background information, from photographs to documentary films, from activities to assessments is included in a richly detailed packet...

How do poets convey emotion and represent their views of life? Pupils learn more about Whitman and Dickinson through the unit and analyze their bold reinvention of craft and style for poets to come. Looking at classic pieces such as...

Students collect details from chapter 9 of the book Jason's Gold and connect them back to the author's purpose of the book. In this details lesson plan, students listen to a read aloud where they discuss the details with the teacher as...

Fifth graders use technology to research and collect data. They develop awareness and appreciation of authors and genres. They organize information for presentation.

Although the article that launches this lesson is about the history of the Periodic Table, the objective is reading comprehension. Using the eight-page informational text, learners answer five comprehension questions and craft one essay....

Teach learners how to interact with both fiction and non-fiction text with a packet of activities and worksheets. After looking over text structure and the difference in text features between different types of writing,...

“Champion of the World,” a chapter from Maya Angelou’s I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, is the subject of a study guide that asks readers to consider the author’s purpose, the function of the chapter in the entire narrative, and...

How can a screenplay create meaning and drama in ways that other forms of writing cannot? That is the question class members must answer as they compare the cantina scene of the screenplay for George Lucas's Star Wars: A New Hope...

High schoolers analyze mood and voice in Emily Dickinson's poem, "There's a Certain Slant of Light." After the analysis, students write a poem of their own emulating the Dickinson poem, and then write a one-page essay describing what...

What goes around, comes around. Using the resource, pupils read Act 4.3 of Macbeth, in which Macduff and Malcolm plan to attack Macbeth. Scholars then hold a discussion and complete writing activities to analyze Shakespeare's structural...

Third graders examine how a family modifies their environment to create a home out of mud. They read the book "This House is Made of Mud" by Ken Buchanan, and write a description of their own home that compares the home of mud to their...

A person doesn't have to be an adult to make a difference! Scholars examine a speech by a 16-year-old girl. They discuss her word use, answer guided questions, and complete a rhetorical tracking tool. Readers end their analyses by...

There is power in words. Readers take a close look at three text to determine how language structures affect meaning, including include poems and recipes. Scholars analyze the language authors use by circling important words, underlining...

Before Hamilton, Lin Manuel-Miranda gained fame with In the Heights. A study guide prepares theater goers for a performance of the musical about a group of friends living in the New York City neighborhood of Washington Heights....

In this author's purpose worksheet, students complete a graphic organizer, writing clues that help determine author's purpose in an essay: explain, express feelings, persuade or entertain. 

How do you write an interesting beginning, middle, and end of a story? With this lesson, young writers look to other stories as examples. Then, they use some of the attached graphic organizers to help them create their own story. Note:...

Have your learners choose an author to study. One resource link gives a list of approved authors. Scholars read at least three works produced by that author and produce three separate book reports as well as a two-page author report....

The similarities and differences between academic and everyday summaries/abstracts are explored in this PowerPoint. After reading "Historiographic Reflection on Israel’s Origins: The Rise and Fall of the Patriarchal Age,” and abstracts...

Students discuss and define what folk and fairy tales are. In this literature activity, students construct their own working definitions for folk and fairy tales. Students choose to work as a class or in cooperative groups. Then students...