Radical Reconstruction, the 10-year period referred to after Congress passed the Reconstruction Act of 1867, saw the establishment of manhood suffrage, men voting without any racial qualifications. Southern states also rewrote their...

After reading about the life of George Moses Horton, the first slave to publish anti-slavery poetry, learners will recall his major accomplishments, provide a summary of the obstacles he faced, and identify common aspects of the...

Students read the book "Baseball Saved Us" and respond to the story through writing activities. For this reading lesson, students create a chart of events  which they predict will take place in the story. Students then use their...

Did you know that the United States Constitution was adopted after many state constitutions were already in place? Young scholars examine facts about the influence of states through an informative and interesting resource. Groups then...

An executive is not just a leader of a company; you can also use the term to describe the president of the United States. The ninth part of a 20-part unit teaches high schoolers about the importance of the executive branch and the...

Students investigate the First U.S. Industrial Revolution. They identify positive and negative effects of early industrialization, read first-hand accounts, role-play and interview individuals, and participate in a debate.

Teach your readers how to engage with a text by using the request strategy. As kids read Antoine de Saint Éxupery's The Little Prince, they choose a passage of text and formulate questions to stump their partners or their...

Do figures of speech enhance a play or story? In small groups, learners locate and describe figures of speech they find while reading a reader's theater play. After making predictions, they describe how the figures of speech make the...

FDR's December 7, 1941 address to the nation is the focus of a reading comprehension exercise that asks middle schoolers to read an excerpt from the Pearl Harbor speech and determine the president's purpose.

What are the effects of a good literary cliffhanger? Using the novel study for Paula Fox's The Slave Dancer, pupils consider why the author chose to end the first chapter with suspense. They also answer text-based questions, practice new...

After completing an online activity about the Mayflower, scholars draw a picture about what they know of the Thanksgiving holiday, including a one-sentence summary. A reading of If You Were at the First Thanksgiving by Anne Kamma is...

Good readers question text as they read. The Question Answer Relationships Strategy (QAR) used in this resource with The House on Mango Street, provides readers with a concrete approach for questioning Sandra Cisneros' text and...

Discover the science behind astronomy. After reading the book Maria's Comet, which is about a young woman who breaks new ground by becoming a female astronomer, young learners practice reading comprehension with...

Students investigate the life of African Americans in the North during the American Revolution. They analyze how authors use various techniques to write biographies, read about Sojourner Truth, conduct research, and write an excerpt...

"How important is freedom to you and your family?" The guiding question becomes much more powerful after your class reads and responds to a passage from a historical novel. While reading the passage, they complete a graphic organizer...

Prior to reading Unwind, Neal Shusterman's 2007 young adult science fiction novel, class members research the common definition of words drawn from the novel that will come to have a very different meaning to them as they are...

National Youth Poet Laureate Amanda Gorman's "The Hill We Climb," featured at the 2021 inauguration of President Joseph Biden, is the focus of a six-page guide. The guide includes before reading, during reading, and after reading...

Henry V is certainly not a drama "of few words." It's a sprawling study of a good yet complex king, a tumultuous time in European history, and an examination of justice and mercy. The 20-page guide to the play provides instructors...

Sibling rivalry! Revenge! Ill-fated love! Wuthering Heights has it all! Lead readers through a study of this massive, poignant tale with the help of a 22-page teacher's guide. The guide includes a list of characters and their family...

In the novel, Percy Jackson and the Olympians: The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan, Percy is faced with a major decision. After reading, chapter 19, discuss the decision-making process Percy took, what he decided to...

What will happen in Hatchet by Gary Paulsen? Kids read a series of possible events that will occur in the novel and mark whether they agree or disagree with the probability of each event happening.

Sometimes it's easier to read one part of a novel when focusing on discussion points. Partners work together to read a few paragraphs of Chapter 5 from Gary Paulsen's Hatchet and discuss the plot and theme of the book.

Extend a class reading of the novel The Sign of the Beaver across all subject areas with this literature unit guide. From basic discussion questions and writing prompts, to a research project about tracking animals, this...

Students create a character map of the main characters in The Tale of Despereaux. After reading the text, students create a character chart based on information they gleaned from the story. They use this information to write a letter...