Students complete a vocabulary chart, review proper/common nouns, discuss and review comparative adjectives and make "self to text" connections before reading. In this language arts instructional activity, comprehension questions are...

Now that learners have been exposed to chemical changes, they learn that some take in heat and therefore, decrease in temperature. The same reaction that they have been investigating between baking soda and vinegar is revisited,...

The House of Representatives has a lot of responsibility  in the United States government. But how did it all begin, and why is it the way it is now? A comprehensive lesson answers all of these questions about the US Constitution...

In this brief review of Richard Horne's book 101 Things to Do Before You Die worksheet, students read the review and answer true and false questions about it. Students choose 12 answers.

Eighth graders read and respond to a poem. In this reading and responding lesson plan, 8th graders read a poem as a class and respond to questions about it.

Students improve their reading comprehension through predicting, connecting with text and summarizing. Students should have already read the book Seedfolks and made predictions based upon what they had seen from the cover and pictures...

The contributions of Ida B. Wells to the Civil Rights Movement are the focus of this social studies instructional activity. Middle schoolers read a handout regarding Wells, discuss the handout, and write about non-conformist behavior.

Does Amir have an obligation to find Sohrab and take him to the orphanage? That is the question class members debate as part of their reading of Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner. 

Students create tables in a word processing program which helps them organize their text clues when reading a mystery story. They develop reading comprehension strategies while using a computer based graphic organizer in order to solve...

Set a purpose for reading informational texts with this reading lesson plan. To find the central idea of a text, young readers turn titles and subtitles into questions to help them understand the text. They complete a T-chart for the...

Get your class ready to read with this anticipatory set for Running Out of Time. Small groups each consider one thought-provoking statement. After each group comes to a consensus, the whole class participates in sharing ideas and voting...

Asking questions about the text is a great way for kids to become self-sufficient readers. Use the question-and-response strategy (QAR) to get them thinking about John Boyne's The Boy in the Striped Pajamas. After they read select...

Turning 11 comes with a range of emotions. Explore those emotions by reading the short story "Eleven" by Sandra Cisneros. Readers analyze the main character's reactions to the events of her day. Then, they write an essay describing what...

A series of activities based on Elizabeth George Speare's The Sign of The Beaver takes your class through vocabulary, reading comprehension, and literary analysis. A good packet or collection of assignments for a reading circle.

Make note of what readers know, what to know, and have learned during a unit on Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea. As class members read the book, they jot down their ideas on a KWHL chart, and consider what they have...

Discover the life of Abraham Lincoln with help from the story Abe Lincoln Remembers by Ann Turner. After listening carefully, scholars reflect on what they deem as Lincoln's most influential life event and how it relates...

In order to truly understand The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, you'll need to provide middle schoolers with background information about the Holocaust. After contributing as many words as they can associate with the Holocaust, such as...

Split the class into two groups for a fishbowl discussion using of Jerry Spinelli's Maniac Magee. The first group initiates the conversation by reviewing the important points of Chapter thirteen while group two...

Who would ever think to go to sea in a sieve? Only Edward Lear's Jumblies! The poem "The Jumblies" is the inspiration for these poetry reading and writing activities that ask learners to think about how strangers are different, consider...

Thanksgiving is a cherished tradition in the United States and Canada. Introduce the beginnings of the Thanksgiving celebration with a resource that features reading comprehension activities, vocabulary exercises, and a short...

The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is a strange tale indeed, but a crossword puzzle based on Robert Louis Stevenson's classic story is pretty straightforward. Help learners review key facts and quotes from the book in a quick...

There may be plenty of horror in Joseph Conrad's novel Heart of Darkness, but studying the details of the plot doesn't need to be horrific. High schoolers complete a short crossword puzzle to review the names, events, and...

The Things They Carried, Tim O'Brien's powerful collection of vignettes about the experiences of a platoon of soldiers during the Vietnam War, serves as a text for a crossword puzzle. The 23 clues asks readers to recall characters,...

Students consider the impact of the Fugitive Slave Law on the activity of the Underground Railroad. In this slavery lesson, students examine primary documents that describe the role of the Underground Railroad during the fight for...