Even first graders can be exposed to good reading strategies and comprehension skills. The teacher demonstrates how to read informational text, look at the questions, reread the text, locate answer, then locate supporting details to...

Is falling in love easy or hard? Challenge your class to consider seven statements about love and relationships before reading Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. Then, as you work your way through the play, revisit the sheet to record...

Jane Eyre offers scholars an opportunity to practice reading comprehension skills. Pairs are assigned a word from the text, use their prior knowledge, and consider the context, connotation, and denotation of the word to posit a...

It's time to take action. In small groups, scholars read texts about the global water crisis. Next, they create campaign posters to inform the community about the issue, as well as possible solutions. 

With all the stuff available online, good essays are just a click away. But talk about tracking! Writers beware! New tech can now identify plagiarism, and the consequences of presenting someone else's work as your own are severe. Here's...

Willy Wonka takes center stage in a lesson about direct and indirect characterization. Scholars read a passage from the story about Wonka's Grand Entrance and watch a film clip of the same, noting examples of direct and indirect...

By digitally organizing research, your class leaves a legacy for future students on the life and times of Mark Twain. Before reading The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, scholars conduct group research projects on one of six (listed)...

Students apply reading strategies to interpret a map, a diagram, a scientific chart, and a historical text. In small groups, they examine and analyze various documents. They present their findings to the class.

Dig into chapter 19 of Running Out of Time with questions covering each level of Bloom's Taxonomy. Learners read the text, respond to the questions in paragraph form, and then discuss the answers as a class.

Readers of Robert Cormier's Tunes for Bears to Dance to are asked to consider the morality of the central character's actions

To launch a reading of The Dark is Rising, the second novel in Susan Cooper's award winning contemporary fantasy novel sequence for young adults, class members engage in a guided imagery exercise that asks them to visualize the...

Students share opinions about common bad habits, read about behavior economics by reading and discussing article "Your Plate Is Bigger Than Your Stomach," identify goals and strategies designed to improve negative behaviors, and test...

Students interact with the strategy of visualization to better understand what is happening in a story. They assess the poem, "Talented Family," and the book, "Sarah Plain and Tall," to visualize and imagine in their minds pictures of...

Third graders explore language arts by answering study questions about a book they read. In this reading summary lesson, 3rd graders read the book Verdi by Janell Cannon and identify the plot, characters and sequence of the story....

Students interpret basic chemical formulas. When class begins, students interpret a "chemical formula" for fruit salad. After they interpret the recipe, students use the same strategies to identify chemical formulas. They evaluate the...

When does trash become litter? Use this litter awareness lesson to help them understand the importance of trash disposal. Get learners engaged by reading Nancy Loewen's Lady Lulu Liked to Litter (not included). After discussing what...

What are some things you think are special enough to keep? Discussing special things launches young learners into reading Keepers. They investigate related vocabulary and practice before, during, and after reading comprehension...

What exactly is the fiscal cliff? What are the effects of changing income tax rates and payroll tax rates? Your learners will begin by reading news articles and examining graphs illustrating the "Bush tax cuts" of 2001 and 2003. They...

How can social media help or hinder civil dialogue? How can information shared on social media be verified? As the investigation of media reports of the events surrounding the shooting of Michael Brown continues, class members read...

Before reading Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" in your class, walk learners through this scavenger hunt that teaches them about Poe's life and works. Though the lesson is designed for 15:1 special education class, it could work in any...

Students explore pre-reading activities. Through looking at titles, and observing pictures, students predict what will happen in a story. They listen to a part of the story and then write their own conclusion. Students complete the story...

Second graders listen to their teacher read the book, "Flat Stanley". They relate the activities in the book to activities in their own life. They can also create their own pictures of Stanley.

Eighth graders practice reading a nonfiction selection. They read for details, read for cause and effect, and practice the process of elimination. They use these strategies when answering multiple choice questions in tests.

Students become fluent readers by assessing the strategy of visualization to visualize each event in a story. They use imagery to visualize all types of literature. Each student receives a copy of "Sideways Stories from Wayside School,"...