The rich language of O. Henry's "The Gift of the Magi" is only appreciable if you understand the words. A short lesson reviews 13 words from the story and prompts class members to apply each word and its definition to other situations.

Before you begin reading Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan, read over this comprehensive handout that gives you a plethora of information regarding the story's summary, organizational structure, central...

Keep track of your learners' mastered sight words with 11 sets of words. Four columns list the words, as well as three columns for you to mark the date of mastery. 

Knowing how to make inferences is a very important skill for readers of all ages. Help your pupils master this ability by providing practice. Pupils read four short passages and answer two to three questions about each to practice making...

E. E. Cummings' "Spring is like a perhaps hand" offers young scholars an opportunity to try their hands at analyzing a simile. After a warm-up activity and a close reading of the poem, class members discuss what they think the poem is...

How are bar graphs and pictographs different? As you begin this concept, use these simple graphs to help get learners started with data analysis styles. There is one bar graph and one pictograph, each accompanied by four or five...

Eager readers have waited a long time, very patiently, for a set of literary analysis lessons that connect text structure to the work's central idea. As ninth graders continue reading "The Tell-Tale Heart," they focus on the central...

Fix your mistakes. Scholars look over their end-of-unit assessments while the teacher focuses on common mistakes made among the class. Learners then make predictions about their next text, Frederick Douglass: The Last Day of Slavery, by...

Discover the lovely story of Raimundo Arruda Sobrinho with your class. Over the course of the instructional activity, pupils practice descriptive writing, write short narratives, collaborate in small groups, watch a powerful short film...

Supercharge beginning readers phonics skills with this extensive collection of worksheets. With exercises on long and short vowels, consonant blends, rhyming words, word endings, and much more, this resource is a primary grade teacher's...

Challenge your pupils to match words to images with these 29 pairs. Each word includes a consonant blend, either initial or final, and should be matched with its corresponding image either by simply putting two correct cards together or...

Support your presentation of the film Hotel Rwanda with this collection of worksheets, which includes background information, vocabulary, summary of characters, and fill-in-the-blank worksheets for students to complete as they watch the...

What did segregation look like in the beginning of the 20th century? Middle and high schoolers view images of segregated areas, read passages by Booker T. Washington and W.E.B. DuBois, and come to conclusions about how the influence of...

Britain's decision not to bomb German death camps in World War II has provided many questions for historians, but with a primary source analysis lesson, high school students may be a step closer to finding out the truth. Learners read...

The cycle of energy is important to many different systems on Earth. Scholars use questioning and observation to investigate the differences between renewable and non-renewable resources and how they relate to global changes. They...

As part of a study of narrative writing, class members analyze how Leslie Marmon Silko structures the beginning and orients and engages readers in her narrative, "Yellow Woman and a Beauty of the Spirit."

Class members begin their study of Romeo and Juliet by examining the words Shakespeare chooses in the Prologue to Act I to create the tragic tone of his famous play about star-crossed lovers.

After watching the scene from Romeo + Juliet in which Juliet argues with her parents because she does not want to marry Paris, groups do a close reading of Act 4, scene 1, lines 44-88, examining the word choices in the conversation...

The slow curse of realization begins to sink in during the tenth lesson in a literary analysis unit on Sophocles' Oedipus the King. Ninth graders carefully read the selected lines for evidence of Oedipus' feelings during a turning point...

Fly your flag! Kids attach pictures of words that begin or end with the letter F to squares on a flag, and then write the words below. For additional practice, they write a sentence with one of the words listed.

The stated goal of this unit is to use poetry to "improve the emotional health of young people." Budding poets read and then supply their own lines for poems that deal with alienation, loneliness, and rejection.

What's the least number of colors needed to color a U.S. map? The activity begins by having pupils view a video clip on continuous and discrete phenomenon, then launches into an activity reminiscent of Zeno's paradox. A separate...

Using the five senses is a creative way to write descriptively. Learners read 25 words, both nouns and verbs, and place them into the category labeled with the correct sense.

Building on prior knowledge of the pervious lesson in the series, pupils explain the previous lesson to each other. Then they write a simple guide for a young child to read on the same topic.