Relationships between characters generate energy that propels the plot and connects events with a central idea. Track character development and meaningful relationships with a literary analysis lesson plan focused on H.G. Bissinger's...

Towards an Open Anthology of Poetry features poets talking about their work, poems by topic, terms to use when teaching poetry, and poems to use for close reading.

Grab a partner! Scholars partner up to take a second look at the verse novel Inside Out & Back Again. They discuss questions about and connections to the novel and then learn how to complete a Quick Write task properly. To finish,...

Scholars participate in a Write-Pair-Share activity while answering questions about the meaning of words in "Wet and Crying." They use their Write-Pair-Share note-catchers to guide their thoughts and then share with the class. After...

It's all connected. Scholars use pages 24-26 of The Most Beautiful Roof in the World to identify the relationship between the plants and animals in the rainforest. They answer and discuss questions about the relationship with a...

Engage readers of Gulliver’s Travels with a series of worksheets that include pre-reading activities, vocabulary exercises, comprehension questions, and close reading checks. Designed for younger learners, the focus of the packet is on...

The country of Egypt is more than just big pyramids and ancient pharaohs. After reading a brief overview of this African nation, young learners will demonstrate their understanding of the text by identifying the main idea and supporting...

Guide readers to think about what they are reading with a comprehension activity. Using John Steinbeck's The Pearl, learners predict what is coming, verify and judge their predictions, and analyze what they are reading more closely.

Over the course of a 12-lesson language arts unit, young scholars analyze a variety of poems taking a close look at figurative language and tone. They learn to compare and contrast, improve comprehension, and identify settings. To...

A 55-page unit examines the novel, The BFG, by Roald Dahl. Six lessons pay close attention to friendship, dreams, and believing themes while analyzing interesting characters, writing creative vocabulary, smilies, metaphors, an exciting...

Should identifying a tragic hero be based on a universal definition or a definition based on the morals and values of a specific culture? As part of a study of Things Fall Apart, class members read Sylvia Plath's "Colossus" and then...

Young readers can be exposed to the literary works of Mark Twain as they interact with challenging text and gain experience by reading the complex passages of chapter two "The Glorious Whitewasher" from his famous book, The Adventures of...

Second graders practice skills, including spelling, grammar, and reading. Pupils examine vowel sounds and tricky words, nouns, and verbs. They begin the writing process by drafting a persuasive letter and decoding texts.

Hide and seek is a lot of fun whether you're the hider or the seeker! Second graders read a short passage about a game of hide and seek before answering four reading questions.

What happens when a species becomes extinct? Sharpen your reading skills with a passage about how koalas have gotten close to being an endangered species.

Gary Paulsen’s Canyons is the focus of an exercise that models how to read closely using a Questioning the Author (QtA) strategy. Complete directions for the strategy, which can be used with any text, are included in the richly-detailed...

Delve into Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan with close reading and evidence-based, text-dependent questions. Part of a unit series, this well-sequenced, Common Core-designed activity draws on material from the previous day and homework...

Learners explore comprehension strategies as they listen to Zoom Broom by Margie Palatini. As the story is read, teacher and pupils will stop occasionally to make text-to-text, text-to-self, or text-to-world connections. They also...

Explore reciprocal questioning with this ReQuest comprehension strategy. After reading a passage, learners first question the teacher, trying to "stump" her. Then it is the teacher's turn to ask the pupils questions. All correct answers...

A key reading comprehension skill is the ability to summarize. Here's a worksheet that not only explains how to summarize, but also explains why summarizing is important.

What happens when an animal becomes endangered or extinct? Explore the ways that human influence throughout the environment has threatened the existence of other species with a reading passage. After reading the paragraphs, kids answer...

Read about the safety of a fire alarm in a five-paragraph reading passage. After reading, pupils respond to four short answer, comprehension questions.

When is it a good idea to use estimation? Learn about estimation and rounding with a reading comprehension lesson. After kids read a passage about estimation, they answer five comprehension questions on the other side of the page.

Read the short reading passage entitled "Clean Water Act" to help your class build reading fluency and comprehension. While most questions focus on recall, learners are asked to use the context to define select vocabulary words. This...