Only a thorough understanding of history can save us from repeating it. Practice close reading skills with an eighth grade unit that focuses on 19th century America, including European immigration into Ellis Island and Frederick...

Close reading doesn't mean to literally read text close to your face, but rather to pay attention to particular details in order to develop a deep and purposeful understanding of text. The first part of a five-part resource provides an...

A 16-page packet includes three activities for a unit study of Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Before beginning the novel, class members identify the factors in their lives that helped create their frame of reference,...

The 11 lessons in this educators' guide focus on using newspapers to develop critical reading skills in the content areas.

Enhance the reading experience with a set of lessons designed to improve textual analysis. Seventh graders use guiding questions to read both informational text and literature closely in the first part of the unit. Next, they work on...

Take another look—there are probably more details than readers realize. Scholars analyze nine texts in a five-part unit that contains 21 activities to find textual details. Activities include close reading, independent reading,...

Examine human resilience across two texts with a detailed unit. Over the course of a week, learners will conduct a close reading of excerpts from Unbroken and Farewell to Manzanar. The resource includes clear procedures for reading and...

Alexandre Dumas' The Count of Monte Cristo is the featured text in three classroom activities. The first activity asks readers to analyze the description of Edmond Dantes in Chapter XVII, paying particular attention to Dumas' word...

An 11-page packet includes three activities to engage pupils in reading Pearl S. Buck's The Good Earth. To understand the historical context, class members research a list of topics related to Chinese history and culture. They then...

The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass is the focus of three activities designed for readers of the autobiography.  First, class members deconstruct the title to understand Douglass's purpose in writing. Next, scholars...

Address both social studies and critical reading skills with a resource dedicated to the voting process, the American democracy, and the ability to evaluate information in order to develop a stance on an issue. Each themed activity...

Lois Lowry's The Giver is one of the most engaging and thought-provoking works of literature in the middle school curriculum. Round out your novel unit with a collection of reading activities, comprehension questions, memoir and...

How do poets convey emotion and represent their views of life? Pupils learn more about Whitman and Dickinson through the unit and analyze their bold reinvention of craft and style for poets to come. Looking at classic pieces such as...

A read-aloud anthology closely examines human impact on the Earth while boosting reading comprehension skills. Through stories, scholars examine the concepts of natural resources, pollution, garbage, and recycling and brainstorm...

Support your instruction of The Cay by Theodore Taylor with this extensive unit of materials. Provided here are prereading activities, worksheets and discussion questions for the entire book, and reading quizzes that you can use to check...

Split into five sections, you'll find plenty of activities, discussion prompts, and worksheets to address social-emotional intelligence. Learners focus on self-awareness, self-management, social awareness, relationship skills, and...

Six powerful and eyeopening lessons provide scholars with activities designed to challenge stereotypes and discrimination. The unit provides reading material with which pupils read and discuss. Grand conversations lead to physically...

The second module in a series for high school seniors focuses on tracking the central idea of a text across genres and from multiple author and character perspectives. Twelfth graders read a speech by Benazir Bhutto entitled "Ideas Live...

Inntroduce primary learners to essential critical reading strategies with an activity based on James Reeves' poem, "The Wind."  Learners listen as the poem is read, first as a riddle, and then re-read with the title visible. The...

Want your class to digest text more thoroughly? Middle schoolers learn about the digestive system in the lesson and reinforce informational text reading skills through a variety of strategies. They engage in a close reading...

Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome is the focus of an 11-page packet that includes three lesson plans, three worksheets, and a homework assignment. The first lesson introduces readers to the historical context of the novel. At the same time,...

Three lessons based on "The Wife of Bath's Prologue" from Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales offer scholars an opportunity to examine literary satire, medieval attitudes towards women, and the form and function of a frame story.

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...

Engage conversation and explore the journey as you challenge young readers to interpret the german folktale, "The Fisherman and His Wife" written by literary brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm.