EngageNY
Building Context for the Narrative: The Abolition Movement
That's history. Scholars work together to review the text Abolition and its accompanying text-dependent questions. They then determine what information to add to the Historical Context anchor chart. For homework, individuals think...
EngageNY
Tracing the Idea of Fish Depletion: Chapter 1
Would you, could you? Scholars read World without Fish and focus carefully on the use of the words could and would. They chunk the text into smaller sections and write annotations on sticky notes to help with comprehension. To...
National Endowment for the Humanities
The "Secret Society" and FitzGerald's The Great Gatsby
"I have never been able to forgive the rich for being rich, and it has colored my entire life and works." This colored view is the focus of a close reading activity that asks readers of The Great Gatsby to examine the way...
Scripps Ranch High School
The Crucible Journal Project
While reading Arthur Miller's The Crucible, start or end each day with a journal activity. The project includes a list of prompts for each act of the play. Pupils choose a prompt every time they write and connect their own experiences to...
Teacherfiles
Character I.D.
Create ID cards for characters. Provide readers with a template that asks them to affix a photo, identify character traits and list evidence from the text to support this analysis. They indicate changes the character experiences at...
North Carolina Consortium for Middle East Studies
Federalists v. Anti‐Federalists
Here is a solid lesson plan to support your instruction on the Continental Congress and the Articles of Confederation. It includes close analysis of primary source images, a guided notes template and answer key, and many key...
Curated OER
Reading Response Prompts
Get your learners going with frames and starters designed for responding to a text. The starters come in speech bubbles, arrows, and other fun shapes that you can cut out and use in a variety of different ways. Also included are pages...
Humanities Texas
Primary Source Worksheet: Ronald Reagan, Excerpt from Reagan's First Inaugural Address
A key challenge in teaching kids how to read informational text, particularly primary source documents, is finding suitable resources and then developing questions that guide readers. Never fear, help is here in the form of a series...
Stories on the Way
The Temptation of Jesus
Temptation is the focus of this lesson plan, which was designed for the first week of Lent as an introduction to the tradition of Lenten fast. It includes reading of biblical scripture, hands-on activities where learners design cards...
Have Fun Teaching
Predict and Infer (22)
Encourage close reading and critical thinking with a learning exercise that asks readers to select an event from a story, predict what they believe will happen, and list clues from the story that support this prediction. After...
EngageNY
Grade 9 ELA Module 1, Unit 1, Lesson 15
How much progress has Claudette made at the end of "St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves"? Ninth graders note evidence for and against Claudette's successful adaptation into human society with a graphic organizer. Additionally,...
EngageNY
Grade 9 ELA Module 2, Unit 3, Lesson 10
Did Bernie Madoff fit the profile of a Ponzi schemer because, as Diana Henrique contends in an excerpt from her The Wizard of Lies: Bernie Madoff and the Death, he “did not fit the profile of a Ponzi schemer”? Huh? Groups begin their...
Columbus City Schools
Let’s Get Theoretical About Cells
Get up close and personal with cells in a hands-on journey to discover what makes up living things. Scholars learn valuable microscope skills, delve into the Modern Cell Theory, and gain insight into how cells reproduce. The included lab...
College Board
2007 AP® English Language and Composition Free-Response Questions Form B
Do museums offer eyes into the past? Scholars synthesize sources to make a claim in an essay about the importance each museum artifact deserves. Pupils also write to analyze journalist level of ethics as well as a speech by Wendell...
College Board
2005 AP® English Literature and Composition Free-Response Questions Form B
Does more power make you more important? Test takers ponder the question as the 2005 AP® English Literature and Composition Free-Response Questions Form B asks scholars to take a close look at power by writing thoughtful essays. Writers...
College Board
2008 AP® English Literature and Composition Free-Response Questions Form B
Ever wondered what your dog is thinking? Scholars take a close look at two poems written through the eyes of animals and then create essays analyzing each author's technique. Pupils also read a passage to write about the literary...
College Board
2001 AP® English Language and Composition Free-Response Questions
Do pictures really last longer? A prompt from the 2001 AP® English Language and Composition Free-Response Questions asks scholars to analyze the opinion that photography actually limits people when it comes to understanding the world....
EngageNY
Grade 10 ELA Module 2: Unit 1, Lesson 18
Examine how Martin Luther King Jr.'s final paragraphs of "Letter from Birmingham Jail" summarize the ideas throughout the piece. Readers discuss word usage and new vocabulary and complete guided questions to better understand how the...
Literacy Design Collaborative
Analyzing Impact of Word Choice and Figurative Language in "Barbie Doll"
After a close reading Marge Piercy's poem "Barbie Doll," class members craft an AP®-style explanatory essay in which they analyze the diction and other figurative literary devices the poet employs to deliver her commentary on modern...
EngageNY
Analyzing Character: Louie Zamperini
Let's talk! Scholars create discussion appointments using map locations. After completing their appointment books, readers look closely at a few Unbroken pages. They use sentence strips to record details from their readings that help...
Poetry Society
Writing a Personification List Poem
After a close reading of Sylvia Plath's "Mirror" and Flora de Falbe's "Five Things About the Lake," young poets craft their own personification list poem about a very special place.
EngageNY
Analyzing Word Choice: Understanding Working Conditions in the Mills
Ravenous or hungry, happy or ecstatic—why does word choice matter? Scholars continue to analyze working conditions in the mill and how the conditions affect the protagonist of Katherine Paterson's novel, Lyddie. They engage in a close...
EngageNY
Analyzing Powerful Language: Learning to Read
The power of a word. Readers learn the importance of word choice in shaping a text by using a Powerful Language T-chart to separate strong words and phrases from those that are more bland. They then complete a third read and question set...
Teaching for Change
Selma in Pictures: Socratic Seminar
Photographs from the freedom movement in Selma, Alabama serve as the basis of two Socratic Seminars. Class members prepare for the seminars by closely observing the images, form a hypothesis, and use evidence from photo to support a...