Curated OER
Reading Comprehension - Short Stories: "Remains of a Marriage"
Planning a short story unit? Consider including this worksheet early in your plan. "Remains of a Marriage" provides the text that could be used as the basis of a lesson on close reading, on comprehension strategies, and/or group...
Curated OER
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead: "Teach Each Other" Discussion
Challenge your class to hold a discussion about the theme of death in Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead without direct teacher guidance. After going over the discussion protocols and quotes from the text, learners move in a circle...
Curated OER
Dulce et Decorum est by Wilfred Owen
It is entirely fitting and proper that Wilfred Owen’s powerful “Dulce et Decorum Est” is the poem used for an exercise in close reading, discussion, analysis, and argumentative writing. Class members discuss focus questions in pairs,...
What So Proudly We Hail
The Meaning of America: National Identity and Why It Matters
Combining a close reading of a classic American text with the study of history can be a very powerful strategy, and this is most certainly the case with this resource using Edward Everett Hale's The Man without a Country. Consider themes...
Mr. Roughton
How to Analyze Art
How does analyzing art differ from analyzing text? Young historians consider a piece of Italian Renaissance art and practice another type of primary source analysis through a close look and discussion of Bernardo Zenale's...
Literacy Design Collaborative
Analyzing Language through Dialogue and Internal Monologue in "The Scarlet Ibis"
James Hurst's short story "The Scarlet Ibis" provides eighth graders with an opportunity to sharpen their literary analysis skills. After a close reading of the text, class members highlight and annotate parts of the dialogue and...
EngageNY
Grade 10 ELA Module 4: Unit 1, Lesson 3
Are authors also designers? Scholars examine closely how E.B. White designs a section in Death of a Pig. They determine how the structure of sentences and paragraphs, the order of events, and the dialogue placement all contribute to the...
Literacy Design Collaborative
Rhetorical Analysis of Frederick Douglass
Is the Fourth of July a celebration for all Americans? Scholars carry out a close read of What to the Slave is the Fourth of July? Readers talk with partners about the speaker's point of view, the author's debate, reasoning, and...
EngageNY
Grade 11 ELA Module 1: Unit 1, Lesson 2
What do your words say about you? Scholars look closely at the Duke's words about the Duchess in Robert Browning’s My Last Duchess. Readers talk in groups to determine how the words help them learn more about the Duke. Learners also...
EngageNY
Considering a Character’s Relationship with Others: Contrasting Ha and Her Brothers
Who is Ha? Scholars look closely at the poem Papaya Tree and carefully examine the character Ha. Learners work in groups to create an anchor chart defining Ha's character. They also answer text-dependent questions to help with...
EngageNY
Grade 11 ELA Module 2: Unit 1, Lesson 13
Some words leave a lasting impact. After reading paragraph 11 of the text "Of Our Spiritual Strivings," scholars closely examine how Du Bois describes the impact prejudice left on the African American community. They discuss the...
EngageNY
Language Analysis: “I Have a Dream”
Middle schoolers look closely at Martin Luther King Jr's "I Have a Dream" speech and use a language analysis sheet to determine if King's sentences use active or passive voice. They then move their attention back to A Mighty Long Way to...
EngageNY
Studying Conflicting Interpretations: Perspectives on Plessy v. Ferguson: Part 3
Scholars closely read Justice John Marshall Harlan's dissenting opinion in the Plessy v. Ferguson case, seeking to understand why he disagreed with the court's decision that racial segregation laws for public spaces were constitutional....
EngageNY
Understanding Interactions: Launching Pygmalion, Part 1
During a reading of one section of Pygmalion, individuals begin thinking more deeply about identity. They also complete text-dependent questions and a close reading guide.
EngageNY
Gender and Pygmalion
Scholars take a close look at the role of gender presented in Pygmalion. They work in pairs to complete Gender Excerpts and Text-Dependent Questions. To finish, classmates discuss the role gender plays in the United States today.
EngageNY
Building Context for the Narrative: Slavery in America
Scholars use an Analyzing Images: Slavery in America handout to make predictions from pictures featuring slavery. They then discuss the pictures with partners. Learners further their thinking by close reading The Slave Trade and...
Scientific American
Inside the Coronavirus
Take biologists on a journey into the heart of the Covid-19 virus with a series of stunning graphics and explanations about the global pandemic. Animations bring investigators up close to the virus, revealing its structure and movement...
Mr. Nussbaum
The Color Green
A two-paragraph informative text takes a close look at the color green. Scholars listen to and or read the passage, then answer five multiple-choice questions. A progress report details learners' performance.
British Council
Christmas
Pupils learn more vocabulary and English language by taking a close look at the words Happy Christmas and working in groups to see how many words they can make of the letters. Scholars then take a quiz to test their knowledge about...
K20 LEARN
Between The Lines: Inferences In The Narrative Life Of Frederick Douglass Excerpt
Good literature can be much like an iceberg requiring readers to presume that the bulk of the meaning may be inferred to be found below the surface. Here's a instructional activity that asks scholars to conduct a close reading of...
PBS
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s ‘I Have a Dream’ Speech as a Work of Literature
To appreciate the oratory of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech, scholars examine the rhetorical devices and influences that make the speech so famous. They examine background information, conduct a close reading of the...
EngageNY
Grade 9 ELA Module 4, Unit 1, Lesson 11
As part of a study of how writers structure their text so that readers understand events, class members do a close reading of "Is It Lawful to Make Slaves of Others Against Their Will?" a chapter in Aronson and Budhos' Sugar Changed the...
EngageNY
Grade 9 ELA Module 4, Unit 1, Lesson 1
How do writers introduce and develop the central ideas in a text? To answer this question, ninth graders closely examine "The Age of Honey," the opening chapter in Marc Aronson and Marina Budhos' Sugar Changed the World: A Story of...
Smithsonian Institution
Expedition: Insects
Get up close and personal with beautiful and sometimes dangerous insects in an exciting eBook activity! Pupils practice geography skills by reading a map with the location of six different insects. Scientists read about each insect,...