In this literature activity card worksheet, students cut out pictures that correspond with the events in the book The Snowy Day. They follow the directions at the top of the page with their parents as they read and retell the story. They...

In this Language Arts activity, students write step by step directions from one location to another. Students include approximate travel times and road names.

What do you think of when you hear the word adult? Or friend? Learners brainstorm with a group of peers to list the words they think of when they hear seven words from Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince.

Here's a great way to make vocabulary words drawn from Edward Bloor's novel Tangerine memorable. Kids create a word square, and in one quadrant write the word. A picture goes in a second quadrant, the definition in a third, and a...

The anticipation guide for Words by Heart is the first of a series of six, contains lesson plans for the activity as well as a handout to be completed individually, in pairs, or as a class. It sparks interest for the text...

As part of a unit study of The Hobbit, class members engage in an activity that asks group to practice the skills needed to reach consensus in a discussion.

After completing Chapter 5 of Parrot in the Oven: Mi Vida, readers make text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world connections to Victor Martinez's novel by crafting journal entries addressing comments and questions to characters in...

Track the poetic elements in any text with a guided reading worksheet. Kids note examples of consonance, alliteration, onomatopoeia, repetition, rhyme, and rhythm when reading a poem or story, and provide a short explanation as...

Excerpts from classic novels make great material for standardized tests. A sample English language arts examination, part of a larger set of assessments, mixes excerpts from classic novels and more modern texts. The test includes three...

After responding to a series of prompts on an anticipation guide, readers of Unwind craft five predictions about what will happen in Neal Shusterman's young adult science fiction novel.    

Here's an exit slip activity that asks readers of The Last Lecture to identify three lessons from "Part III: Adventures and Lessons Learned" that resonated for them.

Start with the question in mind with a discussion activity on Louisa May Alcott's Little Women. With four focus questions, note-taking prompts, and discussion points, readers practice answering thematic questions based on textual evidence.

As part of the introduction to Edward Bloor's Tangerine, class members generate a KWHL chart listing what they know, what they want find out, how they plan to find this information, and what they have learned or still want to learn.

Readers of Tennessee Williams' award winning memory play, The Grass Menagerie, will be neither disappointed nor discouraged by this prereading strategy that asks learners to consider what they know about Williams and his play, what they...

A think aloud activity is a great way for readers to develop critical thinking skills. This resource models for readers how to use this strategy to think critically about a passage from Victor Martinez's Parrot in the Oven.

Readers of The Joy Luck Club, use a double-0entry journal to record and reflect on passages from Amy Tan's novel.

Readers of Neal Shusterman's young adult science fiction novel, Unwind, engage in a silent discussion, posting their responses to a series of statements about characters in the story.

Eight independent worksheet pages challenge scholars to solve 12 problems that focus on negative numbers in the context of temperature in degrees of celsius. 

J.K. Rowling's world of wizards and magic focuses on some topics that relate to our own society, especially in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Have kids complete a KWHL chart (what they know, what they want to know, how...

Craft your own fairy tale based on Momotaro, a Japanese story referenced in Kyoko Mori's Shuzuko's Daughter. A list of nouns guide learners in writing their own story, and predicting what might happen in the novel.

Support English language development with a family-themed unit consisting of a series of lessons designed to get your scholars moving, looking, speaking, writing, and listening. Conversation topics...

Middle schoolers develop strategies for what to do when they come upon words in a text that they don't know. After a class discussion, pupils are given a selection of text that contains some very difficult words. They are instructed to...

Examine the characters in Willa Cather's My Antonia with a group project. Small groups illustrate their chosen character on a large piece of paper and choose quotes from the text that tell about the character. Where students choose...

Help your class use critical thinking when it comes to unfamiliar words. With vocabulary from Kyoko Mori's Shizuko's Daughter, kids write the word in the center of a graphic organizer, and find its category, comparisons,...