Create an urbane battle royal in class with the old Coke vs. Pepsi challenge that develops upper level high school learners skills in developing counterarguments in essay writing. The educator divides the room according to tastes, and...

Does your class need to work on compound and complex sentences? Consider this learning exercise! This fine learning exercise has learners use connecting words to join 8 sentences, so that simple sentences become compound and complex...

Is history "little more than a relic," as one of the characters in "The Palace Thief" contends? Has Hundert's love of antiquity kept him from changing with the times? Readers consider how the author uses these conflicting views to...

Who is to blame for Bernie Madoff's crime? Class members look for evidence Diana B. Henriques uses in The Wizard of Lies: Bernie Madoff and the Death of Trust to support her claims that we share the responsibility with Madoff.

What do consumers need to know about overfishing before buying fish? Scholars consider the question as they prepare for their performance task, which is to create a consumer guide for people about purchasing fish responsibly. After...

Introduce young scholars to the concept of the author's perspective with a lesson plan that uses Emma Lazarus's poem, "The New Colossus," as the anchor text. Groups use a T-chart to identify words that reveal the author's point of...

Clement Moore's "Twas the Night Before Christmas" models the power of descriptive language for middle schoolers. They identify the similes and metaphors in the tale and consider what these descriptions add to the story's emotional...

Students explore fictional characters. In this fictional characters lesson, students hear information about a character then ask and answer questions. Students also answer true/false questions about the character and make a mini book...

Upper elementary schoolers examine the concept of synonyms and how using a variety of vocabulary through synonyms can expand their writing skills. They revise a paragraph using synonyms located on the Visual Thesaurus and participate in...

Learners read short paragraphs, summarize the passage in one sentence, and then develop an appropriate title that indicates the main idea of the selection. Part of a series of exercises designed to build literary skills.

To develop their reading comprehension skills, learners read short paragraphs, summarize the passage in one sentence, and then develop an appropriate title that indicates the main idea of the selection.

Does your class or do individual learners need more practice determining the main idea of a passage of informational text? Here is a instructional activity containing seven exercises that asks kids to read short paragraphs, summarize the...

Get the facts straight with a reading quiz on the first three chapters of Beverly Cleary's The Mouse and the Motorcycle. The questions address details from the plot and provides a writing prompt to predict what will happen next in the book.

Looking for some quick grammar warm-ups? What about handy spelling crossword puzzles? Find everything you need with a resource that contains practice worksheets for parts of speech, parts of a sentence, common grammatical errors, tricky...

Improve your pupils' language skills with these discussions and activities. There are four topics included here, and each is paired with discussion prompts (small group and whole class), student handouts, and teacher notes. After...

Add all of the pieces to complete the puzzle. Scholars apply their knowledge from the past 25 lessons to an end-of-unit writing assignment. Pupils write multi-paragraph essays comparing the author's point of view and use of rhetoric in...

Scholars create a brochure that features three aspects of the poem "The Pied Piper of Hamelin." The program details information about Robert Browning, the poem's setting, and its events. 

Forgiveness can be a difficult step to take in any circumstance, but is it more difficult if the offense is more egregious? High schoolers consider the concept of forgiveness before reading William Shakespeare's The Tempest. As...

Scholars read King's "Letter from Birmingham Jail" paragraphs to identify his arguments and reasoning. They discuss their ideas in pairs and small groups, complete a Model Argument Delineation Tool, and respond to a quick writing prompt.

Choose your words carefully. Martin Luther King Jr. carefully chooses his words to provide evidence to support his claim about segregation. Scholars work in pairs to discuss previous lessons, complete homework assignments, determine the...

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...

Get ready for the big reveal! Scholars work in the final instructional activity of the unit to discuss the revelation in Browning's poem My Last Duchess. Pupils discuss homework in pairs before working in small groups to identify text...

What is the connection? As scholars read paragraph nine of the chapter "Of Our Spiritual Strivings," they determine how Du Bois connects the ideas he presents in the text. They then participate in class discussions, define words, answer...

Change for the better. Scholars continue their study of the chapter "Of Our Spiritual Strivings" by looking at paragraph eight. They study how Du Bois continues to develop his ideas by describing the changes after the passing of the...