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...

Looking for suggestions on how to organize a creating writing workshop? For topic suggestions appropriate for various grade levels? Check out a resource packet, designed for English language arts instructors, that is packed with ideas...

Where the Read Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls is rich with themes relating to love and family. Help your class to understand these themes with the series of reading activities included in this unit outline. Readers can keep a journal to...

Support second graders with mastering the Common Core using this series of classroom displays. With each English language arts standard rewritten as a We can statement and accompanied by images and examples, this resource provides...

Engage further in Esperanza Rising with a focus on close reading and metaphor. Class members zero in on the tenth chapter, examining characters and big ideas. Pupils discuss the text in small groups and as a whole class, and...

Using questions they developed, class groups discuss Chapter 2 of Malcolm X's autobiography, focusing on the individuals and events Malcolm X feels contributed to his character development.

Young writers have written, revised, and peer-edited their historical fiction narratives by the 10th lesson plan in a language arts unit. Fourth graders finally combine their revision notes to create a second draft. The double-spaced...

How do people's relationships with their parents impact their lives? Scholars read paragraphs 23–26 from "A Genetics of Justice" by Julia Alvarez, in which the author details her relationship with her mother. Pupils discuss how the...

How does Shakespeare develop the idea of appearance versus reality in Macbeth? Using the resource, pupils discuss the plot in small groups. Scholars also complete a Quick Write analyzing how the interactions between Macbeth and Lady...

How does Shakespeare develop the main ideas in Hamlet? Using the resource, scholars continue analyzing the famous monologue from the play. They identify a central idea from the passage and write to explain how it relates to other central...

What is the distinction between rights and equality? Scholars continue their analysis of "An Address by Elizabeth Cady Stanton" using the third instructional activity from the 14-part Grade 11 ELA Module 2: Unit 2 series. Pupils complete...

Why is it important to make connections across texts? Scholars discover the answer with instructional activity 12 of 14 from the Grade 11 ELA Module 2: Unit 2 series. Pupils analyze the development of ideas in three nonfiction texts,...

I have an idea! Scholars examine closely how Du Bois develops a central idea in paragraph four of the chapter "Of Our Spiritual Strivings." They also begin finding significant and relevant evidence to support a topic and complete...

Writers work to create drafts of their end-of-unit assessments relating to A Mighty Long Way and Little Rock Girl 1957. Using computers to create the first versions of their essays, writers emphasize ideas and evidence before focusing...

Use pictures and manipulatives to develop vocabulary with your beginning language learners. This plan can be used with foreign language learners (although you'll have to provide the vocabulary), English language learners, or a young...

Continue working through Esperanza Rising, by Pam Munoz Ryan, by looking into language choices and discussing text-dependent questions. Pupils converse in small groups and as a class about plot, setting, and figurative language. Using...

Pitch your best news story to your news team, or the peers in your journalism class, with a instructional activity about finding, reporting, and presenting a story. After watching clips of different examples, as well as...

The fourth activity in a unit on crafting a research paper focuses on cohesion within and between paragraphs. Class members examine models that lack cohesion and ones that are cohesive and logically developed before using what they have...

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...

Rafael Trujillo was president of the Dominican Republic in the 1930s. Pupils read and analyze the first six paragraphs of Julia Alvarez's autobiographical essay "A Genetics of Justice," in which the author describes Trujillo's impact on...

Does trauma have a lasting effect on people's lives? Scholars dive into the topic as they read paragraphs 9–11 of "A Genetics of Justice" by Julia Alvarez, in which the author describes her family's return to the Dominican Republic....

Scholars evaluate E.B. White's tone in his narrative. Lessons use turn-and-talk strategies to discuss details of a personal narrative essay, respond to guided questions, and work in pairs to analyze word choice. Learners demonstrate...

In Audre Lorde's poem "From the House of Yemanjá," the speaker describes her mother's two faces, adding a whole new meaning to the phrase "two-faced." Pupils first read the final stanza of the contemporary poem. With a Quick Write, they...

How does Shakespeare develop the theme of control in A Midsummer Night's Dream? Using the resource, scholars analyze the theme of parental control in the play and the Greek myth "Pyramus and Thisbe." Next, they talk to partners to...