Human trafficking has existed in many forms throughout history. Using a novel study of Sing Down the Moon by Scott O'Dell, readers learn the story of a young Native American girl taken into slavery. Reading comprehension and...

As the saying goes, art often imitates life ... and literature! A series of activities designed to accompany a visit to the Ogden Museum of Southern Art encourage writers to find inspiration in various landscapes. The lesson includes a...

Third graders answer text-dependent questions of the story Nasreen's Secret School both independently and then collaboratively through using the carousel of questions strategy. This plan is the seventh instructional activity in a...

Third graders develop their reading superpowers in a lesson plan on fluency. After first listening to an audio recording or teacher read aloud, the class works together identifying criteria for fluent reading, focusing on phrasing, rate,...

Designed to accompany Focus on Contemporary Arabic by Shukri Abed, this document provides 41 pages of Arabic terms with English translations. The words are organized alphabetically in Arabic and include notations that indicate colloquial...

Is a list of literary terms found frequently on AP English exams of value to test takers? Now there's a rhetorical question. Here's a list that provides definitions for everything from allegory to vernacular. To say the list is...

Though it is Emily Bronte's only novel, Wuthering Heights became one of the greatest of all-time. The classic novel gets an update in the form of an eBook. Readers learn about Heathcliff, Catherine, Edgar, and the other characters...

Students watch and respond to a Bill Moyers Now video on the Chilean author, Isabel Allende. They brainstorm a list of recent events that might inspire writers and choose one to write about in poetic, diary, or short story form.

Students form groups to help each other read, analyze, and conduct research on important background information about Jews and their assimilation into modern American society. They write their own stories of assimilation.

The depth of Nineteen Eighty Four is in the details. Encourage a close reading of Orwell's dystopian classic with resource sheets that focus attention on the author's stylistic choices that lead to the betrayals that make Big Brother's...

The Oscar for the Best Adapted Screenplay acknowledges a writer's excellence in adapting material found in another source. What do your class members know about adapted resources? Find out with an assessment that asks readers to...

As an assessment of their skill in crafting a compare and contrast essay, class members read and compare the portrayals of nature in excerpts from naturalist John Muir's My First Summer in the Sierra and from poet Emily Dickinson's...

Everyone knows that a noun is a person, place, thing, or idea - but what happens when you have people, places, things, or ideas? Use this SMART board activity to guide your class through plural nouns. Several activities, including making...

Interactive SMART Board activities provide young grammarians with practice changing singular nouns to plural nouns. Learners then create collages on which they inscribe the singular and plural form of the noun label.

As part of a unit study of Bud, Not Buddy, readers compare Buddy's list of rules to live by with those that Steve Jobs enumerates in his commencement address to Stanford's 2005 graduating class.

A solid, straightforward book report form is an excellent addition to your literature unit. Class members note the main characters, point of view, plot elements, and other important details from a story, adding their favorite part...

Begin the writing journey of an evidence-based essay detailing a rule to live by with various activities to familiarize learners with the topic and jump-start brainstorming. First, pupils take part in an in-depth review and discussion of...

Why did Chinua Achebe write "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness" in response to Conrad's novel? As part of a study of Things Fall Apart, class members conduct a socratic seminar focused on Achebe's purpose and...

To make the point that there are many forms of language, each with its own purpose, class members select 10 lines from Doescher's play, translate these lines first into contemporary English and then into "SMS/Tweet." 

Eliminate the hard work of creating an entire literature unit with this reading guide for the novel Sarah, Plain and Tall. From background information about the author and her motivation for writing the story to...

If you're looking to start a unit based around narrative writing, make sure to consider this resource while you're planning. This book covers five topics: writing personal narratives, writing narratives about others, writing...

Work on narrative writing with this lesson plan, in which middle schoolers analyze the characters from a selected piece of literature and write narrative diary pieces as the character. They work to understand the point of view of the...

Good discussion questions, quizzes, and tests teach as well as assess. Readers of The Great Gatsby will learn much from the materials in a 36-page packet designed to help students prepare for the AP Literature exam. Included in the...

Looking for a good social media lesson for your class? Then, this lesson is for you! They study various written reviews, then must choose an item to review of their choice. They can choose from: a book, restaurant, CD/musical...