Explore how lack of access to water impacts peoples' lives in poor countries. Through text reading and discussion, middle schoolers are presented with the story of a young girl who lives and functions with limited water resources. They...

Primary learners grasp sequence of events by discussing morning routines and reviewing the story of Little Red Riding Hood. They explore the necessity of correct order of events. As a class, create a story with a beginning, middle, and...

Students explore early 20th century steel making.  In this U.S. history steel making lesson, students view and describe a postcard and a picture depicting exaggerated aspects of the steel industry.  Students listen to a poem...

This PowerPoint provides a summary, comprehension questions, vocabulary words, and links for independent activities related to the story "The Swimming Hole" by Laura Ingalls Wilder. Age-appropriate definitions of such literacy elements...

After watching West of the West's documentary The Lone Woman of San Nicolas Island, class members imagine how Juana Maria/Karana may have felt about living alone on the island for 18 years and craft a blackout poem or a narrative in...

Get the most out of your guided reading lessons with this collection of literacy materials. Offering a system for using color-coded tags to mark pages while reading books, as well as an assortment of comprehension and grammar...

Mystery is an exciting genre for young readers to investigate. The plots are so intriguing! Here is a series of lessons featuring Sherlock Holmes stories that invite learners to enter the world of the mystery genre.  Based on what...

What do you know about polar bears? Get your youngsters writing about these majestic animals with this short writing activity. They simply use the six words provided to create a short story about the picture provided. Review the words...

From A to Z, learners define, draw, and find examples of specific reading focus skills in an alphabetized reading vocabulary packet. Words include dialogue, theme, text structure, genre, paraphrase, and many more.

Teach your class the basics of narrative writing! The resource first describes the Common Core standard for narrative writing in-depth, and then moves into how to apply the standard. Show your class the example essay and quiz them...

Examine letters written during war-time. In this cross curricular history and English lesson, middle and high school scholars read letters and poems written by soldiers in the Vietnam war. They will examine the perspective and emotions...

Many American writers in the late nineteenth century wanted their writing to reflect real life. Individuals watch and discuss a video, read and explore author biographies, write a journal entry and a poem, and complete a multimedia...

Create meaningful illustrations to accompany stories in a web-based art and literacy lesson focused on "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" by Rudyard Kipling. The class takes a virtual art safari with the Museum of Modern Art and then discusses how...

A thorough lesson introduces learners to Hans Christian Andersen, the nineteenth-century author who created wonderful tales. They read the original texts of several of his stories, including "The Ugly Duckling," "The Little Mermaid,"...

Students identify the parts of a dragonfly that they drew. They write a very short non-fiction story (mainly with pictures) about the adventure of a dragonfly. They interview a person dressed as a dragonfly to find out some things about...

Students explore fictional text and poetry. They explore the story structures used in the types of texts and examine the language patterns used. Students practice tracking text in the correct manner.

Young scholars explore language arts by reading and reflecting on literary examples. In this fiction writing lesson, students read several different cultural versions of the story "Cinderella" and discuss their interaction with the story...

In this writing to analyze, comment and review worksheet, young scholars analyze blurbs, comment on the openings and endings of novels, and review a book from their own choosing. Students answer seventy short answer questions.

Pupils discover how to locate books on meadow and pond animals and research them. Students discover how to locate fiction/story books about the animals mentioned in the counting book read. Pupils discover how to locate by author, other...

Students present the outline of the mystery story they are writing while working in reciprocal teaching groups. They respond to group members writing before they continue to finish revisions.

Students discuss with teacher how to complete a short story and the elements necessary: characters, settings, themes, and plots. They then use the worksheet to complete the short story.

Students read and analyze the twelve short stories in the novel "The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes." They create their own detective that has to solve a new kind of crime, and write and edit a short story with their original detective as...

Learners explore seven basic story lines and apply these story lines to news articles in the New York Times. They write reports comparing the plot of a news article to novels, plays and movies with which they are familiar.