Useful for literary analysis, citing textual evidence, or summary skills, this lesson about the Kumeyaay Indians would be a good addition to your language arts class. Middle schoolers read novels and summarize the literature in their own...

Second graders investigate information in non-fiction texts. They review the features of a non-fiction text and read the book Nature's Food Chains: What Polar Animals Eat. Pupils discuss the text features and write down one fact they...

Young scholars investigate researching techniques by exploring their library. For this literature references lesson, students identify the different types and genres of books that are readily available at their local library as well as...

Third graders engage in a lesson which addresses their curiosity about some of the outstanding people-made landmarks of the world. They explore the geographical themes of location and place through literature.

Explore the text, Cold and Hot, with comprehension strategies for young readers. First, give them a purpose for reading: find out what the boy wore outside in the snow! Then have them use one-to-one matching and picture clues to...

What is figurative language, and why do we use it? Introduce your high schoolers to some examples and discuss the importance of including this element in your writing. After studying a text and searching for examples, writers will...

The Hunger Games. Maximum Ride. Why is so much of young adult literature so dark? What is the appeal of dystopian literature to young readers? The six activities in this resource ask kids to reflect on some of the reasons this genre has...

Help your middle schoolers identify personal experience narratives in their own lives through telling stories themselves and from family members or other adults. They study personal experience narratives in Swapping Stories and compare...

The class discusses the different purposes an author has for writing. The focus of the discussion is on writing to tell a true story and writing to give information about a specific topic. There are writing purpose sorting cards embedded...

Fifth graders explore poems of African Americans. They research a famous African American, write a report, create a timeline of events in African American history, create a map of the New World, and research Molly Walsh. After...

Students develop a comparison worksheet using one non fiction book and one fiction book they have read to be put into a class scrapbook. In their comparison students must have title, author, point of view, setting, characters, and other...

Students explore a Japanese science fiction story that deals with the dangers of technology, failed attempts at utopia, mind control, and loss of loved ones through the reading of Yasutaka Tsutaka's "Standing Woman."

Students investigate what sort of person the author is. They listen as the teacher use her notes to introduce Tom Holt briefly. Students are asked if anyone has read any of his books. They work in pairs to find more about Tom Holt as a...

Students develop a variety of reading skills that diagnosis has revealed as lacking. They use this activity to promote pleasure in reading, to emergent readers to travel further into the world of books and begin to comprehend what rich...

Fourth graders explore the culture and traditions of Native Americans. After reading "Children of the Earth and Sky," students discuss the lives of Native American children in relation to their own. They create replicas of Hopi...

Students read and analyze the story. In this language arts lesson, students read Come on, Rain! and examine how mood and tone are created, the use of figurative language and the characteristics of the genre. Students research the...

After a review of the SQ3R strategy, readers use the provided prompts to respond to a text. The value of this worksheet is in the additional questions that move the learner into higher levels of reasoning.

Ninth graders examine mariachi music and its different musical forms.  In this music history lesson plan, 9th graders compare and contrast mariachi music from its beginnings to the present.  Students research different aspects...

Students identify the elements of science fiction and write their own example.  In this Journey to the Center of the Earth lesson students complete several activities about science fiction, authors and novels.

Pupils will create short movies. The integration of technology into the curriculum is important for learners to apply in various ways. This lesson is an example of that kind of integration.

Students apply the three different types of journal writing by composing one of each type on the subject of Shackleton's expedition to Antarctica. They also write a dialectical journal summarizing the facts of the expedition and...

Students are introduced to the topic of idioms in figurative speech. Using the definition of idioms, they use literature to view examples. They identify idioms in different forms of writing and practice using them in speech. ESL...

Third graders write their own haiku poem after a activity on the history and format of a haiku. In this poetry lesson plan, 3rd graders write a haiku with the correct lines and symbols.