Let your class voice their opinions with a group debate activity. Before reading John Milton's Paradise Lost, they work in small groups in assigned roles to form a position about authority and rebellion, comparing a...

Making predictions is an excellent reading strategy. Work on building this into your pupils' toolkit of strategies by trying out the process outlined here for reading the very beginning of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. The...

Assign this narrative essay after finishing Puddn'head Wilson. Learners write about their own experiences with overcoming obstacles. A five-step process is laid out on this assignment page.

As part of a unit study of The Hobbit, class members engage in an activity that asks group to practice the skills needed to reach consensus in a discussion.

“What is the role or function of controversial art? And, should children, our children, be required—forced—to study certain works they may find painful or humiliating or offensive?” Robert Zalisk’s question, found in his article, “Uproar...

Here is a instructional activity designed for middle schoolers which helps them recognize stereotypes one way or another against a particular group of people. They also determine what may have motivated the author to use a stereotype in...

In this online interactive literature worksheet, students respond to 8 short answer and essay questions about Sophocles's The Oedipus Plays. Students may check some of their answers online.

In this online interactive literature worksheet, learners respond to 8 short answer and essay questions about Charles Dickens's Oliver Twist. Students may check some of their answers online.

In this online interactive literature worksheet, students respond to 9 short answer and essay questions about Nevil Shute's On the Beach. Students may check some of their answers online.

In this online interactive literature learning exercise, students respond to 7 short answer and essay questions about T.H. White's The Once and Future King. Students may check some of their answers online.

The Odyssey, Star Wars, The Hunger Games. Odysseus, Luke Skywalker, Katniss Everdeen. Add The Hobbit and Bilbo Baggins to these lists, and you have a unit examining classic and contemporary myths, legends, and folktales with hero and...

Eleventh graders finish presenting their one minute novel evaluations while choosing one of the novels to read independentally. They view a variety of graphic organizers to strategically plan out their website content. In addition, they...

Students read plays, short stories, or novels which revolve around trials, and write essays explaining or defending the assigned role in a mock fairy tale trial.

Students write Cinquain poems about a novel.

Learners discuss problems immigrants may have when coming to a new country. They take on the role of a law maker from the era and create an action plan and policy based on samples they read (links provided). Students discuss ways their...

Students read the novel Night by Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel and complete related activities. In this novel analysis activity, students prompt write and discuss the answers. Students take notes on stereotypes and scapegoats and...

In this literature worksheet, students respond to 31 short answer and essay questions about Harriet Jacobs's Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. Students may also link to an online interactive quiz on the novel at the bottom of...

Students create a KWHL chart as a pre-reading strategy. In this graphic organizer lesson, students communicate their background knowledge before reading A Tree Grows in Brooklyn. Students continue to construct their KWHL chart as they...

Get the scoop with a fun, engaging newspaper project. After analyzing the parts of a newspaper, including the headline, subtitles, and pictures or images, young journalists get to work by writing their own stories in a newspaper article...

Grow vocabulary skills with an understanding of affixes and word roots. Included here are a few activities and plenty of materials you can use to support your learners as the focus on building vocabulary.

Discover and demonstrate the Lotus Effect and superhydrophobic surfaces with the eighth installment of a nine-part series that teaches scholars about surfaces that exhibit superhydrophobicity. The lesson continues also describes...

Sixth graders discover that the cover of printed material holds clues to its content.

Twelfth graders examine the elements of literature. They each read a chapter of a novel, sequentially list the main ideas, present a summary of the chapter to the class, sequence the events, and review the novel by summarizing the timeline.

Students identify and analyze conflicts in plots. In this conflict lesson students recall stories, novels and movies they've read or seen and discuss the conflicts contained therein.  They then complete some written exercises to...