Every culture has its own stories to tell. An interesting educator's guide shares a large collection of fairytales and folktales, some from different cultures and some re-creations of classics. A summary and brief teaching ideas...

Need a teacher's guide all about Sam Houston and how he relates to the Texas Revolution? Look no further! The guide includes a timeline detailing Houston's life, important milestones, and relevant maps that include his movement around...

Even supposed Utopian societies have their flaws. Using an educator's guide, individuals explore the society Ally Condie creates in Matched. Reflective writing prompts double as discussion questions and cover key themes in the novel, as...

Where did the falcons go? Scholars read the article Welcome Back which describes the disappearance of falcons due to the use of pesticides. During a second read, learners annotate the text by marking unfamiliar words and facts about...

Support your instruction of The Cay by Theodore Taylor with this extensive unit of materials. Provided here are prereading activities, worksheets and discussion questions for the entire book, and reading quizzes that you can use to check...

Teach learners to reflect on their reading with a lesson about double-entry journals. As they read Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles, class members note interesting passages from the text on the left side of their...

Asking questions about a text is an effective way to improve reading comprehension. Apply the Question Answer Response strategy to your unit on William Shakespeare's The Tempest. As kids read each passage, they decide if the answer...

First graders read a book with the teacher while encountering unfamiliar words and learning how to use context clues and visual clues to understand the material.  For this reading comprehension lesson, 1st graders...

Students read the book I Am Tall and complete several reading response activities relating to the poems in the book. In this reading response lesson, students focus on the subject of fathers and make speculations about what the poems in...

This is a must-have resource for every social studies teacher covering the civil rights movement. Through an engaging video and detailed viewing guide, young historians learn about the Freedom Riders, and discover how everyday...

One of my favorite things about this resource is that they use a standardized lexile to help you determine who should be reading what book. I also love this great teacher's guide for the book, The Class Election from the Black...

Inspire thought around some of the themes of Pudd'nhead Wilson with a visualization activity. As you read a passage, learners close their eyes and picture the scene. A writing exercise and discussion follow.

Prepare class members for a discussion of Sonia Levitin's dystopian novel The Cure, by leading them on a guided imagery exercise designed to encourage visualization of written descriptions.

It can be difficult to begin a novel when you don't know what it's about. Take the opportunity to begin S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders slowly, making predictions and answering questions about the book's first nine pages.

The non-fiction book Art Around the World by Heather Leonard serves as inspiration for learning how art reflects cultures and values. New vocabulary and background knowledge are fleshed out before reading the story. Afterward, the class...

Albert Bierstadt's painting Wind River Country shows viewers how a reader progresses through a story. Your class studies the light and dark areas, how the eye moves across the painting, and what attracts the audience to the work, and...

George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four, published in 1949, can seem strangely prophetic when compared to modern news events and politics. Readers of Orwell's dystopian classic sharpen their critical thinking skills by engaging in...

Choose a side! Pupils watch and read several nonfiction resources about zoos. After gathering their research, they choose a side either for or against closing zoos. Scholars complete KWL charts, anticipation guides, flow charts, and...

Enrich your study of Charlotte's Web by E.B. White with this useful resource. Included here are 22 discussion questions, 15 extension ideas, and 10 curriculum questions that cover characters, plot, farming, and much, much more.

Are cattle prods beneficial for herding cattle, or do they cause more harm than good? Investigate Temple Grandin's claim about animal behavior with a lesson that focuses on pages 20-23 of the first chapter of her book, Animals in...

Pupils consider the varying perspectives of people in different cultural groups as they read an informational text about the Dinka tribe of Southern Sudan and complete graphic organizers. They also respond to a constructed-response...

Sometimes a novel is the best way to tackle a tough topic. A helpful educator's guide for the novels of Gayle Forman discuss tough topics such as teenage suicide. Discussion questions and writing activities encourage readers to think...

Louisa May Alcott's Little Women is a literary masterpiece as well as a timestamp of the formative mid-nineteenth century in America. Using a primary source set of photographs, letters, and portraits, readers discuss the ways...

Learners explore comprehension strategies as they listen to Zoom Broom by Margie Palatini. As the story is read, teacher and pupils will stop occasionally to make text-to-text, text-to-self, or text-to-world connections. They also...