Second graders read The Piano and become familiar with racial discrimination.  In this racial discrimination book lesson plan, 2nd graders answer comprehension question to focus on the importance of the book.  Students discuss...

Students read about an immigrant family and participate in reading activities related to the book.  For this immigration book lesson, students answer question related to immigration and the book.

Third graders explore language arts by answering study questions about a book they read. In this reading summary lesson, 3rd graders read the book Verdi by Janell Cannon and identify the plot, characters and sequence of the story....

Students explore reading comprehension strategies. For this character development and reading comprehension lesson, students brainstorm common traits of "heroes." Students read Heroes, then identify the personal conflicts the story...

Students examine how the Nazis came to power and living conditions at Auschwitz. They watch and discuss a PBS documentary, read and discuss handouts, analyze a Pyramid of Hate, and assign experiences in their own lives to different...

High schoolers analyze modernist poetry and the role of speaker in example poems. Learners study modernist poems from the Romanticism and Victorian periods as well as Wallace Stevens' "Thirteen Ways of Looking at a Blackbird." Using a...

Support your scholars with these anticipatory questions to go along with The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. The objective, rationale, and teacher instructions are clearly explained, followed by an anticipation guide for pages 81-93 and the...

Students play a game of questioning with the teacher after reading silently a beginning passage of text. They and teacher request specific information from each other until students are able to summarize and predict the outcome of the...

What are some things you think are special enough to keep? Discussing special things launches young learners into reading Keepers. They investigate related vocabulary and practice before, during, and after reading comprehension...

Defying death. Defying those who want to do harm. Defying genocide. Pupils research the events in Rwanda to gain an understanding of what it takes to survive a horrific event like a holocaust. They use video, time lines, and Holocaust...

Can you bow your head and pray in school? Scholars investigate the issue of school prayer with the Supreme Court case Engel v. Vitale. A short video clip along with paired group work helps viewers form opinions on the matter. They answer...

Youngsters pretend they are rocks sitting on a hill. They listen to the provided guided imagery script to conceptualize the process of how rocks change over time. They draw a diagram of what happened to them as rocks during the story. An...

Sit back, relax, and transport to 1787! This lesson on the Constitution begins with guided imagery of the Constitutional Convention. The class reads A More Perfect Union: The Story of Our Constitution in an...

As the saying goes, you are what you eat. A useful set of lesson plans encourage young readers to take a second look at their eating habits. Pre- and post-reading questions bring in reflective writing and discussion while extension...

Set a purpose for reading informational texts with this reading lesson. To find the central idea of a text, young readers turn titles and subtitles into questions to help them understand the text. They complete a T-chart for the lesson,...

Learning to recognize the importance of the features of information text (i.e., titles, subtitles, endnotes, sidebars, etc.) is the focus of a reading activity designed for middle schoolers. Learners examine how these text features...

To appreciate the value of seeing and hearing a poetry performance, groups prepare readings of selected poems and then compare and critique their interpretations and videotaped versions of the same poem. Included in the resource are...

Practice the strategy of decoding to become fluent readers with young scholars. They interact with the correspondence ee=/E/ as it deals with speech and text. The tongue twister, "Why did Lee and the bee flee to the tree?," is also...

Give your class a deeper understanding of the context and meaning behind early American song lyrics. By reading the lyrics to "Yankee Doodle" and  "Revolutionary Tea," high schoolers will practice analysis by examining the...

Here is a unique activity in which learners simulate operations of a fractional reserve banking system, ultimately gaining a better understanding of how banks work and process money creation through lending. It includes a Story of Banks...

Test your pupils' reasoning skills with several activities and a quick mystery to solve. Learners watch and analyze a few video clips that demonstrate reasoning in action, practice deduction with an interactive and collaborative...

Chances are, you've got some precocious Matilda fans in your class! Use a thorough set of lesson plans to address Roald Dahl's classic novel about a bright girl who just wants to be understood. Vocabulary exercises,...

After finishing Act I, scene 1 from Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream, class members study the theme of control as it relates to the play and start an Evidence of Control note-catcher worksheet.

Scholars closely analyze the use of rhetorical strategies in several model texts. They work in groups to annotate the text identifying rhetorical elements, and to complete a Rhetorical Analysis chart and guided reading worksheet....