Paul Langan's novel The Bully is the core text in a six-session unit plan that engages high schoolers in an in-depth examination of bullying and its effects on bullies, victims, and bystanders. The richly textured and carefully...

Seventh graders create an original narrative story in a diary or journal format involving a fictional character with conflict, plot, resolution and falling action within the story line. They follow the steps of the writing process with...

Explore this story involving prejudice and racism to enhance learners' comprehension skills. The story The Jacket by Andrew Clements involves an African American boy who is falsely accused of stealing someone's jacket. This teacher's...

Readers of The Joy Luck Club, use a double-0entry journal to record and reflect on passages from Amy Tan's novel.

Depending on your perspective, solitude can be lovely or very, very lonely. Kids take a look at the simple landscape illustrated in Antoine de Saint Éxupery's The Little Prince, and write a short journal entry about their...

After completing Chapter 5 of Parrot in the Oven: Mi Vida, readers make text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world connections to Victor Martinez's novel by crafting journal entries addressing comments and questions to characters in...

After completing the first five chapters of The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle By Avi, use direct quotes to make inferences about how Charlotte feels about certain characters. Later, when the novel has concluded, revisit...

What mood does this story evoke? How are setting and mood linked? Young novelists explore the different emotions brought about by writing, starting by journaling things that inspire their own feelings. Examine the word mood, looking into...

Incorporate writing into your physical education class. In groups, learners unscramble a list of words related to exercise and use them in their journal writings. Using their name, they write one word related to physical activity that...

Thinking about introducing your middle schoolers to reading log journals? Try the approach suggested by this resource. After reading to the class an article or portion of a novel, demonstrate a Think Aloud and then model how to transform...

Readers of Robert Cormier's Tunes for Bears to Dance to are asked to consider the morality of the central character's actions

Jamie Ford’s historical novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, explores the relationship between a young Chinese American boy and a Japanese American girl set against the backdrop of Seattle during World War II. The teaching...

Laurie Halse Anderson tackles challenging topics for teens. An educator's guide shares activities for many of her novels such as Prom, Shout, and Wintergirls. Questions, perfect to use as either discussion or as essay prompts, accompany...

Create a personal website for Phoebe. Play a song dealing with non-conformity. Have class members write an advice letter to Holden. Here's a teacher resource meant to accompany The Catcher in the Rye that is chock-full of strategies. It...

John Knowles' A Separate Peace provides readers with an opportunity to develop their close reading and analytical skills as they look for what Knowles feels are the factors that shape our identity.

Readers of Mildred D. Taylor's Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry are introduced to the Question Answer Response Strategy (QAR) as a way to increase their engagement in and comprehension of the novel.

High schoolers examine the New York Times review of the film adaptations of J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings and explore the elements of scriptwriting. They read the article about the film adaptation screenplay and examine a...

Analyze point of view and how it affects a literary work with this lesson. Middle schoolers create a written piece that focuses on point of view. They review the literary term "point of view," and explore examples of the term in text....

Literature circles give learners a chance to explore a novel in a unique way. An educator's guide for the book Savvy uses literature circles as part of the novel study. Additional activities cover elements of figurative language and...

Begin your unit on Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince with an anticipation guide that addresses the novel's themes. Kids read ten statements that discuss love, friendship, and growing up, and determine whether or not...

Focus on the literary elements of Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince with a concept analysis sheet. With suggestions and explanations for many of the book's concepts, vocabulary, and other issues that may arise in...

Twelfth graders are introduced to and produce several types of technical writing. They watch a crime video and write a police report, explore websites and draft summary sentences, write a personal vision quest based on "Siddhartha" and...

Would you rather be right, or would you rather be kind? A novel unit based on R.J. Palacio's Wonder focuses on the need to be kind to others and to accept their differences. As learners read the book, they discuss the themes of...

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...