PBS
Exploring Parent-Child Relationships Through Letter Writing
The PBS film, Bronx Princess, launches a study of complex parent-child relationships. Using the provided reading guide, viewers respond to clips from the film and compare Rocky and Yaa’s relationship to other parent-child relationships....
Curated OER
Life, Death, Dirt, & Walt Whitman
Walt Whitman was a composter? Certainly the cycle of life and death he describes in "Leaves of Grass" parallels the processes going on in a compose pile. The interdisciplinary approach detailed here could be used to foster a deeper...
Virginia Department of Education
Developing an Essay: Word Choice
Grading essays after reading a novel written by a lyrical master (think Nabokov, Morrison, Chabon) is a deflating experience. Why can’t your student’s display the same skill in diction as your favorite writers? Because you did not use...
EngageNY
Revising: Strong Conclusions for My Accessing Books Around the World Informative Paragraph
It's important that writers leave their readers with a strong and satisfying conclusion. Help your young writers develop the skills to compose a concluding sentence with the steps outlined here. After class members have had a chance to...
Lexington High School
In the Time of the Butterflies Packet
Considering using Julia Alvarez's In the Time of the Butterflies? Here's a resource designed to be used before and during a reading of her powerful story of the murder of the Mirabal sisters. Included in the packet is a vocabulary...
Curated OER
Vocabulary Building
Offer learners a step-by-step process for approaching unknown words with this PowerPoint presentation of vocabulary strategies, which details how to use context clues and word parts (roots, prefixes, suffixes), as well as encourages...
Novelinks
Tuck Everlasting: Bio-Poem
Learn about the characters of Natalie Babbitt's Tuck Everlasting with a character biopoem. Readers fill in a poem format to detail the character traits of Winnie, Jesse, Miles, and Mae, and share their finished poems...
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Nineteen Eighty-Four George Orwell
The depth of Nineteen Eighty Four is in the details. Encourage a close reading of Orwell's dystopian classic with resource sheets that focus attention on the author's stylistic choices that lead to the betrayals that make Big Brother's...
EngageNY
Reading for Gist: “Middle Ages” Excerpt 2
Read and repeat. Scholars repeat the strategies for digging deeper into text from instructional activity two. This time they focus on Middle Ages Excerpt 2. Learners write unfamiliar words in the word catcher and use details from the...
Curated OER
Sentence Completion 21: Low-Advanced SAT Level
Learners must select the best words to complete the six sentences on a activity designed to test their critical thinking skills as well as their vocabulary knowledge. The included answer sheet, which details how to determine the correct...
Curated OER
Report Writing
Why don't dinosaurs wander the earth any longer? Answer this fascinating question with young readers as they examine a brief informational text. There are bolded words to separate text sections which are an excellent example of...
Shmoop
ELA.CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.9-10.7
When your pupils read an account of an event, are they conscious of the fact that this particular account might focus on certain details, while ignoring others? Open their eyes to bias and varying interpretation of facts with the...
Polk Bros Foundation
Picture Planner
Show your class that there is more than one way to communicate an idea. Pupils note down their ideas and then brainstorm a few things they want to include in their pictures. Then, in the box provided, they sketch and describe their...
Reading Worksheets
Inferences Worksheet 8
Lead your class toward mastery of making inferences with a straightforward worksheet. Pupils read four short passages and make inferences based on the questions asked about each passage. They explain their reasoning for each...
Reading Worksheets
Inferences Worksheet 7
Hone your learners' inference-making skills with this exercise. The worksheet includes four passages that learners read and answer questions about. Pupils must note down their inferences along with textual evidence that support their...
Prestwick House
I Am Malala
I Am Malala: The Girl Who Stood Up for Education and Was Shot by the Taliban by Christina Lamb and Malala Yousafzai is an inspirational tale of heroism through adversity. Focus on the key details of the book with a quick review...
Curated OER
Using Details from Text to Identify Author's Purpose
Explore writing techniques by analyzing newspapers and magazines with middle schoolers. They will collaborate in small groups to read local news stories and identify the main ideas and author's intent. They also utilize an information...
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Writing Workshop: Writing a Compare-Contrast Essay
Crafting a compare-contrast essay can prove to be a challenge even for experienced writers. Eradicate the mystery with a PowerPoint that details the rationale for and the structure of this form of expository writing. The 20-slide...
Have Fun Teaching
Identifying Author's Purpose
The multi-lesson, 47-page packet contains everything you need to ensure kids can recognize the clues provided to identify the type of text, the intended audience, and the author's purpose in writing the passage.
Curated OER
Magical Musical Tour: Using Music Lyrics to Teach Literary Elements
While music lyrics are often used to teach literary elements, the richness of this resource comes from the wealth of exercises, activities, and support materials provided in the packet. Although designed for gifted learners, the...
Tick Tock Curriculum
Whodunnit? The Case of the Missing Poodle
Who purloined the poodle? Class groups read police reports and theorize whodunnit. The sixth of a ten-lesson series on mysteries.
Santa Ana Unified School District
The Giver
Wouldn't it be great to live an a community without pain, without danger? Such a society is the goal of the community in The Giver. Using Lois Lowry's dystopian novel as the core text, class members read primary source materials...
Curated OER
Language Arts: Then and Now
First graders hear Great Grandma and I. They locate objects representing then (seed) and now (tomato). They make then and now charts for members of their families.
Curated OER
Language Arts: Predicting and Clarifying Techniques
First graders discover predicting and clarifying skills while reading "The Old Woman and Her Pig." During the reading, they check their predictions while evaluating the characters, setting, problems, and solution. On the second day,...