Practice makes perfect. A practice test designed for the ELA MCAS Assessment gives seventh grade learners the opportunity to answer reading comprehension questions and respond to essay prompts. Questions involve general fiction and...

Use a performance task to assess third graders' ability to read informational text. After they plan a lemonade stand business, young entrepreneurs implement that plan through informational writing. The task assumes learners can...

Everyone loves food! Help your English language learners pick up some vocabulary with a series of activities based around cognates and food. Pupils practice each word and focus on the words in-depth by filling out Frayer model...

"The Lottery" by Shirley Jackson is a great story to share with your class, and this lesson focuses on just that story! The eighth in a fourteen-lesson series on short stories, the plan has learners study some vocabulary, read the...

Some sounds sound very similar! Help your class learn how to distinguish between various sounds by following the steps outlined in this plan. The plan includes a warm-up, a teacher-led portion, and details for guided and independent...

Dear Sir or Madam: What's the difference between formal and informal language? Scholars focus on using formal English and transitions in their position papers. After revising their rough drafts, they engage in the peer editing process...

Poetic language is abundant in Natalie Babbitt's beautiful novel, Tuck Everlasting. Learners note the examples of similes, metaphors, and personification they find as they read, and illustrate how the language creates a sensory...

"Yuns betta outten the lights!" Colloquial language is the focus of a lesson that asks middle schoolers to consider the pros and cons of using idioms. They read articles, match expressions with their meaning and place of origin, and...

Explore point of view and more with a Common Core-designed instructional activity. Learners experience different points of view by representing one of two characters from Esperanza Rising during a partner discussion. They must use...

How many of the pupils in your language arts class can differentiate between a colon and a semicolon? Clarify common conventions, including end punctuation, proper capitalization, and sentence structure, with a series of helpful grammar...

When it comes to writing, cliches are as old as dirt. A handout on tired phrases provides examples of cliches, as well as a description of the negative effects they have on a paper. Writers discover specific words and phrases to avoid,...

Consume, gobble, devour ... serving up strong verbs! Writers focus on using dialogue, strong action verbs, and sensory details in their writing. After analyzing a model narrative, they apply their learning to their own hero's journey...

Use folk tales as inspiration for learning about and using personification in creative writing. Learners brainstorm together in order to practice personification before writing their own poems or paragraphs about a household object.

The basics of number theory and set notation are explained in a highly approachable way in a self-contained instructional activity and worksheet. Introducing the vocabulary and concepts from ground zero and building to more complex...

Lois Lowry's The Giver is one of the most engaging and thought-provoking works of literature in the middle school curriculum. Round out your novel unit with a collection of reading activities, comprehension questions, memoir and...

The power of a word. Readers learn the importance of word choice in shaping a text by using a Powerful Language T-chart to separate strong words and phrases from those that are more bland. They then complete a third read and question set...

Stories are passed down orally in many cultures. Learn about the ways that storytelling can shape a society with a reading passage about Native American folklore and myths. After they finish reading, kids complete five reading...

An interactive Arabic alphabet? Awesome! Language learners can click on any letter to watch a video that shows how to write and pronounce that particular character. Use the menu along the left side to view additional videos for...

Your kids have probably heard these idioms before, but do they know what they mean? Help them learn that haste makes waste, an ill wind blows no good, and that ignorance is bliss with a list of popular expressions.

Improve your fifth graders' persuasive writing skills in four weeks. Working independently, in peer editing groups, and with instruction, writers work over the 17 sessions to craft an argumentative essay. They craft a...

Focus English language learners' attention on word stress and phrase stress with a pronunciation chart that breaks the sounds into moving and non-moving vowel sounds. The chart tool uses colors and key words to indicate...

Whether you need resources for reading comprehension, literary analysis, phonics, vocabulary, or text features, an extensive packet of worksheets is sure to fit your needs. Based on a fifth-grade curriculum but applicable to any level of...

From A to Z, learners define, draw, and find examples of specific reading focus skills in an alphabetized reading vocabulary packet. Words include dialogue, theme, text structure, genre, paraphrase, and many more.

The problem with beards is that they collect a lot of food. The first lesson in an 11-part unit related to The Twits by Roald Dahl explores the hairy jungle that is Mr. Twit's beard. A concluding project has learners create their own...