If your language arts learners have a hard time determining the universal theme of a written work, use a straightforward learning exercise to help them find it. After reviewing a list of common themes, kids note the title, character,...

Use these study questions to test your class on The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain. These mostly higher-level questions have the potential to be test questions, discussion questions, homework questions, or essay questions. The...

Feeling the pressure to confirm is something any adolescent can relate to. Explore an essential theme with a response to literature assessment that prompts learners to identify main ideas with evidence and supporting details.

Is it crazy to fall in love with your own work, or is that the purest love of all? Compare two renditions of the classic Greek myth Pygmalion and Galatea with a literary analysis exercise. After students compare the similarities and...

In this reading comprehension instructional activity, high schoolers respond to 4 short answer and essay questions based on the theme of race in Age of Iron. Students may also complete their choice of 3 reading activities suggested.

Learners respond to 4 short-answer and essay questions based on themes in Alice’s Adventures Through the Looking Glass. They may also complete their choice of 3 suggested reading activities.

Click on and read the poem "The Great Figure" by William Carlos Williams, and then answer the four short answer and essay questions based on themes therein. A link to the summary and analysis questions is also included. 

Learners respond to four short answer and essay questions based on themes in the poem "The Great Figure" by William Carlos Williams. The poem itself is not included, but the questions could lead to some very interesting class...

Secondary learners respond to 4 short-answer and essay questions based on Lewis Carroll’s Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. They may also complete their choice of 3 reading activities.

Introduce your class to the personal essay with this worksheet. Learners identify the subject of an essay and then record examples from the essay that represent the author's thoughts and feelings regarding the subject. While this...

A three-part assessment promotes reading comprehension skills. Class members read literary texts and take notes to discuss their findings, answer comprehension questions, write summaries, and complete charts. 

In this literary analysis worksheet, learners respond to 4 short answer and essay questions based on themes of Drugs and Alcohol in All the King's Men. Students also debate the validity of two thesis statements about the text.

In this literary analysis worksheet, students respond to 3 short answer and essay questions about guilt and blame in All My Sons. Students also read and debate two thesis statements about how the suburban community is to blame in the...

Have you ever cheated on a test? What about copied someone else's homework? After reading Colleen Wenke's essay "Too Much Pressure," class members use the provided reading comprehension questions to focus their analysis of important...

Revisit your own childhood memories of long summers and lakeside fun with E.B. White's essay, "Once More to the Lake." Included here is the actual text as well as a series of short-answer questions that follow. Not only do readers study...

Invisible Man is a core text in high school literature classes and one of the most cited works on the AP Literature and Composition exam. Instructors new to using Ralph Ellison's novel and those who have long included it as part of...

How highly does your class value family? What about familial advice, individual rights, and cultural identity? Examine the literary themes in Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club before opening the book with an anticipation guide. Class...

Begin your unit on Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles with an anticipation guide about literary themes. Class members read six statements about time, rules, and mortality, and note they believe each statement is...

Give your class a different kind of reading assignment with the text included here. Anne Miller's essay "Learning to Hate Mathematics" details a hatred of math that grew from early childhood and still haunts the author today. After...

In this cross-curricular sampler of worksheets, students determine the meaning of specialized vocabulary and to understand the precise meaning of grade-level-appropriate words, describe and connect the essential ideas, arguments, and...

As an assessment of their skill in crafting a compare and contrast essay, class members read and compare the portrayals of nature in excerpts from naturalist John Muir's My First Summer in the Sierra and from poet Emily Dickinson's...

Before you begin a unit on Sharon Creech's Walk Two Moons, introduce class members to the literary themes of the book with an anticipation guide. As they read through ten sentences that address different aspects of the plot,...

In this Flag Day worksheet, students use this colorful decorated writing paper for a story or essay about Flag Day. The paper has an American flag, stars, and a dove with a blue oval background.

What would it be like to sell your eggs to a couple who can't have children on their own? Could you even imagine it? As most of us have never been in this position, this descriptive essay is really quite interesting. The reading itself...