Literary themes don't just belong to literature. High schoolers listen to the lyrics of modern songs by Arrested Development, Lauryn Hill, and others to enhance their study and to connect to characters, conflicts, and themes of...

Sixth graders identify components of the setting in science fiction text. In this compare and contrast settings lesson, 6th graders read Only You Can Save Mankind and identify similarities and differences between science fiction...

Students use description language to clarify ideas and create vivid images in an essay focusing of strong verbs. They discuss weak verbs and explore that the better image the words create, the better the reader understands the text.

Students identify the plot of a text. In this literature lesson, students listen to the book The Great Kapok Tree and identify the problem and solution. A graphic organizer is used to help reinforce the concept.

Students explore alliteration. In this writing lesson, students read the book Thank You for the Thistle and create sentences with alliteration. Students create an alphabet booklet with alliteration.

Students read Thank You for the Thistle and understand what alliteration is. In this alliteration lesson, students write sentences using alliteration. Students choose a letter of the alphabet and the class writes an alphabet book of...

Fifth graders identify plot conflicts in the text. In this plot conflict lesson, 5th graders read Dogs Don't Tell Jokes and recognize examples of character vs. self and character vs. character. 

Students make predictions. In this language arts lesson, students read nonfiction texts and make predictions about what they are going to read. Students confirm and revise their predictions as they read the text.

This resource contains summaries of the stories featured, but limited procedural detail. Readers compare Chopin's stories' use of situational irony and foreshadowing. High interest content (questionable paternity, missing persons) for...

Give this quiz to your class if you'd like to test their knowledge of ten details in To Kill a Mockingbird. This quiz is based on basic comprehension and recall of the text. While this is not the most academically challenging quiz, it...

Students journal in response to reading act 1, scene 4 of Shakespeare's The Twelfth Night. In this literature lesson plan, students read the play, discuss characterization and other literary elements, and create a list of persuasive...

Have your class talk about the importance of the rainforest and the products that come from it. Learners watch a video showing the path of chocolate from the rainforest to the supermarket. They discuss how the rainforest and...

Did you ever create an awesome graphic organizer only to find that your class was completely baffled by how to use it? This resource not only provides you with a great graphic organizer for a standard five-paragraph essay, but also...

Help your class examine humanity's unpredictable nature through "Life Steps Almost Straight." Learners read various works from philosophers such as Viktor Frankl, The Buddha, and Nietzsche to gather textual evidence and explain their...

Imagine a resource that provides all the materials you need to organize a film festival. Imagination becomes a reality with a five-star resource that has done all the work for you. Eight different award-winning short films are featured...

The American Revolution is the theme of a five-week unit that focuses on reading, grammar, morphology, and writing. Scholars read and respond to texts, practice spelling and word work, and write paragraphs. Assessments gauge comprehension.

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...

The themes of The Great Gatsby are embodied in the images F. Scott Fitzgerald creates. To encourage reader interaction with the text, individuals create a symbolic representation of themselves, place themselves in the story,...

How close are your eighth graders to mastering the ELA Common Core standards? Keep an eye on progress with these charts, which include every eighth grade identifier and full standard text. As you move through the year and teach,...

There is a reason why an Oscar is given each year for the Best Adaptation Screenplay. Adaptations are the focus of an exercise that asks class members to compare a work of literature with a least one adaptation of the work into a...

“If you can meet with Triumph and Disaster/And treat those two impostors just the same. . .” After concluding Fever 1793 class members engage in a reading strategy that asks them to connect their thoughts about the self-reliance theme in...

Cross-comparison, the technique of focusing on two different texts with the same themes, motifs, events, etc., is employed in an exercise that asks groups to examine two different translations of “The Ruin,” a poem, written in Old...

Identifying the theme or central idea of a text is a skill many young readers struggle with. It is also the second standard for reading literature in the Common Core. This resource, one from a series of Common Core lessons, can provide...