Finding the central idea is the focus of this lesson. Middle schoolers write descriptions of different animals using details and descriptive language. They watch a video of kids using descriptive language, and then use showing language...

It's all in the details. Scholars read acts two and three of The Hero's Journey and collect important details from the text. They share their notes with their peers and listen for key words from the story. They then turn their attention...

Newspapers aren't only for reading—they're for learning skills, too! A journalism unit provides three lessons each for primary, intermediate, and secondary grades. Lessons include objectives, materials, vocabulary, and procedure, and...

Beginning with anticipation guide strategies is a powerful method for improving reading comprehension. First, list initial ideas for a topic the class will be reading about. These ideas are formulated into statements, some of which are...

In this Comprehension skills worksheet, students read the book Watching in the Wild and complete comprehension activities. Students complete 3 main idea and details sheets, summarizing, and author's purpose.

Are you a friggatriskaidekaphobic? An excerpt from an article about the fear of Friday the 13th is used as the basis of a reading comprehension exercise. The five questions require readers to employ several strategies (drawing...

Although designed as an assessment, consider using this resource as the basis for a lesson on reading comprehension strategies or as a practice exercise. The five multiple choice questions, based on a short passage about stock market...

Use this reading comprehension exercise at the beginning of the year to assess the reading comprehension level of your class, to remind readers of how to use strategies to decode dense text, or to assess the skills of a new student....

The piranha is the subject of a reading passage that is sure to engage your learners in a reading comprehension exercise. Pupils must employ multiple strategies to answer the questions based on the passage. Of particular value is the...

Although this is part of a series, lesson plan nine has your class take a break from their close study of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) text to read the firsthand account “Teaching Nepalis to Read, Plant, and...

From baseball and tennis to capture the flag and four-square, here is a great document that will help you design your next unit on a sport-related activity. 

In this comprehension skills worksheet, students read the book A Birthday Mystery and complete comprehension activities. Students complete activities such as main idea, opinions, details, and drawing conclusions.

As part of a group of lessons, your class will return to the primary text for this unit, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Key vocabulary as well as close reading strategies continue to be the focus skills; however, this lesson...

The end of the year has arrived, which means it's time to find out what your third graders have learned with this practice Common Core assessment. Presented with one narrative and one expository reading passage, young learners...

With the end of the year quickly approaching it's time to find out exactly how much your sixth graders have learned. Specifically designed for the Common Core ELA standards, this practice test gives students five reading passages,...

The end of the year has arrived, which means it's time to find out exactly what your fifth graders have learned over the past few months. With the help of this Common Core-designed assessment that includes two narrative passages and...

Keep an eye on the growth of your sixth graders' reading and writing skills with the help of this practice Common Core assessment. Working their way through the six included fiction and nonfiction reading passages, learners answer a...

Good discussion questions, quizzes, and tests teach as well as assess. Readers of The Great Gatsby will learn much from the materials in a 36-page packet designed to help students prepare for the AP Literature exam. Included in the...

Commiserated, cogitated, ameliorated? Whether used as test prep or as part of a vocabulary study, the problems on this sentence completion worksheet will challenge your learners. Provide them with the detailed answer key and groups can...

Let's get visual. Pupils plan visual displays to accompany their upcoming opinion speech presentations. Additionally, they practice editing sentences for clarity before revising their speech drafts.

A two-part assessment challenges scholars to gather information from reading then write an opinion piece. In part one, learners read, take notes, and answer text-related questions. In part two, participants use their new-found knowledge...

Hold a discussion in writing about coping strategies to prepare your pupils for reading Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True Story About Brain Science by John Fleischman. After journaling, pupils come up in an organized fashion and write...

What do you need to cite, and how can you avoid plagiarizing? This presentation is aimed at beginning writers, and it details some of the ways people plagiarize (even accidentally) and what sort of information needs to be cited. The...