W.W. Jacobs' story "The Monkey's Paw" provides plenty of foreshadowing which readers use to make predictions in this tightly composed, sound instructional plan. Your class reads the story, recording predictions and checking for veracity...

In this Assumption reading comprehension instructional activity, students read a 1 paragraph selection pertaining to St. Mary's feast day and then answer 3 multiple choice questions regarding the information.

In this sentence completion activity, learners read 10 sentences that have a missing word or phrase. From 4 choices, students select the most correct words to complete the sentence.

Oftentimes, we jump to conclusions when we are given a limited amount of information. Take a look at reasonable conclusions with your communications studies class. If-clauses, dichotomous thinking, and assumptions are all covered with...

The five lessons in this resource are designed to teach class members how to read between the lines, how to use personal experience/background knowledge/schema, along with the information in the text, to make assumptions about...

Explore this story involving prejudice and racism to enhance learners' comprehension skills. The story The Jacket by Andrew Clements involves an African American boy who is falsely accused of stealing someone's jacket. This teacher's...

There are so many authors of short stories, and your class can have the chance to study quite a few. This seventh lesson in a series of fourteen continues the decision-making process for the final assessment: a short story author study....

Here’s a matrix that could be used with any literary work. For each assigned passage, readers are asked to record information about characters, setting, vocabulary, literary devices, symbols, tone, mood, etc. In addition, they are asked...

Students explore strategies of identifying answers when given a multiple choice reading comprehension exam. Through a lecture and demonstration, students practice active reading by reading carefully, writing notes, and rereading. They...

Middle schoolers read two articles about the same event: "Plane from J.F.K Crashes off Canada" from the New York Times and "No Survivors from Crash of Swissair Jetliner Off Nova Scotia" from the Associated Press. They then compare the...

As part of a reading of Elie Wiesel's Night class members engage in a directed reading/thinking activity that includes crafting predictions, verifying these predictions, and interpreting portions of the text.

In his article about color-blind casting entitled, "Willy Loman Is Lost, Still Looking for Stimulus Plan and Some Dignity," Charles Isherwood quotes August Wilson as saying,  "To mount an all-black production of a 'Death of a...

Making inferences and drawing conclusions is a key component to successful active reading. Encourage your class to use context clues and prior knowledge to infer different elements of a story, including the setting, plot, and character...

It's an erroneous assumption that vocabulary practice must be tedious. Rather than a draconian approach, tantalize your learners with a sentence completion exercise that will enthrall them. A detailed answer key makes the seemingly...

Here is a lesson designed for children with autism which is aimed at helping them understand that using their words to express what they need is an important social skill. They are charged with using their words to explain to the teacher...

“You don’t have to think too hard when you talk to teachers.” Or so says Holden Caulfield.  Challenge his assumption by asking your readers to think about and respond to some of the assertions of Salinger’s narrator. Should a...

Students identify the items and events that make adaptive sports possible. In this adaptive sports lesson, students research how accomplishments are obtained for people with disabilities.  Students research different tournaments,...

As learners continue to examine a short story of their choice, they take some time to look at analysis completed by others on the same story. In the eleventh instructional activity in a series of fourteen, pupils explore various sites...

Advertisers want us to believe we would be accepted if we wore the right clothes or owned the right stuff. This assumption forms the heart of an exploration of the impact of advertising on teenagers. A safe classroom environment would...

This propaganda PowerPoint provides an overview of propaganda techniques used in advertising and provides information to the audience in order to make informed decisions. The propaganda techniques included are bandwagon, testimonial,...

"What are Henry's options?" "What do you think Henry will do?" To better understand the central conflict for the main character in Robert Cormier's Tunes for Bears to Dance to, class members engage in a compare-and-contrast activity that...

Model for young readers how to use illustrations, chapter titles, and events in a story to draw inferences and make predictions. Learners then practice these essential comprehension strategies by drawing inferences for another section of...

Students examine interviewing and fieldwork through a student essay and activities that help them understand the interviewer's task of examining his or her position in fieldwork through observation and questioning. They explore cultural...