Curated OER
ELD Lesson Plan: Courage
What is true courage? Your class can explore the answer with these three Houghton-Mifflin stories ("Hatchet," "Passage to Freedom," "Climb or Die," and "The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle"), which feature courageous characters and...
Curated OER
The Adventures of Tom Sawyer: Before Reading Strategy
Spark interest in Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer with an anticipatory exercise that begins with a brainstorm around the words heroic and good boy. Pupils then complete an anticipation guide, discuss the results in groups, and...
Syracuse City School District
Reading Comprehension Unit Plan
A unit plan uses short texts to teach literary elements such as theme and characterization. Included are passages by authors such as Walter Dean Myers and Sandra Cisneros. Activities include quick writes, filling in graphic organizers,...
Louisiana Department of Education
Essential Elements Cards
Use essential elements cards to help lesson plan! Each card contains an informational text common core standard for grade levels six through eight and suggestions for activities and supports. Cards address skills such as citing textual...
California Education Partners
Telescopes
An assessment challenges scholars to read an informative text then respond with an explanatory essay. The exam begins as participants read a text passage twice then take notes, making sure to jot down key details. Following the...
K12 Reader
Proverbs and Adages: What Do They Mean?
You shouldn't judge a book by its cover, but feel free to find the silver lining in a worksheet about common proverbs and adages. Learners read six popular adages and write their literal definitions on the lines provided.
Curated OER
Antonyms 5: Level 7
Canny/daft. Acquire/squander. Bolster the vocabulary of your middle schoolers with a 10 problem antonym worksheet. As an added bonus, the worksheet comes with an answer sheet that details strategies learners can use to determine the...
California Education Partners
The Road Not Taken
An effective lesson plan truly can make all the difference. Seventh graders read, analyze, and annotate Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken" before writing an essay about what they believe to be the theme of the iconic poem.
Curated OER
Rent To Own
Reading can be a good way to learn about many different things, like rent-to-own housing programs. Learners read informational resources about rent-to-own programs and how they work. They complete graphic organizers using the facts they...
Newspaper Association of America
Critical Thinking through Core Curriculum: Using Print and Digital Newspapers
What is and what will be the role of newspapers in the future? Keeping this essential question in mind, class members use print, electronic, and/or web editions of newspapers, to investigate topics that include financial literary,...
Curated OER
In Cold Blood: A During Reading Activity
Following the method used by Truman Capote, class members research a major character from his novel, In Cold Blood, and then conduct an interview with that character. The resulting research is used to craft a newspaper article about the...
Curated OER
Agamemnon Theme of Justice and Judgment
In this reading comprehension worksheet, students respond to 4 short answer and essay questions based on themes in Agamemnon. Students may also complete their choice of 3 reading activities suggested.
Curated OER
All My Sons Theme of Justice and Judgment
In this reading comprehension worksheet, students respond to 3 short answer and essay questions based on themes in All My Sons. Students may also complete their choice of 3 reading activities suggested.
Curated OER
Social Studies Strategies - Pick a Word
In this inference skills activity, students read a short passage, then pick two words that describe the passage. Next they explain why they chose that word. Students choose another word related to the passage and write it on a 3x5 note...
Curated OER
Express Yourself Lesson Seed 17: Obituary
The Cay has been criticized by groups such as the Council on Interracial Books for Children because of the way race is portrayed. Explore the argument against the book while taking the author's perspective into account. Class members...
Curated OER
The Odyssey and The Morte Darthur: Reading and Making Observations for Writing and Discussion
Students read "The Odyssey" and "The Morte Darthur". In groups, they research the gods and goddesses of Greek mythology and the history of the places mentioned in the stories. Individually, they are to write a paper about a hero they...
Curated OER
Pre-reading for Julius Caesar
Students examine friendship and leadership by creating "friendship committees" to develop a class friendship constitution. Committees list qualities/traits of a friend, as well as friendship infractions. These committees join together...
Pennsylvania Department of Education
Drawing Conclusions Based on Literary Elements
Learners compare versions of Cinderella and draw conclusions based on the story elements identified. In this literacy comprehension and story elements activity, students read several versions of Cinderella, complete a "Comparing...
Curated OER
Walk Two Moons: DR-TA, Chapter 17: “In the Course of a Lifetime”
Use this question and answer worksheet as an assignment for Sharon Creech's Walk Two Moons. The questions listed support better comprehension and critical thinking of chapter seventeen.
Curated OER
Learning Inference
Making inferences can be a tricky proposition for middle schoolers. In the activity presented here, pupils practice the skill of drawing a conclusion and making a judgment - which are what making an inference is all about! There are five...
Read Theory
Analogies 1 (Level 7)
Analogies are a great tool for teaching word relationships. For this worksheet, learners complete 10 analogies using the bridge sentences provided to help them make the correct connections.
EngageNY
Module Reflection and Writing Book Reviews
Scholars take time to reflect on the unit and the end-of-unit writing assessment. They use a Working Conditions Reflection to help guide them through the exercise. Readers then begin working on a book review for the book they have been...
California Education Partners
Women
Alice Walker's poem "Women" provides ninth graders the opportunity to demonstrate their ability to identify how a writer's choice of syntax and diction contribute to the development of the theme of the work.
National Endowment for the Humanities
Practical Criticism
As an introduction to literary criticism, class members recreate I.A. Richards' close reading experiment. Individuals select a poem, paraphrase the story, focus on the imagery used, consider what the imagery adds to the tale, and...