How is Louisiana connected to the Holocaust? After reading The Diary of Anne Frank, eighth graders complete a research report about a survivor of the Holocaust who currently resides in Louisiana. Though the idea is a good way to...

Readers of Wuthering Heights use the DRTA strategy to formulate predictions about the actions of characters in Bronte's novel.

Have you used the directed reading thinking activity in your classroom? Doubling as either a prereading strategy, or a during reading strategy, it helps readers connect the historical background of the text to the text itself. As the...

Clarify, connect, evaluate, predict, question. Laminate and display these colorful posers about the classroom to remind readers of the five basic strategies for comprehending all sorts of text. 

Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart can present challenges even for experienced readers. Here’s a schedule and corresponding guide that will help readers focus on and record important events. The packet includes fact-based, interpretative,...

We need the help of your history detectives! After giving them a set of questions to answer, reading groups must create their own timeline of the events. Then, as a class, have each group present their timelines. What is different? Why...

After each of three viewings of a 45-second video, aspiring writers employ vivid adjectives and precise, strong verbs to "show, don't tell." First they compose a single sentence, then three, and finally a five-sentence paragraph. Repeat...

Join a father and his son as they explore an isolated location off the coast of Australia in the children's book Where the Forest Meets the Sea by Jeannie Baker. Engage young learners in reading this fun story with this series of...

Upper elementary and middle schoolers recognize symbols that influence the choices that we make consciously or unconsciously in everyday life. They look at the symbols and choices that others make. They identify and apply knowledge of...

Beginning writers practice writing and reading from left to right using green and red dots. You'll need notecards with a green dot on the left side and a red dot on the right side. Do your learners understand that print moves from left...

Students develop skills in making nutritionally-sound food choices. Keeping a food diary, they analyze their food intake using the food pyramid as a guide. Students identify and explain the relationship of nutrition to personal health...

Students practice developing skills to read independently and fluently. They focus on fluency in order to read faster, smoother and with more expression. The practice of reading and rereading decodable words in connected text is stressed...

Integrate history, math, and art into a study of The Grapes of Wrath with a series of activities that ask learners to investigate the social, political, economic, and environmental factors at play during the 1930s. Designed to be used...

Build upon linear functions to learn about quadratics. The lesson plan introduces the concept of zeros for quadratic functions and makes the connection to the linear factors of the function. It presents quadratics in both graphical and...

Join Franklin the turtle at school as youngsters learn new vocabulary in the context of Paulette Bourgeois' story (or apply this strategy to any book). Scholars are acquainted with new words before reading and raise hands when...

Not only is this lesson about story retell, main events, and making predictions, it's also about plants. Youngsters will read the tale, The Tiny Seed as they explore the plant life cycle and early literacy skills. The lesson is very...

Middle school years can be tough. An educator's guide for the works of Lynda Mullaly Hunt introduces readers to two texts that discuss the struggles pre-teens face during middle school. Chapter-by-chapter questions and activities for two...

What makes up a society? Read a passage about culture and community and answer five reading comprehension questions.

What does suspension mean? Learn this and other bridge-related vocabulary as scholars listen to Ryan Ann Hunter's nonfiction book, Cross a Bridge. This strategy can be applied to any book. Before reading, acquaint pupils...

Although this vocabulary-in-context activity could be used with any text, it's a piece of cake if you're reading Jane O'Connor's Fancy Nancy and the Posh Puppy. What new words will pupils learn here? Find comprehension questions for...

Franklin the turtle makes a new friend as youngsters learn vocabulary in context using Paulette Bourgeois' story (tip: this strategy can be applied to any book). Brief kids on the new words so they can raise their hands when they...

Christopher Columbus did not have a lot of evidence to prove that he was in India, but language arts pupils have plenty of evidence to prove that he wasn't. Delve into the world of European exploration with a reading activity about...

The loggerhead turtle is a fascinating species, and budding readers learn all about it in Nicola Davies' account One Tiny Turtle. This informational narrative offers excellent vocabulary in context, and you'll...

Delve into the heart of dramatic dialogue with a unit focused on Oedipus the King by Sophocles. Having completed an online exploration about ancient Greece beforehand, ninth graders read the play's opening lines and analyze how...