After finishing The Red Badge of Courage, readers complete a grammar worksheet  to identify the chain of events in the plot, the enduring issues, and major themes of Stephen Crane's novel.

How do novels differ from plays? Explore with your class the text features of fiction and drama by reading The Hidden One: Native American Legend and then performing a reader’s theater script based on the story. Class members create a...

Based in sound Educational Theory, this lesson uses art to convey the story of Ponce de Leon. Mild to moderately disabled students hear the story of the Fountain of Youth, examine a paining of Ponce de Leon, and act out a scene as Ponce...

A reading of Whale Journey, a fact-filled picture book by Vivian French, launches a study of the life cycle and migration of three generations of gray whales. The interdisciplinary lesson offers opportunities extensions into all subject...

Study and research the American Civil War in this explanatory writing lesson. Middle schoolers complete six activities to learn about the American Civil War and soldiers' views of the war. The lesson includes several options to complete...

Analyze point of view and how it affects a literary work with this lesson. Middle schoolers create a written piece that focuses on point of view. They review the literary term "point of view," and explore examples of the term in text....

Students identify the basic freedoms of citizens in the United States.  In this Bill of Rights lesson, students act out scenarios about the Bill of Rights.  Students create a picture book describing the rights they've acted out.

Use Jack London's The Call of the Wild to help young writers learn the difference between first and third person points of view. After they read a passage from the novel, they rewrite it in the first person point of view.

As your class reads "The Cask of Amontillado," have them search for examples of irony and foreshadowing. In one square, readers record textual evidence, and in an accompanying square, they comment on the quotations. One example is...

Here is a lesson plan that gives learners a chance to practice using context clues. They read the story, Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. Students use different word strategies (base words, synonyms, antonyms) to decode and understand...

Does sound travel faster in water or in the air? Put the question to the test with a science experiment. After reviewing a table of data, third and fourth graders decide which statements are true and which ones are false. The bottom of...

Do your young readers have difficulty visualizing what they read? Although the activity described here is for The Call of the Wild, the strategy could be used with any narrative. At the conclusion of each chapter of Jack London’s novel,...

Bring multi-cultural experiences and literature into your language arts class with this instructional activity. Here, young readers explore the points of view of first and second-generation Asian immigrants with a list of various fiction...

Newspapers are the perfect medium through which to explore different perspectives in informational text. After researching the fur trade and resultant colonization, groups write a newspaper, including an editorial page, selecting one of...

After reading chapter 17 of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, give this graphic organizer to your kids to find the main idea. The circles are small and will probably spark complaints, but the main idea should never be lengthy; it should be...

Narrative essay writing is the focus of a series of exercises that model for learners how to not only read a narrative, but how to also examine the techniques fiction writers use to create a setting, develop their characters, represent...

Poe goes high tech with a lesson plan that asks high schoolers to use the internet and various apps as they read and analyze "The Masque of the Red Death." In addition to responding to comprehension questions in Quizlet, they use...

How does the point of view of Poe's protagonist in "The Tell-Tale Heart" contribute to the suspenseful tone? Help your middle schoolers identify the point of view in a literary work with this lesson, which goes on to discuss the...

Make The Taming of the Shrew modern and relevant with this outline. Small groups can choose from a list of suggested scenes and update with modern language and settings before acting them out. Great questions refine writing and...

Addressing the idea of intelligent design, as well as a number of creation myths, this presentation gives a measured and scientific perspective to the beginning of the world.  It includes a graphic on the Big Bang Theory, evolution,...

After completing John Steinbeck’s Of Mice and Men, groups are assigned a chapter to reread. Members list major conflicts and events and quote setting details. They then make observations about how the setting prepares the reader for the...

A series of activities based on Elizabeth George Speare's The Sign of The Beaver takes your class through vocabulary, reading comprehension, and literary analysis. A good packet or collection of assignments for a reading circle.

Step into the hopeful and tragic world of Anne Frank with this lesson on reading in context. After complete a variety of activities related to the first two scenes of The Diary of Anne Frank, eighth graders participate in a read...

Second graders identify the three phases of matter and demonstrate how a property can change states of matter. In this states of matter lesson plan, 2nd graders make an Ooze to discover how a solid changes into a liquid....