Being able to identify and understand the point of view of fictional characters across a wide range of time periods, places, and cultures is a skill that is necessary for becoming a proficient reader. It is also a skill identified in the...

Here's an exercise designed for the Common Core Literacy Standard L.11-12.6 that asks learners to demonstrate their ability to put together all they have learned about language. The first activity is based on a passage from Rosencrantz...

Young scholars investigate new vocabulary words with a fun, collaborative activity. Given a deck of word cards, pairs of students flip over one at a time and independently look up the term in a dictionary. They then take turns rolling a...

Engage and entertain young learners with this collection of readers theatre activities. With over 25 different scripts, a wide range of topics are covered from simple counting and rhyming exercises to adaptions of popular children's...

Why do authors write? Practice determining the author's purpose with a categorizing activity. Learners sort twelve short passages into three categories: persuade, inform, and entertain.

Yes, Virginia, there really is a reader's theater script for "The Night Before Christmas." The exercise is a great way to productively channel pre-holiday energy.

Students, after following step by step instructions/guidelines, contract to make a particular grade on a poetry project. They purpose of this project is to complete a collection of poetry using a variety of techniques studied in class,...

Scholars learn to find meaning in words using affixes with a language arts activity. In pairs, children sort cards with printed sentences that include words with the prefixes mis- and pre- and the suffixes -er, -ness, and -able. Then,...

Wanted! Pests are on the loose! Here, class members create a wanted poster highlighting one pest. Posters includes a picture, description, and signs of pest activity. 

After examining winning entries to the Nicholas A. Virgilio Memorial Haiku Competition, young poets try their hand at this fixed form.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail" serves as an exemplar for a mini-lesson on semicolons. Working alone or in small groups, class members first circle all the semicolons in the letter, and then consider how this...

[Free Registration/Login Required] This nonfiction passage discusses the world problem of unsafe drinking water. This passage is intended for guided practice and is designed to reinforce essential reading comprehension skills.

[Free Registration/Login Required] This informational text passage shares information about the history of the earth and its landforms. This passage is a stand-alone curricular piece that reinforces essential reading skills and...

[Free Registration/Login Required] This passage shares that information about water in the world and its most important role of distributing the heat around the world. This passage is a stand-alone curricular piece that reinforces...