Franklin the turtle is on another adventure in Paulette Bourgeois' book Franklin Goes to the Hospital, and there are plenty of new words for your young readers to explore as they hear this story. Although you can include more,...

Challenge your young readers with a passage about physical science. After reading about sound waves and electric currents, kids answer five reading comprehension questions about what they have read.

Students read books by the author Keiko Kasza and complete critical thinking skills, and connections to different subjects. In this language lesson plan, students connect the books to language arts, social studies, science, math, health,...

Learn how to summarize by identifying main ideas and supporting details. Readers cross out unimportant information as they read through a text. Is it a random detail? Cross it out! They then draw a concept map, placing the main idea in...

First graders build comprehension skills. In this reading comprehension lesson plan, 1st graders activate prior knowledge and create text to self connection in preparation for reading. Students read Story of a Bluebird and complete a...

Guide class members through Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis with a series of questions designed for before, during, and after reading. Readers consider Gregor's situation and his options. In addition, they...

Introduce expository writing with a unit that asks writers to craft an essay to explain a belief, value, or priority that is important to them. Mini-lessons within the unit focus on crafting thesis statements and conclusions, selecting...

Imagine a tool that magically engages readers in the classroom. A handbook for Indiana educators doesn't guarantee success, but it does offer a variety of strategies for teachers to try. The handbook opens with research-based theory...

Choose your words wisely. Scholars examine word choice in an excerpt from The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Learners work in pairs and groups to discuss how the author's choice of words creates a deeper connection between the reader...

Often, science fiction makes a lot of connections to real life. An educator's guide for the novel Charisma by Jeanne Ryan, has readers discuss many of the real-life issues that come in the text. A brief summary helps garner interest...

Historical fiction novels give readers a chance to step into someone else's shoes. An educator's guide from Penguin Common Core Lesson Plans provides resources to accompany three historical fiction novels written by Ruta Sepetys: Between...

What should Matt do? Readers of The House of the Scorpion are offered several possible actions Matt could take when he first sees the children outside the house. They rate the options and then meet in groups to discuss the reasons for...

Readers of Tunes for Bears to Dance to are asked to write a personal letter to Henry, the main character in Robert Cormier's young adult novel, offering Henry advice about whether he should do as Mr. Hairston wants.

Though it is Emily Bronte's only novel, Wuthering Heights became one of the greatest of all-time. The classic novel gets an update in the form of an eBook. Readers learn about Heathcliff, Catherine, Edgar, and the other characters...

What are the effects of competition in an academic environment? The competition between the main characters in A Separate Peace motivates a series of activities that asks readers to take a stance on competition, and then to develop a...

Readers of The Joy Luck Club, use a double-0entry journal to record and reflect on passages from Amy Tan's novel.

Study cause and effect in both literature and informational text with a lesson plan designed for several different reading levels. After kids review the concept of cause and effect, they read an article or story and note the causes and...

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.

A lot of secrecy shrouded the creation of the atomic bomb. Readers uncover some of that secrecy using an educator's guide for the novel The Green Glass Sea. Three weeks of lesson plans feature discussion questions and reading...

It is an out-of-body experience. Scholars take a look at the sidebars outside the body of the text in The Exterminator. They discuss the purpose of this type of text feature and work to determine the gist. Learners write unfamiliar...

Captain Long John Silver himself would consider this anticipation guide a treasure. Full of rereading predictions for readers to consider, the anticipation guide makes the class excited to begin reading Robert Lois Stevenson's Treasure...

The Grapes of Wrath. The Jungle. Native Son. The Things They Carried. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian. To address a current social, political, economic, or environmental issue, class groups pair the reading of a...

It's hard to imagine that life on Alcatraz could be dull. A series of intriguing lessons take readers through the novel Al Capone Does my Shirts. Pre-reading questions introduce the text and a range of suggestions, from comic strips to...

What role did yellow journalism play in bringing the United States into war with Spain? As part of their study of the Spanish-American War, class groups examine newspapers of the times and other texts and then produce their own...