Activity
Novelinks

Touching Spirit Bear: Directed Thinking Activity

For Students 6th - 8th Standards
Can you guess what is going to happen in a story just by looking at the cover? Readers engage in a directed-reading activity in which...
Worksheet
Novelinks

The Westing Game: Anticipation Guide

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
Are all criminals bad people? Pupils answer this and other compelling questions in an anticipation guide for The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin. Designed for learners to complete before reading the text, the...
Lesson Plan
MENSA Education & Research Foundation

Early American Novel: Exploring the Emergence of a Genre

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Need an extra challenge for your best readers? Check out a unit that uses Hannah Webster Foster’s epistolary novel, The Coquette, published in 1797, as the anchor text. The resource is packed with project ideas; each with its...
Activity
Novelinks

The Martian Chronicles: Double-Entry Journals

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Teach learners to reflect on their reading with a lesson about double-entry journals. As they read Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles, class members note interesting passages from the text on the left side of their...
Activity
Novelinks

The Martian Chronicles: Literature Circles

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Discussing great works of literature with peers is an excellent way to both comprehend and celebrate reading! Learners work in literature circles during a unit on Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles, and share paragraphs that...
Activity
Novelinks

Tuck Everlasting: Titles for Chapters

For Teachers 4th - 7th Standards
High schoolers synthesize the information they've learned from each chapter of Natalie Babbitt's Tuck Everlasting with a creative summarizing activity. With a graphic organizer for all of the book's chapters, readers title...
Lesson Plan
Novelinks

Zach’s Lie: Anticipation Guide

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
The class explores the truths and lies regarding Zach's Lie through a well-written anticipation guide. First in a series of seven resources, the guide addresses themes within the text. The class collaboratively discusses their...
Worksheet
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E Reading Worksheets

Making Predictions #1

For Students 3rd - 4th Standards
How can you tell what is going to happen next in a story? Learn to make predictions with five sections of stories. Kids read the beginning, and then write what they believe will happen next. Additionally, they provide evidence for their...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Maus: Cubing Questioning Strategy

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Maus is the text for a postreading activity that has class members using a cubing strategy to analyze, in depth, topics (racism, past and present, forgetting/remembering the Holocaust, representing the Holocaust) associated with Art...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

QAR: Question Answer Relationships Strategy: The Catcher in the Rye

For Teachers 11th - 12th
Encourage readers to think deeply about text with a reading strategy that promotes active comprehension. Individuals develop questions on four levels (right there, think and search, author and you, and on my own). Step-by-step directions...
Unit Plan
Core Knowledge Foundation

Unit 9: The Science of Breakable Things by Tae Keller

For Teachers 5th Standards
A novel study examines The Science of Breakable Things by Tae Keller. Fifth graders participate in daily readings, discussions, and assignments following an "ask, explore, imagine, observe, and understand" routine. A final performance...
Lesson Plan
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Scholastic

Reading Characters

For Teachers 8th - 12th Standards
Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass provides the text for a study of how writers bring characters to life. Using the provided character mapping worksheets, readers respond to questions and then write a short character sketch.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Shizuko’s Daughter: List-Group-Label Strategy

For Teachers 7th - 12th Standards
Help your learners navigate the vocabulary of Shizuko's Daughter by Kyoko Mori with a lesson on categorizing words. After coming up with a list of things that grow from the earth, learners decide which categories each words belong in.
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Speak: Questioning Strategy - ReQuest Strategy

For Teachers 7th - 10th Standards
The best way to analyze a piece of literature is to ask questions about the characters, plot, and theme. Encourage your learners to stump the teacher with the most difficult questions they can create using Bloom's Taxonomy and various...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Outsiders: The K-W-H-L Strategy

For Teachers 6th - 8th
What does your class know about the 1960s? Introduce your unit on S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders with a K-W-H-L chart, which encourages kids to list what they already know about the time period, what they would like to know, how they...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Wildwood Dancing: K-W-H-L Reading Strategy On Prejudice

For Teachers 6th - 12th
As part of a study of Juliet Marillier's Wildwood Dancing, class members create a KWHL chart listing what they know, what the want to know, how they will find information, and what they have learned about prejudice.
Lesson Plan
Novelinks

The Joy Luck Club: Vocabulary Strategy (Magic Squares)

For Teachers 9th - 12th
As part of their study of Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club, readers engage in a magic squares vocabulary activity.
Organizer
Sundance

Teaching Strategies: The Giver

For Teachers 5th - 7th
Can utopia be achieved? Included here are three literature worksheets to pair with Lois Lowry's The Giver. Pupils work in groups to come up with solutions to society's issues, individuals back up a statement related to a topic in the...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Phineas Gage: Notecard Vocabulary Strategy

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
Understanding the vocabulary in a text, especially a text like Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True Story About Brain Science that includes quite a few technical terms, can be the key to understanding the text as a whole. Learners focus on...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Twelfth Night: The K-W-H-L Strategy

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Readers of Twelfth Night use a KWHL chart to record information about what they know about Shakespeare's play, what they want to find out, how they plan on finding this information, and what they have learned or still want to learn about...
Lesson Plan
Novelinks

The House of the Scorpion: Request Strategy

For Teachers 6th - 10th
Readers of The House of the Scorpion try to stump their teacher in a QAR questioning game. Pairs craft Right There, Think and Search, On Your Own, and the Author and You questions and the class members then take turns responding to...
Lesson Plan
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Novelinks

Man's Search for Meaning: ReQuest Procedure Questioning Strategy

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
As part of a study of Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning, class members respond to, and craft, higher-level comprehension questions based on passages from the text. 
Lesson Plan
Novelinks

The Good Earth: Biopoem Strategy

For Teachers 7th - 12th
To gain a better understanding of characters in Pearl Buck's The Good Earth, kids create a biopoem for one of her characters.
Lesson Plan
Novelinks

The Good Earth: Question Answer Response Strategy

For Teachers 7th - 12th
Readers of Pearl Buck's The Good Earth craft and answer "Right There," "Think and Search," "On Your Own," and "Author and You" questions.