The intricate craft of narrative writing can make a happy story feel exuberant or a sad story feel devastating. With 42 extensive lessons that include poignant discussion questions, standards-aligned self-reflections, engaging writing...

What are the qualities of a strong written response to a prompt? Class members use the provided text analysis rubric to self-assess their responses to their homework assignments to prepare for the mid-unit assessment.

If your class can sequence events in a story, are pretty good at retell, and can identify the main point, they are probably ready for reading comprehension through summarizing. This lesson plan provides a teacher's script that...

Explore the impact a narrator's point of view has on a story with a reading of the children's book, Voices in the Park by Anthony Browne. Written in four different voices, the story is told and retold from different perspectives to...

Reflect on your reading with a book review form. After finishing a novel or short story, kids choose the correct genre and discuss their favorite part. They also decide which part they would change, and whether or not they would...

How is religious freedom connected to the conflict between China and Tibet? After reading an online passage of background information, your learners will divide into groups and both read and view an interview with the Dalai Lama. They...

Have your pupils really been reading the directions? Find out with this tricky little test. The first instruction is to read all of the directions quickly, but you'll find that quite a few pupils start acting rather funny just a few...

How does Hamlet's state of mind change over the course of Shakespeare's most famous revenge tragedy? After a close reading of Hamlet's soliloquies in Act III, scene 1 and Act IV, scene iv, class members engage in a Paideia/Socratic...

Erin Entrada Kelly's award-winning novel, Hello, Universe is the anchor text in this 236-page teacher guide. The guide includes introductions to the Core Knowledge Language Arts (CKLA) program and the unit, a unit...

A penny saved is a penny earned! Scholars research the different ways to save money over a lifetime. They investigate the Rule of 72, compound interest, and sub-prime loans to gain an understanding of how banks aid in the saving process....

Help English learners tell the difference between the past tense and the past perfect tense with a grammar learning exercise. As kids read twelve sentences, they change the given verbs to the correct tense based on context clues.

After reading a one-page passage on how to understand and solve distance/rate problems, young mathematicians answer six word problems that have them correctly set up the formula in order to solve for the distnace, rate, or time in the...

Make a study of the First Amendment and its relationship to freedom. Pupils rewrite the amendment and discuss the central idea before focusing on a specific phrase. After discussing, class members write a journal entry about the included...

Glimpse a beautiful moment through poetry with a reading comprehension activity. As sixth graders read through "City Autumn" by Joseph Moncure March, they answer ten questions about the setting, mood, vocabulary, and punctuation of...

Science Fiction? Gothic Novel? Romance? No matter the label, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein has captured the imagination of readers for over 200 years. Whether used to test how well readers remember the key events and characters in...

The life of a tree is the focus of a packet consisting of several activities all covering a different subject. Second graders measure shadows, make pinecone critters, write poems, count rings, complete a word search, play tree tag, and...

To prepare for an assessment of how well individuals are progressing with their ability to identify and analyze figurative language and its effect on tone and meaning, pairs work through Chapter Four of Christopher Paul Curtis'...

Prepare for the end-of-unit assessment in a unit focused on Karen Russell's "St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves." As your class continues gathering evidence to support or argue against the success of Claudette's adaptation into...

Prepare for a mid-unit assessment based on Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club with a brainstorming and discussion lesson plan. Focused on two chapters from the novel ("Rules of the Game" and "Two Kinds"), the lesson plan guides tenth graders...

Celebrate the whimsical world of Dr. Seuss with a lesson that features the memorable tale of The Lorax. After listening to a riveting read-aloud, scholars take part in a grand conversation about the story and environment. Then...

Kathryn Stockett's The Help opened up a rich, vivid world of strong female characters and stark societal injustices. As high schoolers read the novel, they complete a crossword puzzle that includes clues from all chapters of the book.

What strategies are most effective in changing an unjust law? Class members examine the tactics used in the Birmingham Campaign of 1963 (Project C) to achieve social justice and social transformation. After examining documents that...

Looking for practice for state standardized testing? Scholars work through a variety of passages and multiple question types in this exam. Questions range from comprehension of auditory passages, reading passages, and poems, as well as...

Individuals exercise their minds by taking the Comprehensive Examination in English, which assesses listening and reading comprehension and writing aptitude. Scholars answer multiple-choice questions and write two short-response essays....