King Lear is a powerful and complex tragedy that looks deeply into political power and family dynamics, loyalty, betrayal, aging, and madness. This teaching guide includes scene-by-scene plot summaries, information about the...

After reading up to chapter 12 of Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis, scholars read chapter 13 and take part in a grand conversation about the author's writing techniques. Pupils discuss how his writing conveyed literary themes...

A 15-page packet details three activities designed to engage scholars in Homer's The Odyssey. As they read, pupils use a graphic organizer to record examples of several literary terms found in The Odyssey and contemporary...

After reading The Mitten by Jan Brett, scholars discuss the author's purpose. Small groups compare and contrast a book written to entertain and a book to inform, then create a T-Chart detailing the characteristics of...

A poetry lesson plan takes a close look at home. Scholars discuss with partners what they are most grateful for at their homes. A timelapse video showcases potato tubers growing. While watching, pupils write down what they notice....

Delve into a Bengali folktale with a series of reading comprehension activities. Before kids read The Ghost Catcher, they discuss the concept of reflections and mirrors. They then answer comprehension questions about the characters and...

Follow any story and record each step on the graphic organizer provided here. There are lines to record the title, author, and illustrator, boxes where pupils can fill in character and setting, and six boxes in which learners can note...

Cinderella is a classic love story when Cinderella is the protagonist—but what happens if a stepsister tells the story? Focus on point of view with a lesson about fairy tales and story elements. After reading a few familiar fairy tales,...

Observe Constitution Day with a worksheet that delves deep into the who, what, why, when, where, and how of the U.S. Constitution. Scholars read a short informational text then answer 10 questions—short answer and multiple choice. 

Beowulf, the Old English epic hero, comes alive again in the activities found in a teacher's guide designed to accompany a reading of the classic poem.

The California Gold Rush was not just an opportunity for the male gold miners sifting for shiny nuggets. Small groups read accounts of the ways women took advantage of the influx of workers to run hotels, bake pies, and wading out into...

The words of Henry David Thoreau on Civil Disobedience seem particularly relevant today, as are his writings and those of other transcendental thinkers who ask what it mean to live deliberately and what are the responsibilities of...

Some days, the world seems like it is becoming darker, but research suggests that the world might actually be becoming a more peaceful place. An informational reading passage accompanied by a series of activities builds English language...

Jo March is all grown up in Louisa May Alcott's Little Men, and a new generation of children is benefitting from her tutelage. Young learners read a passage from the novel before answering four comprehension questions about plot details...

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...

Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club brings together the central ideas of identity, ambition, expectations, and relationships. As high schoolers read an excerpt from the chapter "Two Kinds," they note how Jing-Mei's connection to music relates to...

Parental relationships have a huge impact on our personalities, for better or for worse. Read about Mike's relationship with his father in H.G. Bissinger's Friday Night Lights and how it informed the novel's central idea.

To understand the importance of the wording of the articles of the First Amendment (freedom of religion, freedom of speech and the press, and freedom to assembly and petition), teams argue before a jury for draft amendments of one...

To begin this lesson, class members examine Antonius Hockelmann's painting "Tree Flowers II," record elements of the painting that they notice, and share their observations with a partner. Next, pupils do a close reading of Jericho...

Active listening is all about thinking, asking questions, and making connections. That's the take-away from a instructional activity about active listening. Participants learn techniques for identifying important information, including...

Would a bluebird be as scary as a vulture? Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" is the central text in a lesson about symbolism. After a close reading of the poem, learners consider what the raven might represent to the narrator. They then...

And the plot thickens! The third interactive in this series introduces young scholars to the cause-and-effect nature of a fictional story plot. They learn about the characteristics of exposition, rising action, climax, falling action,...

Help your pupils examine their feelings with the materials here. The class can first read the included poem about a shy person and then respond to one or more of the six included writing prompts.

Middle schooler practice their dictionary and thesaurus skills with this vocabulary assignment.  Using the provided graphic organizer and the word list from Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech, readers define each word, and find a...