Sometimes a novel is the best way to tackle a tough topic. A helpful educator's guide for the novels of Gayle Forman discuss tough topics such as teenage suicide. Discussion questions and writing activities encourage readers to think...

Students practice organizing their vocabulary words in an online organizer tool. In this vocabulary instructional activity, students read a text and take notes. Additionally, students organize their vocabulary words into an online...

Learners explore ecosystems. They read or listen to Dr. Seuss' The Lorax to draw conclusions and make predictions about the environmental impact and use of resources. They write poems about real forests and the wildlife which inhabit...

The animal kingdom is full of interesting organisms that have unique ways of surviving. Children read about different insects that have special tools for building homes and protecting themselves. When finished, learners identify the main...

Dive into pre-reading using this matching worksheet which focuses on the word same. Youngsters draw lines connecting the birds that are the same, coloring in the images. There are four pairs here. Consider incorporating bird names...

It is interesting to look at the election and voting process from a far. This activity does just that, your class will look at trends in voting populations and develop an understanding of the voting process. Please note this resource...

In these reading comprehension worksheets, 8th graders read a passage about the brain. Students then answer 5 reading comprehension questions about the text.

Engage conversation and explore the journey as you challenge young readers to interpret the german folktale, "The Fisherman and His Wife" written by literary brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm.

Young scholars read Native Plants and Early Peoples and explore the plants in Waterton-Glacier International Peace Park and find how the Native Americans used them.  In this Native American plant and people...

Imagine a list that includes Alan Abelson of Baron's, Bob Woodward of the Washington Post, and Mother Jones. High schoolers select a national columnist, read and annotate five columns by this author, noting the rhetorical...

Students chill out on a hot day with this outdoor activity. In this early childhood physical education lesson, students have fun experimenting through play with ice and toy animals in water.

Students complete close reading activities to analyze Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome. In this literary analysis lesson, students analyze key quotations from Ethan Frome and respond to contemporary reviews of the text. Students use textual...

Readers need to understand how their personal view point may differ or change how they see the view point found in a written text. Third graders read two informational pieces and fill out a graphic organizer to help them differentiate...

Students listen to the teacher read a book entitled, Hoot by Carl Hiaasen. In groups, students create KWL charts concerning the book, the author, and the author's writing style. In groups, students research topics about the book and its...

Pupils examine wordless books and other pictures in order to learn how the teacher "reads a picture" to tell a story about it. In this early writing instructional activity, students then create their own picture for story telling by...

Victor Martinez's Parrot in the Oven: Mi Vida is used in an activity that models how to develop questions to aid in comprehension of a text.

Does your class know the history behind today's telephone? They will after reading a very interesting one-page informational passage. They'll learn all about the way phones have progressed to the amazing devices they've become as they...

Guided by close-reading questions, groups examine the similarities and differences between the Declaration of Independence and the Bill of Rights. In addition, they look at how the principles are presented in these two foundational US...

Like Oskar, the curious boy in Jonathan Safran Foer’s story, class members journey through other “stories that the mouth can’t tell” to find another sentence that uses a word found in novel. Individuals create their own vocabulary list,...

Are the joys of childhood really that joyful? Readers take a look at adolescent and young adult anxiety. Activities include close reading of articles and a self-reflection of scholars' own fears and anxiety. Learners then create a deck...

Elie Wiesel's "Hope, Despair and Memory" provides ninth graders an opportunity to demonstrate their ability to analyze complex text. Individuals craft an essay that draws evidence from the text of the speech to show how Wiesel develops...

Pay close attention. Learners discuss the things close readers do and record them in a chart. They then silently reading section 1 of Investigating the Scientific Method wit Max Axiom Super Scientist and write the gist of the text in...

Perspective changes everything. Scholars use a close reading guide while analyzing pages 38-47 in Unbroken. Readers learn that the governments of Japan and the United States had very different perspectives about the attack on Pearl...

Clear up the misconceptions about autism and individuals on the autism spectrum with an inquiry-based instructional activity. As ninth graders read the first four pages of Temple Grandin's Animals in Translation: Using the Mysteries of...