Jack the Ripper terrorized London in the late 1800s. An educator's guide for the novel The Name of the Star places the historical figure in a modern context. Readers complete a pre-reading activity before answering a series of discussion...

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.

You can often track a character's development based on others' reactions to their words or actions. Using Karen Russell's "St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves," ninth graders work in a jigsaw activity to analyze how Mirabella's...

Vivid quotes and strong sensory language compose Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club, bringing the women to life as they navigate through issues surrounding identity and maternal relationships. Examine Waverly's relationship with her mother...

Set young readers on the path toward fluency with this phonemic awareness resource. Based on the award-winning children's book, Where the Wild Things Are, this lesson allows beginning readers to practice isolating...

Students answer questions about a folktale that is read to them. In this listening skills lesson plan, students practice listening to folktales and answering questions about what they hear. They listen to repetitive readings of the same...

A great way to practice listening, punctuation, and proper grammar is playing this great partner activity. Learners must work together to read and write different sentences. 

Eleventh graders read and study Hamlet. Then they are introduced to close reading as a means of understanding what is being read--not only understanding the printed word, but also the nuances and connotations of language as it is used by...

Students participate in repeated reading activities to improve their fluency after listening to the teacher model fluent and non-fluent reading. They work with a partner to complete repeated reading of sentences and books while being...

Take a trip through history with a lesson on historical fiction. With instructions for games, reading activities, and literary analysis assignments, this resource would be a great addition to any reading unit with a historical fiction...

Thinking about introducing your middle schoolers to reading log journals? Try the approach suggested by this resource. After reading to the class an article or portion of a novel, demonstrate a Think Aloud and then model how to transform...

Emerging readers practice reading fluency. First, they listen to the teacher and classmates model fluent reading, and then they practice fluent oral reading with a partner. To close the day, they participate in a Reader's Theatre based...

Students create story quilts. In this reading comprehension lesson plan, students read a book and create a paper quilt square to display illustrations and events from the text.

Students explore reading comprehension by completing a graphic organizer. In this journalism technique lesson, students discuss important questions they can ask about stories they read to improve comprehension. Students identify keywords...

Explore non-fiction comprehension strategies with your class. They will visualize daily activities and label a 4 circle Venn diagram with related phrases. They must identify the overlapping sections as "main ideas," then complete a...

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.

Fourth graders define unknown vocabulary words and decode unknown words in their reading using a Quicktionary Reading Pen and Franklin Spell Checker. They create reading comprehension questions that are incorporated into a classroom Web...

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

Engage further in Esperanza Rising with a focus on close reading and metaphor. Class members zero in on the tenth chapter, examining characters and big ideas. Pupils discuss the text in small groups and as a whole class, and...

Help your class transition as the setting in the novel Esperanza Rising, by Pam Muñoz Ryan, moves from Mexico to California. Beginning with prior knowledge, and moving into jigsaw research groups, class members add to and create posters...

Do you like music? Have your youngsters read We Play Music, practicing select reading strategies, like using picture clues to determine new words. Then, after their first independent read, have them re-read the story to a...

Connecting meaning to a given word via image or sentence can really help learners build their vocabulary and in turn enhance their reading ability. The class constructs a chart where they define each new vocabulary word, come up with an...

Life is not always fair. Who's heard that before? This same concept moves to a larger scale using prejudice and bias. Pupils discuss where prejudice attitudes derive and how they develop throughout life. Reading comprehension...

Here is a reading strategies lesson plan in which learners use post it notes to create a bulletin board. They post their new questions on the bulletin board and look back at questions they have already learned the answer to. A great...