First graders recognize patriotic songs of America. In this historical music lesson, 1st graders discuss the historical background of the song "Yankee Doodle" and repeat the lyrics after the instructor. Students read the lyrics to the...

Students explore the attributes of American tall tales. In this folklore lesson, students read several tall tales, describe the elements of tall tales, and then use hyperbole to write their own tall tales.

Twelfth graders engage in a ten-month long elective course focusing on college board review and an advanced writing workshop. Both course components focus on thinking and reasoning skills. Various approaches include sentence combining,...

Young scholars conduct Internet research and explain the history of Haiku. After listening and reading various examples of Haiku, students use their own vocabulary and practice their math skills to determine the correct number of...

For this literary prediction worksheet, students predict the topic, genre, setting, characters, and interest level of a book based on its first line. They research the title and author of the book using the line. They write a short story...

Fifth graders participate in various activities related to the Civil War. For this Civil War lesson students understand the events and feelings of people during the Civil War by studying primary sources, journal writing, readings,...

Students identify the features of fiction books. In this genre study lesson, students are introduced to the book Armadillo Rodeo and identify the cover, title, author, illustrator and title page. Students discuss how the book cover gives...

Young scholars create a diary entry from an animal's point of view. In this creative writing lesson, students read the book Diary of a Wombat and conduct brief research on an animal of their choice. Young scholars create a diary entry...

Students explore historical perspectives through literature. In this King Arthur lesson, students discover the attributes of dramatic monologue as they read selected literature. Students then discuss the legend of King Arthur and Camelot...

In this online interactive reading comprehension worksheet, students respond to 15 multiple choice questions about John Fowles's The French Lieutenant's Woman. Students may submit their answers to be scored.

Third graders read children's literature during the school year and compile a list of books and genres in an Access database. They print out a report of all the different books and genres of they read over the whole school year.

Introduce your class to the genre of mystery. Included is a vocabulary list, a rubric, and a sample mystery story called "Lethal Lesson." There are very limited directions on what to do with these resources, so you will need to plan some...

Class members select a science fiction novel for independent study. To verify they have completed the reading, they write a summary, a critique, and an outline of the plot for a sequel or prequel. They then deliver a five-minute...

While an interesting lesson idea involving the exploration of a story about an Asian American boy named Imduk, a teacher would need to have assess to the Scott Foresman reading program to make this work. If not, a teacher could use...

Students discover idioms. In this inferencing instructional activity, students identify idioms from passages and infer meanings of unknown idioms using prior knowledge and experience.  Students write sentences using newly learned...

Are you teaching a unit on the Wild West and need a good book suggestion that ties in? You've just found an extensive book list that includes titles for both juvenile and advanced readers. Each title is about some aspect of the Wild West...

Class members identify bullying in contemporary texts and role play how they might change those scenes to examples of anti-bullying. They then re-define their initial definitions of bullying and discuss what they...

"Tone means attitude." Or so says this resource that uses Jordan Pruitt's "One Love" to model for songwriters how to develop an attitude in their lyrics. Class members engage in a number of exercises designed to give them direct and...

Introduce expository writing with a unit that asks writers to craft an essay to explain a belief, value, or priority that is important to them. Mini-lessons within the unit focus on crafting thesis statements and conclusions, selecting...

Call him a reliable narrator! Ishmael is the focus of a lesson that asks readers to analyze the complex character of Herman Melville's narrator as he is introduced in the first chapter of Moby Dick.

Strengthen your high schoolers' writing with a series of steps for writing successfully. With sections on organizing an essay, choosing a topic, crafting a thesis statement, and revising a draft, the activity encourages your class to...

A good prompt is hard to find, especially ones that encourage application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation of a text. Help is here in the form of a prompt list for George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty Four that offers essay topics that...

Students explore poetry by Issa. In this haiku lesson, students discuss and list the attributes of Japanese haiku as the read poetry by Issa. Students write their own haiku following the criteria presented.

Students read and review common fairy tales and come up with a list of characteristics from them. The Teacher models filling out either a compare & contrast graphic organizer comparing two fairy tales.