Many English teachers dream of a classroom full of readers silently enjoying their books. A useful guide helps make that dream become a reality by providing book recommendations for a range of readers. Each suggestion includes the...

Thomas Jefferson lived a controversial life. A series of lesson plans shares information about Jefferson's Sons, a novel about the infamous founding father. Discussion questions and other tasks explore different points of view and cover...

After reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and an article about the use of the novel, class members engage in a Socratic seminar focused on whether or not Twain's book should be banned.

Children in foster care face a lot of uncertainty in their lives. A guide for the novel One for the Murphys introduces a main character, Carley, who is thrust into the foster care system. Chapter-by-chapter questions cover key...

Schools in the 1950s and 60s looked very different from the schools we know today. An educator's guide explores the civil rights movement and, specifically, the process of integrating schools. Questions cover key themes in the novel and...

What does it mean to mourn something? Scholars continue reading paragraph four from "Refugee and Immigrant Children: A Comparison" to better understand the mourning process for refugee children. Working with a partner, pupils then read...

Before diving into the engaging tale of Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan, conduct this directed reading and thinking activity. Assess your pupils' knowledge of Greek gods and mythology through a knowledge web,...

Use this comprehensive packet to accompany a study of Missing May by Cynthia Rylant. Starting out with a brief author biography and background information about the novel, this guide includes materials to use throughout the entire novel....

Picture books aren't just for children; they carry strong, valuable messages for adult as well. Explore the audience for Antoine de Saint-Exupéry's The Little Prince with a lesson that compares picture books to literature...

As the title suggests, this lesson is designed for a foster care therapy group. C.S. Lewis' novel provides children an opportunity to discuss life issues vicariously through fictional characters. However, the discussion questions and...

Here’s a reading strategy that can be used with any text. Class members examine portions of a novel, and make predictions about the theme or subject matter of the book. Although designed for Christopher Paul Curtis’s Newbery Medal...

What common challenges do refugees and immigrants face? Using the 9th lesson plan from the 20-part Grade 8 ELA Module 1, Unit 2 series, pupils read about the similarities between refugees' and immigrants' adaptation processes. Partners...

Foster critical thinking skills by using the DR-TA Strategy with Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal.” Class members read portions of the essay, stop and discuss what is happening, make predictions based on evidence from the text, and...

Whether new to the KWHL strategy or not readers of Briar Rose will benefit from the detailed procedures and templates designed for Jane Yolen’s novel. Links are provided for research into the Holocaust and activities reveal the many...

Help young readers align character relationships in an activity for Kyoko Mori's Shizuko's Daughter. After kids discuss the characters and how they relate to each other, they use index cards and a graphic organizer to outline the...

Dive your class into the novel The Pinballs by Betsy Byars with the support of this reading guide. Including short answer questions, a multiple choice comprehension quiz, and extension activities, a variety of materials are...

Need an extra challenge for your best readers? Check out a unit that uses Hannah Webster Foster’s epistolary novel, The Coquette, published in 1797, as the anchor text. The resource is packed with project ideas; each with its...

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...

Historical fiction novels give readers a chance to step into someone else's shoes. An educator's guide from Penguin Common Core Lesson Plans provides resources to accompany three historical fiction novels written by Ruta Sepetys: Between...

The spirit of the Civil Rights Movement lives on in a more literal than figurative way in Ghost Boys. A focused lesson plan features Jewell Parker Rhodes' novel about ghosts of slain black teenagers, including the main character, Jerome,...

Strengthen the bonds of friendship within your class with a reading of E.B. White's award-winning novel, Charlotte's Web. Focusing on the unique characters in the story and the relationships they develop, young readers draw...

In this literature and history worksheet, students prepare to read the novel by Lois Lowry Number the Stars. Students read the history behind the Nazi occupation of Denmark and the arrest of the Jews there. This is a 10 page historical...

Who would have thought to explore the concept of race through children's literature?  After reading Bell Hooks' picture book, Skin Again, and chapter sixteen of Jerry Spinelli's Maniac Magee, class members...

The novels of John Green cover the gamut of teenager emotions. A guide to his works provides classroom lesson plans for the novels Looking for Alaska, An Abundance of Katherines, The Fault in Our Stars, and Paper Towns. Each lesson...