It's all in the technique. Authors use many techniques to express themselves using writing. Two of the three essay questions require scholars to analyze the literary devices used by the authors and write essays about how these...

How does background and experience influence one's point of view? Dwight Okita's famous poem about the Japanese internment is the text used to explore this essential question. Class members study primary documents to gain the necessary...

Introduce your class to ekphrastic poetry with an exercise that asks them to examine Edward Hooper's painting House by the Railroad and Edward Hirsch's poem "Edward Hopper and the House By the Railroad." After a close reading...

Rather than waiting for the world to change, encourage your class members to become agents of change with a project that asks groups to select an issue found in Tyson Miller's Dream of a Nation: Inspiring Ideas for a Better America....

This is a disaster. Scholars look through the book Eight Days: A Story of Haiti and discuss their wonderings about the text and natural disasters. They then complete a first read to determine gist and second read to answer...

I survived! Scholars read a firsthand account from a natural disaster survivor in the text Save Bella! They record the gist of the text in their journals and answer text-dependent questions. They then take notes to more deeply analyze...

Dive into a class reading of the book George Washington's Socks with the help of this guide. Including a vocabulary list and series of comprehension questions for each chapter, this resource provides an excellent foundation for...

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....

What is a Leap Year and why do we have it? Find out with this Leap Day/Leap Year response to reading worksheet in which scholars read a short passage and use their new-found knowledge to answer five questions with short...

As scholars begin reading more difficult text, they need to acquire an arsenal of comprehension strategies. Here are few helpful ones to guide new readers through the informational text About Trees, which is linked here for...

Psychology, the scientific study of the human mind and behavior, is a popular major for many college students. An informative handout outlines common assignments in psychology courses. Scholars see how to design a research proposal,...

Whether you are planning on using Of Mice and Men for whole-class reading or as a selection for literature circles; whether you are new to John Steinbeck's novel, or it has long been a part of your curriculum, you...

Where were you when the world stopped turning that September day? Will, a ninth grade student in We All Fall Down, was at work with his father in the World Trade Center. Scholars read Will's story of the accounts told in first...

Have you every known someone that marches to the beat of a different drum? That is exactly what Pippi from Astrid Lindgren's Pippi Longstocking does! Scholars complete a worksheet packet as they read about Pippi's outrageous...

Little Man, in Vince Vawter's Paperboy, is a great baseball player, but due to stuttering he'd rather not speak to a soul. Scholars read how Little Man deals with his fears as they use vocabulary words to complete sentences,...

Mary from The Secret Garden finds a key that could possibly unlock the door to a secret garden. Scholars read Frances Hodgson Burnett's class novel and match vocabulary words with definitions, answer comprehension...

Have you ever gone looking for one thing but ended up discovering something else? That is exactly what happened to Gaylen, a character in The Search for Delicious. Gaylen begins looking for a food to label as delicious, but...

Some experiences are worth living again. At least, that is how government researchers feel about Brian's survival experience in the woods. The River is a sequel to Brian's adventures in Hatchet. Scholars read about the troubles...

Some say a dog is a man's best friend. However, in Rascal, it is not a dog that captures a boy's heart—but a raccoon. Scholars read about the boy and Rascal's adventures while they complete activities about the story. Activities include...

We're off to see the wizard! Practice making inferences in literature with two sample paragraphs from L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. Each passage provides questions about the pleasantness of the place it describes, and...

Put your thinking cap on, it's quiz time! Here, scholars use their knowledge of the book, The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi to create six questions to be used in their upcoming quiz. 

The Oscar for the Best Adapted Screenplay acknowledges a writer's excellence in adapting material found in another source. What do your class members know about adapted resources? Find out with an assessment that asks readers to...