Students participate in independent reading activities by reading a book at their independent reading level and selecting activities to complete after reading. Activities are broken up into C Level, B Level, and A Level activities.

Two reading passages provide practice for the reading comprehension section of the Georgia CRCT online standardized test. This includes ten multiple choice questions, but provides no answer sheet. While designed by the Georgia state...

The goal of this lesson is to have learners understand how character is created through a combination of what they say and do, and what others say about them. In pairs, learners construct a short dialogue between a parent and child after...

Start a lesson plan on poetic voice with a peer to peer discussion on what characterizes the strength in the voice with which a writer chooses to express himself/herself. In pairs, readers are tasked with reading and creating T-charts...

Can you find the themes from Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea in other books? What about picture books? Compare the novel to a picture book with a lesson about making predictions and finding textual evidence.

The Buttonhook by Mary Jo Salter is the focus of a unit that explores the immigration experience to Ellis Island. First, scholars bring in an artifact that represents their heritage. A group-exercise allows them to share and discuss...

When is it okay to go against authority and what can happen if you do? This is the leading question in this activity to accompany your classroom reading of The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi. After reading...

For scholars who need a challenge in the classroom, here is a unit for you. Learners explore topics such as animals, sports, helpers at home, the past, and funny things that have happened in their lives. Youngsters also engage...

Bring the beauty of "Nothing Gold Can Stay" by Robert Frost to middle school language arts. After learners read a copy of the poem, they follow an instructional sequence that focuses on sound, figurative language, and theme.

An engaging video featuring William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet is accompanied by six activities designed to reinforce vocabulary, story elements, and comprehension. Scholars match words to pictures, place events in sequential order,...

A fan of anticipation guides? This resource not only offers directions on how to craft such a pre-reading activity, but also provides a model for Ralph Ellison's Invisible Man.

3D printers, selfie sticks, smart watches. GPS, self-driving cars, YouTube. Imagine life without inventions. Believe it or not, these items were all invented in the last 10 years. Inventions, and the inventors responsible for them,...

After watching an excerpt from a video of Fannie Lou Hamer's testimony before Congress, pupils do a close reading of Mahogany L. Browne's poem "When Fannie Lou Hamer Said," annotate words and phrases that draw their attention and list...

In this multi-faceted introduction to pi, participants perform a bevy of pi-related activities. Ranging from measuring household items to singing pi songs and reading pi stories, this fun and non-intimidating resource serves to bring up...

Encourage readers to compare and contrast the information that they find in informational text with a variety of reading passages and worksheets. Learners read all about subjects in science, social studies, and literature...

Accompany a reading of Dr. Seuss' tale, The Lorax, with a five-item learning exercise. Questions challenge scholars to list characters' names, use text details to answer inquiries, and describe the moral of the story. 

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...

Here is a lesson plan in which pupils connect themes and rules to live by from the story Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis to those found in the poem If by Rudyard Kipling. First, scholars discuss their reading and review Bud's...

Compare and contrast popular works of fantasy literature with an in-depth reading comprehension unit. Language arts learners study the theme of good versus evil, fantastical characters and symbols, and the value of a visual...

Everyone takes a different journey through grief. A series of lesson plans for the novel Counting by 7s introduces readers to the main character who loses her parents in a car crash. Discussion questions and writing prompts combine...

Powerful women need not look like Wonder Woman. After writing a paragraph about a strong woman they know, young scholars examine images of Alice Paul and then do a close reading of Katharine Rolston Fisher's poem "Alice Paul." Finally,...

A study of Jan Felipe Herrera's poem "Every Day We Get More Illegal" opens the door for a discussion on immigration. To begin, class members examine the photograph "Desert Survival," record their observations of the image, and then...

Encourage kindness with a lesson that defines kindness, asks scholars how to show kindness, and share how others have shown them kindness. Multiple activities prove that kindness is easy to give through coloring, storytelling,...

Instill kindness with a unit all about empathy. Lessons and activities follow a prepare, engage, reflect, and action sequence. Learning experiences include making the classroom a safe environment, peer-invented handshakes, discussions...