Let's make connections! Using the resource, class members make connections between the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and their readers theater scripts. To finish, they complete a worksheet to evaluate the role of narration in...

It's all connected. Learners read event details in Promises to Keep to determine the connection between the bus boycott and Jackie Robinson. They watch a video and read Rules for Riding Desegregated Buses to discover even more details to...

Looking for a resource that helps learners practice identifying fact and opinion? A four-page worksheet includes two informational text reading passages. Pupils read each passage and respond to four multiple choice and one...

Connect literature (Jack the Builder) with mathematical concepts. In a series of computation, geometry and number sense activities, pupils count on to add, count back to subtract, build cylinders, cones, and rectangular prisms, and name...

How might different authors approach the same topic? Scholars read a paragraph from an informational text about Canadian refugees using the resource. Next, they participate in a jigsaw activity to connect real-life refugees' experiences...

Five hundred schoolchildren first performed the song "Lift Every Voice and Sing" in 1900 to celebrate President Lincoln's birthday. Scholars listen to the historic song and discuss the lyrics with partners. They continue preparing notes...

Scholars participate in a gallery walk to examine photographs related to WWII and record thoughts about the pictures in note catchers. At the end of the gallery walk, pupils share their observations before participating in a discussion...

Let's get creative! As part of a mid-unit assessment, scholars create a piece of artwork illustrating the theme from Laurence Yep's novel, Dragonwings. Additionally, pupils use a graphic organizer to identify figurative language in...

What does your class know about logical fallacies? They can find out quite a bit and practice identifying logical fallacies if you follow the steps and use the resources provided here! After reviewing ethos, pathos, and logos, ask small...

It is no easy feat to wade through legal and political documents. And incorporating this type of informational text into a literature class can also be a challenge. Here’s a resource that includes suggestions for how to address this...

Connect to real-world experiences by having your primary learners create an award certificate based upon literal and inferential information from a story. They present the award to a character from a story and explain the criteria used....

Practice reading strategies using Elizabeti's Doll by Stephanie Stuve-Bodeen. Readers utilize decoding and comprehension strategies before, during, and after reading the story. A detailed list of text features, high frequency words,...

Good readers have internalized a system of strategies to understand text. While most reading programs explicitly teach these strategies, this presentation could be used as a discussion starter to help students understand such things as...

How has the Internet of Things affected our lives? Scholars examine the massive influence of mobile devices in this analysis activity, which begins with a seven-minute documentary clip. They also read a New York Times article (linked)...

African-American history is an integral part of what America is. Learners examine important events, read informational texts, and create quilts depicting specific eras in African-American history. Each image created for the quilt will be...

"The Hare and the Water," a Tanzanian folk tale, lends a global perspective to literary analysis. Learners spend the first two days reading and storyboarding. On day three, they examine folk tale elements (worksheet included), and design...

Young readers compare and contrast digital and print versions of tall tale text. The resource includes a character analysis in which pupils compare and contrast traits, and make inferences about what the characters do and say. They...

The non-fiction book Art Around the World by Heather Leonard serves as inspiration for learning how art reflects cultures and values. New vocabulary and background knowledge are fleshed out before reading the story. Afterward, the class...

Bring nonfiction into the classroom with this high-interest op-ed piece from the New York Times about love, marriage, and relationships in the 21st century. Pupils read a short article on the topic of cohabitation and offer their own...

Contrary to popular belief, the monster's name in Mary Shelley's Frankenstein is not Frankenstein. A teacher's guide for the novel helps readers make sense of key details in the text, define vocabulary words, and discuss prominent...

Jack London's heart for adventure has come to define the spirit of America and its frontier. Selected passages from the foreword The Cruise of the Snark take eighth graders through London's construction and voyage of his ship before...

Eager readers have waited a long time, very patiently, for a set of literary analysis lessons that connect text structure to the work's central idea. As ninth graders continue reading "The Tell-Tale Heart," they focus on the central...