Readers of Mildred D. Taylor's Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry are introduced to the Question Answer Response Strategy (QAR) as a way to increase their engagement in and comprehension of the novel.

Many regard John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath as the great American novel. The lesson plan combines a variety of strategies, including partner work, independent practice, creative writing, grammar instruction, and small group...

Reading informational text is a skill that transcends subjects and grade levels. Practice reading about different topics in various formats with a language arts lesson that includes opportunities for writing and research as well.

Everyone deserves to read a great book! Here, pupils write a persuasive letter to the school's librarian detailing their favorite story and why it should be found on the shelves. Class members' persuasive reading passages are shared with...

Work on deciphering the point of view of various pieces of literature. As readers review the concepts of first, second, and third person perspective, they apply what they know to different passages.

Students complete a chart/graphic organizer based on the reading passage and locate specific information within the reading passage to complete the Human Body Cells Chart. They then utilize the Human Body Cells Chart to complete the...

Identify sentence types within a short paragraph and complete a sentence transformation worksheet. Learners review sentence types and study a sentence identification chart. They watch a video about peacocks and identify sentence examples...

What are the benefits to providing your learners with multiple-choice questions on quizzes and tests? If you'll be teaching Latin literature this year, read this quick argument to decide which types of questions you'll create.

Engage in an activity that focuses on the concepts of formal and informal language use. Middle and high schoolers compare and contrast each style by using a Venn diagram that includes some examples. They read and hear a passage of lyrics...

Readers of I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings are asked to craft an essay in which they compare how Maya Angelou uses figurative language to depict herself and Mrs. Flowers. 

Prepare class members for the SAT Writing and Language exam with a practice test that prepares students for the types of questions and the kind of language used in the exam. Test takers must select the best way to fix poorly...

Looking for a way to introduce class members to the concept of symbolism and multiple levels of meaning? Readers examine two different passages about the beach and consider how the writers use concrete objects, and places to...

Young readers write a descriptive paper on the fantasy characters in The Hobbit. They take notes as they read the novel in order to provide descriptions of the character traits of hobbits, dwarfs, trolls, wizards, and goblins. They...

Here is a lesson that incorporates music writing, and reading literature. The class reads chapter eight from the C.S. Lewis classic The Magician's Nephew. Then, just like in the story, they use music as inspiration to create (write)...

How are novels and scripts alike and different? As part of the mid-unit assessment, scholars complete a Venn diagram to compare two types of writing: a novel and a script. Next, they respond to short-answer questions, evaluating passages...

Students explore the human body by completing a graphic organizer. In this living cells lesson, students analyze a human body cell's chart and discuss the parts of a cell and what they do for our bodies. Students complete a graphic...

Twelfth graders examine the characteristics of transcendentalism. In this transcendentalism lesson, 12th graders determine what this type of writing entails before reading a passage from, Ray Bradbury's, Dandelion Wine. They cite three...

Students discuss discipline in The Adventures of Tom Sawyer and compare it to how children are disciplined today. In this comparisons lesson, students identify different ways parents discipline their children. Students identify...

Examine the key strategies to proofreading a piece of writing for errors in sentence structure, usage, mechanics and spelling. Eighth graders practice putting into correct passage commonly confused words (too, two, to) when writing to a...

Readers of The House of the Scorpion try to stump their teacher in a QAR questioning game. Pairs craft Right There, Think and Search, On Your Own, and the Author and You questions and the class members then take turns responding to...

For this unique lesson on autobiographical writing, learners compare and contrast three types of writing: narrative, poetry and newspaper. Students prepare to produce a short autobiographical writing based on the framework of one of the...

Students identify the major folk regions of Louisiana and the relationship between folklife, geography, and ecology. They give deeper thought to what makes their own community unique, what their sense of place actually is. Students...

Fifth graders read "My Side of the Mountain." They create a pantomime using vocabulary words from the story. Students create three questions about the reading. They discuss the passage they read and act out words to help them better...

Sixth graders use short reading passages to identify, explain, and discuss the author's purpose for writing. After a lecture/demo, they utilize a graphic organizer embedded in this plan to organize their writing ideas.