Blundering, audacious, obscurest. Class members develop strategies for teaching each other vocabulary words drawn from The Hobbit.

When planning for your next learning stations or literacy center activity, use this resource as an outline for what will happen at each center, which students will be involved in each group, and how the small group activities will...

Looking for more ways to practice writing words? A list of 27 strategies will engage learners of any level. Kids can choose between writing their words in peanut butter, criss-crossing them with words that share common letters, and...

Oh, the dreaded writer's block! As part of a larger paper-writing series, an invaluable resource discusses obstacles and stresses writers face. Individuals learn to identify feelings associated with anxiety, as well as strategies for...

Included here is a cloze passage taken from Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury. Copy the included sheet, and have learners read the passage silently. Then, read the passage aloud once. To assess their memory, have pupils complete as many...

It is difficult to articulate how growing up feels as accurately and beautifully as Sandra Cisneros does in her short story "Eleven." After seventh graders read the story and note the author's use of figurative language, they respond to...

Looking to set up literature circles in your class? Use these materials to support pupils when they meet in groups. Pupils take on various roles over the course of reading and meet with their groups to share the work they have done on...

Teach learners to reflect on their reading with a lesson about double-entry journals. As they read Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles, class members note interesting passages from the text on the left side of their...

Discussing great works of literature with peers is an excellent way to both comprehend and celebrate reading! Learners work in literature circles during a unit on Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles, and share paragraphs that...

How many times could California fit into the entire United States? Pupils use scientific notation to find the answer to that question in the 12th installment of 15 lessons. It asks scholars to write numbers in scientific notation and...

Explore the invention of the zipper with a 10-question reading comprehension activity that challenges scholars to show what they know about an informational text's details and vocabulary.  

Focus on poetry this summer to enhance those comprehension, fluency, and language skills with a set of resources intended to explore different types of poetry, specifically lyric poetry. The daily activities contain differentiation ideas...

Figurative language is the focus in the book Teach Us, Amelia Bedelia. After reading Peggy Parish's book, class members dramatize idioms from the text, using dramatic strategies such as characterization, exaggeration, and...

Breaking down words into syllables has two benefits: it improves vocabulary and it improves understanding of a text. The third and final resource in a series of materials designed to be used with Nature: Friend or Foe offers extra...

Give your class a taste of the Common Core with a practice test that includes both literary and informational reading passages. Pupils respond to related multiple choice questions and longer written response questions. See the...

Encourage close reading and critical thinking with a learning exercise that asks readers to select an event from a story, predict what they believe will happen, and list clues from the story that support this prediction. After...

Scholars read additional pages in Unbroken to discover more about Louie's character. Readers use turn-and-talk strategies to discuss character traits that describe Louie. They then answer text-dependent questions and cite evidence to...

The proof is in the reading. Scholars read an article, "Attached to Technology and Paying the Price," and answer text-dependent questions. Next, they complete a Venn diagram to contrast two authors' use of evidence on the topic of screen...

Teaching linear function relationships using contextual information is beneficial to pupils' understanding. The lesson uses problem solving to build linear functions given different information for each problem. This is the second...

Words can be a powerful tool in the hands of a poet. Class members examine a poem written by Ross Gay in response to the death of Eric Garner and a news report of the same death. They then read an article about the death of Tamir Rice...

It takes time to discover what makes a source accurate and credible. Using everything they've learned about source credibility, scholars begin researching supporting questions about how industry and agriculture manage water. They select...

Students observe and demonstrate a variety of reading expression strategies. They listen to the teacher read different sentences with and without expression and discuss the difference, then in pairs read an "I Can Read" book using their...

Students explore poetry. In this poetry lesson, students discover the qualities of good writing and the characteristics of poetry. Students practice reading poems in different ways. Studnets also discuss the mood of the poem and the...

Students choose a book for reading. In this language arts lesson plan, students take steps to evaluate a book for free reading. Students make a list of words found in the book that they are unfamiliar with.