A lesson begins with a description of a diamante poem and the rules to follow while writing one. Scholars examine the ins and outs of synonym and antonym diamantes, then compose an original poem using their newfound knowledge. 

Building on the previous activity in this series of lesson seeds, this plan focuses on the use of dialect in Theodore Taylor's novel, The Cay. Class members examine specific lines of text, use their reading journals to respond to the...

Readers of Antigone are asked to recall events in Sophocles' tragedy to complete a 24-clue crossword puzzle. An engaging way to review for a final assessment.

Oh, beware, reader of the clues in a Othello crossword puzzle. What you know of Shakespeare's tragic tale of the Moor, his wife Desdemona, and the manipulative Iago, you know. Or you just might have to use the text of Othello to find the...

Invite your pupils to do the teaching when it comes to the vocabulary in Pudd'nhead Wilson. Each individual is assigned one word to research in depth and teach to classmates, one pupil at a time.

Slavery in India, Sudan, and Mauritania? What about in the United States? Groups research modern slavery in these four countries, collecting factual evidence (What), determine their feelings about this evidence (So what),...

Individually, letters have their own sounds, but when combined with other letters, those sounds completely change. Introduce letter combinations with a instructional activity that asks learners to search for combinations in familiar...

Scholars practice their rhyming skills with a game. Players roll dice to move along the board game, stopping to rhyme words and find a match.

Reading readiness can be a fun skill to foster. Scholars manipulate phonemes to change one word into another. They pick picture cards, say the object's name on the card, then change the final phoneme to create a new word. They then find...

Build understanding of theme with an activity designed for The Cay and the Common Core. Small groups or pairs use graphic organizers to determine themes, find and record related details from the text, and formulate theme statements. In...

Encourage your learners to examine the setting in Theodore Taylor's The Cay. Pupils work in small groups to put together a description of the setting before reading two more chapters of the book. They use their double-entry journals to...

Connect Martin Luther King Jr's famous speech, "I Have a Dream," to The Cay by Theodore Taylor. Taylor refers to the speech in his dedication, which creates a natural segue into talking about the speech and how it relates to the novel....

Focus on plot and the impact-specific events in The Cay. Class members use their double-entry journals, created in a previous lesson in this series, to record their thinking about the guiding question as they read chapters 15 through 17....

Building upon prior lessons in the series, this reading and writing exercise requires pupils to look back at their own writing, track character development in the novel The Cay, and analyze how Phillip has changed. The reading focus is...

Using adjectives to create vivid descriptions is the focus of exercises in this resource. A cloze reading activity asks class members to add missing adjectives to passages from Mark Teague's The Lost and Found. They then read...

Do your students suffer from metrophobia? Assuage their fears by asking them to craft an acrostic, a form poem that begins with a single word. The first in a series of ten poetry writing exercises.

Learn about how the seeing eye dog program began with a reading lesson about Eva Moore's chapter book, Buddy, The First Seeing Eye Dog. With vocabulary words, discussion questions, and extension resources, the lesson is a...

Using context clues is an effective way to define unfamiliar words. Encourage elementary learners to look at the sentences around the word in question, with a short informative slideshow presentation.

Choose from a variety of phonological activities to complement a reading lesson. The guide goes through the basic components of good phonics instruction focusing on sound types, levels of phonological awareness, assessment methods,...

Events in George Orwell's Animal Farm provide the clues in a 22-question crossword puzzle that tests reader's recall of the allegorical novel.

Grammar, vocabulary, and comprehension strategies are all part of the journey toward understanding a text. The last in a series of three extra support lessons designed to accompany Theme 5: One Land, Many Trails provides a wealth of...

Guide class members through Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis with a series of questions designed for before, during, and after reading. Readers consider Gregor's situation and his options. In addition, they...

Double the enjoyment of the Scottish play with a crossword puzzle based on Shakespeare's Macbeth. The activity tasks readers to identify characters and events and to fill in the missing words from Shakespeare's tragedy about the...

Kate Chopin's classic American tale, The Awakening, is the focus of a review worksheet. High school readers read the clues about the novel's characters, plot, and important quotes to fill in a crossword puzzle.