This packet, the third in the series of support materials for the Houghton Mifflin Harcourt thematic units titled "Off to Adventure!" contains exercises and drills designed for learners who need extra support with the...

As the final lesson plan in a larger beginning-of-the-year unit to establish routines and teach close reading skills, this plan is designed as an assessment piece. Using the story, The Librarian of Basra, learners independently...

The End of the Line, Angela Cerrito's gripping novel about an adolescent murderer incarcerated in an unusual "school," is the subject of a comprehensive set of support materials. Chapter vocabulary and discussion questions are excerpted...

A picture's worth a thousand words—and even more inspiration! A visual activity uses photographs to inspire writers. The process teaches aspects of narrative writing, such as point of view and characterization.

Get ready for the big reveal! Scholars work in the final instructional activity of the unit to discuss the revelation in Browning's poem My Last Duchess. Pupils discuss homework in pairs before working in small groups to identify text...

Present the facts. Scholars create presentations of their research on DDT using their Cascading Consequences chart and a Stakeholders Impacts chart as visuals. They discuss the term stakeholders and create a Stakeholders Impacts chart...

In this word endings instructional activity, students learn to use describing words when comparing things. Students use the words on the right to complete the 10 sentences.

To an English teacher, the only sound worse than nails on a chalkboard is a student using improper grammar. Make poor grammar a problem of the past with this extensive collection of worksheets that covers...

Karen Russell's short story "St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves" has a unique structure that adds value to the story. With the fourteenth activity in a unit about literary analysis and textual support, analyze how Russell has...

Take a look at the world through my eyes. Readers begin to understand the techniques Du Bois uses to advance his point of view in the fifth paragraph of the chapter "Of Our Spiritual Strivings." They complete a Rhetorical Impact Tracking...

Share your thoughts. Scholars use Think-Pair-Share to answer questions related to Louie in Unbroken. The class completes the Becoming Visible Again anchor chart to understand the text's theme better. They write an example of Louie...

Class members work through a model instructional activity in answering constructed response questions. They begin viewing an Evidence-Based Constructed Response sheet and then watch the teacher model. Readers then work as a group to...

Teaching about fiction genres can  be challenging. The lesson here, designed for library media specialists, offers a fun way to do it. In the lesson, learners visit the library and learn about the different types of fiction...

Many and many a year ago Edgar Allan Poe crafted the chilling tale of "Annabel Lee." The poem is the perfect vehicle to introduce Poe's concept of unity of effect, the idea that every element in a poem or story should help to develop a...

Class members read example sentences using although, despite, or in spite of properly, use them to fill in the blanks to complete sentences, and create personal examples. Students answer 21 questions.

Want to explore the process of writing a persuasive essay and tie it in with the upcoming elections? Class members use Venn diagrams and the hamburger model of persuasive writing to write a five-paragraph essay on elections and...

The story of Petey and Ralphie provides readers with the perfect opportunity to practice using clues in a text to draw inferences. The questions that follow the story direct readers' attention to details that imply rather than directly...

One frog is fine, but two frogs are better—and more challenging, grammatically speaking! Challenge elementary learners to make six singular nouns into plural nouns with a handy worksheet.

Explore primary and secondary sources in this historical analysis lesson. Young researchers define the terms primary source and secondary source. They read a primary source document provided by the teacher and answer questions about...

“What’s in a name?” Just about everything. Barack Obama, Vincent van Gogh, Justin Bieber. Famous names evoke a multitude of reactions and poets often use the names of famous people in their works precisely because names carry...

Set up a solid foundation for learners going into Common Core testing by taking some time to complete this practice test. Class members answer questions about both literary and informational texts, with an emphasis on textual evidence....

Did you know that modern Chinese literature “grew from the psychoanalytical theory of Sigmund Freud”? Designed for a world literature class, seniors are introduced to “One Evening in the Rainy Season,” Shi Zhecun’s stream of...

Help your class learn the spelling rule for adding -es to plural nouns and third-person singular verbs. The resource suggests using songs daily to reinforce the rules. The songs are contained in a Sing Your Way Through Phonics 2-CD set...

The long vowel phoneme /y/ is the star of this language arts lesson. Kindergarteners share the book, I Spy a Little Fly then brainstorm more words that end in /y/. Since so many of our words end in /y/, this would be a very...