What important facts about Dr. Seuss influenced the Read Across America movement...? This is the driving question of a research project that requires scholars to find information about Dr. Seuss' life and work. Class...

Students read and analyze a personal narrative written about a Peace Corps Volunteer teaching English in Guinea-Bissau, Africa. They discuss the concept of crossing cultures, analyze maps, complete worksheets, and develop a writing...

Can you imagine living in a totalitarian country? Learners will read several primary source memoirs to gain a deeper understanding of what life is like under a controlled government. They'll discuss each piece in pairs, research...

"Amazing things happen" in Avi's City of Orphans, and the suggestions in this teacher's resource will guide readers through through the many stories of the different characters living in the tenements of 1893 New York.

Hot off the press: a mini-unit for class members to create their own newspaper. Complete with graphic organizers, extension activities, and helpful learning targets that teach parts of a newspaper, the resource contains everything needed...

Talk about intrinsic motivation! Begin where your students' natural interests lie  -- with themselves -- and launch a variety of projects with this activity. Class members research important events that took place on their...

Over ten weeks, 8th graders refine their visions of future careers, develop skills needed to write resumes and business letters, and learn to make a strong impression at interviews. Three specific activities are included, but mostly the...

How can you create an "English-free" classroom for your foreign language learners? This year, use some of these strategies to maximize your students' opportunity to communicate in the language.

Mentor texts are a great way to demonstrate how to write with purpose. Pupils will be reintroduced to two well-known books and then asked to think about them from the writer's point of view. They will see that the author had to use basic...

The California Gold Rush sparked many people to try for their fortunes and led to the formation of some well-known California cities. Have your class read about the changes that happened and then respond to the five included questions.

Use this reading comprehension assessment to prepare for a state test, or to assess your students' reading. After reading a four-paragraph passage, young learners answer seven questions on literary devices, tone, and author's purpose. An...

Here's an exercise that will help learners develop their vocabulary. The eight sentence completion problems are followed by an answer key that explains why one answer is correct and why the other possibilities are not. Richly detailed,...

Being able to identify and understand the point of view of fictional characters across a wide range of time periods, places, and cultures is a skill that is necessary for becoming a proficient reader. It is also a skill identified in the...

Technology is a hot topic, so why not discuss it with your English language learners? There are three viewpoints from students included on this page, along with vocabulary words and ten tech-related questions to discuss.

Smile for the camera and find out how your English language learners feel about fame! Class members read three different points of view on fame and then discuss ten questions about the topic.

Adult language learners will benefit from this 20-slide presentation about active and passive voice constructions. Learners craft active and passive voice questions in the simple present and simple past tenses.

What is the difference between the simple past tense and the past continuous? Help your pupils master these tenses with the information and six grammar exercises included here.

See how famous books of literature have different perspectives with a short worksheet. After reviewing the difference between first and third person points of view, learners look over six passages from various novels and decide...

Students research the Internet, read designated books and selection, participate in discussions and write short reports while completing this series of lessons about slavery and the Underground Railroad. As a final project, they design a...

Help your class transition into better writers with this lesson, which guides them through the process of adding transitions to increase sentence fluency and organization. The activity is designed for a classroom with a SMART board, but...

Post-It notes, highlighting, underlining. Sam Anderson’s New York Times Magazine article, “What I Really Want Is Someone Rolling Around in the Text,” launches a study of “marginalia,” or writing thoughts in the margins of a text. After...

Here is instructional activity 5 from a 7 instructional activity unit on using blogging to create a community of writers. The aim of this instructional activity is to get students writing about what Archaeologists do and how they use...

Use an article about an Orca killing a trainer to help writers complete a persuasive essay. The article, other templates, and models are attached. Scholars divide up into groups of three where each person takes a different role,...

"A drum, a drum! Macbeth doth come."  The withered and wild witches of Shakespeare’s Scottish play launch an examination of the fantastical elements in Act I, scene iii, paying particular attention to the action, imagery,...