Curated OER
Exploring Satire - Jonathan Swift
Students study about satire and find examples Part One of GULLIVER'S TRAVELS. They then write an essay about the examples they found and how the writer used satire in his literary work.
Curated OER
Understanding the Poem
Practice literary analysis with your poetry pupils using the mysterious narrative poem "The Listeners." They examine the archaic language and answer 12 comprehension and analysis prompts. Foster creativity with these referential...
Curated OER
Maniac Magee Comprehension Questions
Supplement your Maniac Magee lesson plans with a packet of student materials. Included here is a variety of questions about the text. Pupils complete multiple choice and short-answer questions and choose from a variety of extension...
Great Schools
A Questionnaire: What Do You Like to Read?
What do your fifth graders know about types of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry? Find out as they fill out this questionnaire that requires them to list authors and texts that exemplify each genre. Not only will you be able to assess what...
Gwinnett County Public Schools
Analysis of the Tuck Everlasting and The Birchbark House Text Exemplars
Looking to introduce some text-based questions into your ELA lessons? Practice the kinds of skills the Common Core demands with the seven text-based questions and the essay prompt provided here. Designed to be a three-day instructional...
Shmoop
ELA.CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.5
Your students already know when they like a story and when they don't, but they may not know that the plots of these stories are shaping that opinion. Like all resources in this series, the two activities and quizzes provided here deal...
Annenberg Foundation
Gothic Undercurrents
Terror, mystery, excitement. American writers of the 19th century, including Nathaniel Hawthorne, Herman Melville, and Emily Dickinson, used these elements to create morally ambiguous tales that challenged the prevailing belief in...
Curated OER
Introduction to Ludwig van Beethoven
"Ode to la Tortilla" and "Ode to Joy"? Sure! Use Gary Soto's poem to introduce learners to the ode format. After examining the descriptive words Soto uses, class members study a poster of Ludwig van Beethoven, suggest words that describe...
Curated OER
The Mysterious Tadpole
Second graders examine books written by Steven Kellogg, looking for similarities in his illustrations. They also look at images found on the Internet. They listen to a read aloud of The Mysterious Tadpole up to the point where the eggs...
Curated OER
Terrific Taste Buds
Students explore descriptive writing by eating food in class. In this descriptive word lesson, students assess different foods in class such as jelly beans and utilize their vocabulary to describe the taste. Students read the story...
Curated OER
Understanding the Elements of Fiction
Inform your class on the elements of fiction: themes, settings, characters, plots, dialogue, narration, flashback, clues, climax, resolution. They write the definitions of the terms on the worksheet provided.l Tip: Have them write a...
Curated OER
Shaping Up!
Kindergartners are introduced to basic shapes. Learners spend 45 minutes a day in geometry centers carrying out the activities outlined in this ambitious plan. There are games, hands-on activities, interactive websites, art projects,...
Curated OER
"The Hell of Mirrors" by Edogawa Rampo
Students read and analyze the short story, "The Hell of Mirrors," by Edogawa Rampo. They write diary entries, develop a video, create an illustration, conduct research, and write a short story.
Curated OER
You Decide: Roanoke the Lost Colony
Students develop an idea about what happened at the Lost Colony of Roanoke. In this Roanoke Colony lesson, students examine associated vocabulary before listening to Roanoke The Lost Colony, An Unsolved Mystery from History by Jane...
Curated OER
Treasure Chest
Students explore Chicago in the fur-trading era. In this Chicago lesson, students discover what life what like during this time. Students read an historical fiction story about life in the fur-trade era. Students view replicas of...
Curated OER
Tales from Arabia
Students read about Scheherazade and Aladdin and the Enchanted Lamp. In this literature/writing lesson, students understand the excitement of foreign places as the setting for a story.  Students rewrite their own version of Scheherazade.
Curated OER
Tales from Arabia
Third graders explore and develop interest in reading of foreign lands through the reading of The Arabian Nights and a variety of Cinderella stories. Students participate in a variety of folk literature activities. Students recognize the...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Faulkner's As I Lay Dying: Images of Faulkner and the South
Learners research one aspect of the life of Faulkner and the culture of the South.  For this As I Lay Dying instructional activity, learners explore a webpage on Faulkner and write a summary.  Learners analyze the images...
Curated OER
Musical Imagery
Students experience musical imagery. They link this musical concept to literary imagery to gain an understanding of the use of imagery in both genres. After listening to a varriety of sounds, students will compose and perform a melody.
Curated OER
"Five Little Seeds"
Fourth graders complete various activities related to the plant life cycle.  They read the book "The Tiny Seed," read and discuss the poem "Five Little Seeds," complete a "Plantenstein Mystery" and other online activities, write and...
Curated OER
Who Is That Masked Man?
Fifth graders write a narrative essay describing what happened in the classroom after a nystery person has visited.
Curated OER
Regarding the Fountain: Questioning Strategy—Cubing
Look deeper into the text with a reading strategy based on asking critical thinking questions. While reading Reading the Fountain by Kate Klise, learners think of questions that help them describe, compare, associate, analyze,...
Curriculum Corner
Inferencing
Inferencing is a necessary reading skill to uncover non-explicit messages in text. Use the set of resources as a way to guide learners toward becoming expert inferrers through reading prompts and literature with text and without text.
Curated OER
Archeology: Weapons of the Texanos
Students develop archaeological context skills through a simulation which places them in the year 2500. After listening to the teacher read, "Weapons of the Texanos," they record what they think the weapon is. Next, in groups, they...