What if society sought equality by handicapping the gifted and dispelling any traces of diversity? Kurt Vonnegut Jr. offers one possible answer to this question through his incredibly engaging and thought-provoking satirical...

This activity may have writers evaluate short compositions, but their subjects are quite tall: great Americans. Pupils read one another's compositions and closely examine how specific phrases and diction contribute to shaping American...

Reinforce inference skills with a learning game! Scholars read scenarios on cards and match them to a written inference on the triangle. The first pupil to match all their inferences wins!

Scholars dig deep into the text of W.E.B. Du Bois The Souls of Black Folk and analyze his position that black people must be aware of how they see themselves as well as how the world sees them. The instructor and readers work through the...

What is a megalomaniac? Scholars discover the word's meaning as they read and analyze paragraphs seven and eight from Julia Alvarez's essay "A Genetics of Justice." They also read Mark Memmott's article "Remembering to Never Forget" and...

How does Shakespeare develop the characters of Laertes and Ophelia in Hamlet? Scholars complete a Quick Write to answer the question. They also continue reading and discussing the first act of the play.

How can you read a character's tone? What about a narrator's tone? Analyze Karen Russell's "St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves" with a lesson that focuses on how word choice can change tone and how tone can affect the development...

What does it mean to come undone? Scholars consider the author's use of the phrase as they read paragraphs 12–15 from Julia Alvarez's autobiographical essay "A Genetics of Justice." They complete a quick write to analyze how Alvarez...

How do people's relationships with their parents impact their lives? Scholars read paragraphs 23–26 from "A Genetics of Justice" by Julia Alvarez, in which the author details her relationship with her mother. Pupils discuss how the...

Promote positive self-esteem in young girls with this educational toolkit—a thorough document that lists a wide variety of activities, from writing an I am poem or learning to give compliments to a conflict resolution role-play...

It's hard to imagine that life on Alcatraz could be dull. A series of intriguing lessons take readers through the novel Al Capone Does my Shirts. Pre-reading questions introduce the text and a range of suggestions, from comic strips to...

Now that learners have honed their inquiry-based projects down to their strongest few questions, they can conduct independent research. High schoolers pursue answers to their inquiries while assessing sources, establishing a research...

An important part of any essay writing is to fully understand the prompt. Readers spend time stating the prompt for A Long Walk to Water essay in their own words, making a list of points to put in their essays, and...

Family is a wonderful subject for little learners to get excited about. Family is also the theme for a social studies unit that uses literacy standards throughout. The guide outlines approximately three weeks of instruction and breaks...

Utilizing the classic Magic School Bus series, young scientists explore the solar system. Some excellent worksheets are included in this plan, such as Planet Roll Call and Solar System in Motion. This is an ambitious 5-day unit that...

Sometimes the way a topic is presented in fiction can be very different from how it is in reality. Compare and contrast a topic from both a fiction and nonfiction source with a graphic organizer that prepares kids to write about what...

In this different types of text activity, students review, brainstorm and analyze what a persuasive text is and what an instructive text is. Students then answer what type of text ten examples are as shown.

Young scholars use examples of narrative and expository text to analyze and compare the two styles. Young scholars read articles on life in Lesotho and Madagascar and use graphic organizers and discussion to compare them. Young scholars...

For this Language Arts worksheet, learners write a recipe. Students include ingredients and any special equipment needed for the recipe.

Pondering Rembrandt’s portraits provide readers of The Chosen an opportunity to “listen to [the] silence and learn from it,” as they consider Reb Saunders from a different perspective. After examining several paintings, viewers write...

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...

If you're looking to set your class up for writing effective arguments, try out this idea. While originally created with freedom as a guiding idea, the activity could easily be adapted for other themes. As a class, create a chart of...

Make a study of the First Amendment and its relationship to freedom. Pupils rewrite the amendment and discuss the central idea before focusing on a specific phrase. After discussing, class members write a journal entry about the included...

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...