Reading comprehension improves when you can use context clues to define unfamiliar words. Help your kids practice using context clues with a worksheet that provides space for seven sentences with new words, as well as a place for kids to...

Many teachers and districts want to give their pupils test-taking practice before state standardized testing occurs. Here's a resource that features a complete exam with numerous passages, a variety of item types, a conversion chart, and...

Encourage learners to ask questions about what they read with a worksheet about comprehension and inference questions. The resource provides directions and examples that guide kids through crafting their own questions.

Class members create literary mandalas for two characters from Maus, Art Spiegelman’s graphic novel about his father’s experiences with the Holocaust. After finding quotes that reveal three good traits and three bad traits of each...

Immaculate, accumulation, dissipation. Vocabulary drawn from chapter 16 of James McBride's memoir, The Color of Water, can prove to be challenge for readers. To help kids understand the meaning of these words and what they add to the...

The Oscar for the Best Adapted Screenplay acknowledges a writer's excellence in adapting material found in another source. What do your class members know about adapted resources? Find out with an assessment that asks readers to...

What's the story? Learners create the first of four storyboards about the invention of the television, incorporating narrative techniques and descriptive details. Next, they offer and receive feedback by participating in a peer critique...

Vladek's attitudes are difficult for many young learners to understand. Prepare your class for the events represented in Art Speigelman's graphic novel with a pre-reading activity that has them read articles about and interviews with...

How do authors develop the main ideas in their writing? Pupils consider the question as they read and analyze paragraphs 27–31 from Julia Alvarez's essay "A Genetics of Justice," in which Alvarez describes her decision to become a...

A, B, C ... let's alphabetize to get organized! Using the informative resource, scholars create an alphabetized glossary of key words for their graphic novelettes. Additionally, they create a table of contents and citations page. 

Learning proper grammar rules for a middle school student can be difficult, especially in a texting world, but this resource demonstrates how the verb changes by adding a gerund or infinitive. Keep up the texting, but use this to...

There is power in words. Readers take a close look at three text to determine how language structures affect meaning, including include poems and recipes. Scholars analyze the language authors use by circling important words, underlining...

Is it possible to judge a book by its cover? Scholars analyze and make predictions using various cover images of Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass. They then discuss the difference between autobiographies and biographies....

It's all just an allusion. Scholars learn the meaning of allusion and read an allusion in The Lightning Thief. Learners gather in their triads and discuss questions from the text to take a close look at vocabulary words and choose...

Guide high schoolers through the most successful and efficient ways to address a text with a literary analysis instructional activity. As learners find examples of alliteration in Christopher Marlowe's "The Passionate Shepard to His...

Teach your young readers how to summarize a text using a strategy called Somebody Wanted But So. Kids identify the character (Somebody), the motivation (Wanted), the conflict (But), and the resolution (So). The resource comes with...

Fun you will have with a Star Wars® activity packet made up of an assortment of puzzles, coloring pages, quizzes, a writing prompt, instructions for building a lightsaber and puppets, all of which feature young padawans' favorite...

What could be better than a play within a play? A study guide for "The Farndale Avenue Housing Estate Townswomen's Guild Dramatic Society's Production of 'A Christmas Carol'" has theater-goers share their thoughts on the comedic...

Class members listen to a passage on Rosa Parks, examine images of the Montgomery Bus Boycott, and respond to questions based on the text. They then craft a free-verse poem that recounts her achievements and reveals why she is considered...

How do authors use rhetorical devices and word choice to emphasize their ideas? Pupils consider the question while reading paragraphs 16–19 from Julia Alvarez's essay "A Genetics of Justice." Readers engage in evidence-based discussion...

How do complex characters develop throughout a text? Pupils read Act 5.1 from Shakespeare's Macbeth, which depicts Lady Macbeth's descent into madness. Using discussion and writing exercises, scholars analyze how Shakespeare develops...

How can an author's decisions impact a text? Using an insightful resource, scholars begin their study of Hamlet by reading Act 1.1. They explore the language, characters, and setting in small groups. Upon finishing group work, pupils...

How do authors employ specific word choices to describe complex relationships? Scholars read and analyze the first stanza from Audre Lorde's contemporary poem "From the House of Yemanjá." Pupils determine the meanings of figurative and...

Some words leave a lasting impact. After reading paragraph 11 of the text "Of Our Spiritual Strivings," scholars closely examine how Du Bois describes the impact prejudice left on the African American community. They discuss the...