Deciphering the Mechanics of Poetry

How does poetry help people better understand societal issues? Pupils participate in a jigsaw activity to analyze poems from the novel Inside Out & Back Again. Next, they connect the poems to real-life refugee experiences from the...

William Shakespeare: a writer, a poet, a fake? For their mid-unit assessments, scholars read an excerpt from the article "The Top Ten Reasons Shakespeare Did Not Write Shakespeare" by Keir Cutler. Next, they analyze the author's argument...

Pupils continue reading and discussing Simon Schama's article "The Shakespeare Shakedown." They work together to analyze the article's paragraph structure, completing a note-catcher worksheet.

Analyze any nonfiction text with the set of questions on this sheet. Class members practice inferring by noting the main idea and purpose of a passage. They also analyze an opinion in the passage and write a brief summary. See the...

What better activity is there for summer than reading? Provide your pupils with 25 book ideas for their summer reading pursuits. A variety of different genres are represented on this list, and each book is paired with publication...

What's the verdict? Scholars look closely at the reactions of various characters in To Kill A Mockingbird in the aftermath of the verdict. They circulate the room, responding to a variety of probing questions. Pupils finalize their...

Using an Author’s Purpose anchor chart, groups examine a variety of text to determine the author's purpose. They then apply what they have learned to The Omnivore’s Dilemma. In pairs, they discuss what the text is about and why it was...

Scholars read four brief poems and analyze their word usage in order to identify the rhyme scheme. 

Nothing aids in comprehension more than an explanation and understanding of why things are done. Address why the Common Core requires the reading percentages that it established and analyze how this affects your readers. Learners read...

In these English lesson plans, students use video, the Internet and non-fiction essays to research the history of the English language. They write a short research paper and design a PowerPoint presentation showcasing their findings.