Writing to Focus Reading and to Imagine Researching

If you are just starting out with Animal Farm by George Orwell, consider this resource. Titled as discussion notes, you might use these questions in a variety of different ways. The questions and prompts start out simple and gradually...

If your learners are curious about human achievement, superlatives, or esoteric trivia, the Guinness Book of Records is a way to tap into instrinsic motivation and relevance. Here's an informational reading that will grab their attention...

Inspire your pupils to read the news and make connections between articles and another text, event, or experience with a straightforward reading log. Learners note down the article information at the top of the learning exercise and then...

The only way that a heinous act of genocide can succeed is if citizens of surrounding groups and countries turn their backs on those suffering. A thorough language arts module addresses shared central ideas with three separate units,...

One of the big challenges of assigning independent reading is helping class members find a book to read. Another is encouraging readers to read a variety of genres. Never fear, help is here in the form of a quest that asks individuals to...

Get your class to use the scientific process to solve a scientific problem. They utilize the Natural Inquirer magazine to identify a research question which they write an introduction to and collect data to answer. They use graphs,...

Whether you use George Orwell's Animal Farm as an independent reading selection, for book circles, or for whole class reading, the materials in this unit plan will be of value.

Show this presentation to your class before they read George Orwell's Animal Farm. Full of humor, this short presentation provides a brief historical background. 

Give your class some experience with want ads in this reading exercise. After reading eight different want ads for various jobs, young editors choose which information is necessary and unnecessary. This lesson would be a great addition...

George Orwell's allegorical Animal Farm is the focus of a video that introduces the concepts of political allegory and totalitarianism. A great way to generate interest in the novel.