Students complete a character study using a database to compile information from a novel. They design a five slide presentation highlighting the character's reaction to different situations in the book. They write an acrostic poem using...

Included in this resource are a variety of activities to do while reading Willa Cather's My Antonia. The activities, which range from mapping out Nebraska to writing activities about pioneer living, are all designed with one...

What's the best resource to use when looking up words? Use Visual Thesaurus to see a word's meaning. The class accesses the interactive website and then compares and contrasts the difference between using a traditional dictionary and the...

If you are teaching Aeschylus' Prometheus Bound, you can't afford to miss this source. An extensive list of ideas outlines numerous discussion topics, writing prompts, comprehension questions, oral presentations, and projects. Have class...

What is a white elephant, and what does it have to do with Ernest Hemingway? Study "Hills Like White Elephants" in-depth by following the procedures outlined in this lesson, the fifth in a series of fourteen. Learners start the day with...

Get the inside scoop on the European explorer, Christopher Columbus, with a response to reading worksheet that requires scholars to answer who, what, why, when, and a variety of other questions about the word crew.  

Twelfth graders read the short story The Lesson. They research the socio-economic and cultural context of the story and author. They examine the author's point of view. They analyze the first person narration in the story. They rewrite...

Prepare to teach Jan Brett stories by taking a look at this teacher resource, which includes text-based questions, writing assignments, discussion ideas, and vocabulary practice for 18 different stories.

Students create a time line of their lives from the perspective of 50 years in the future.

Discover some of the themes of Dr. Seuss's major books. They see that despite being written for young people, Dr. Seuss' books contain powerful messages and important themes.

Animals oftentimes elicit various characteristics which make them symbolic or representative of human feeling, action, or emotion. The class creates horse characters out of clay to show character action and symbolism. This is a great...

Students examine causes and effects of Great Depression and its significance on twentieth-century life, analyze value of various types of historical information, specifically primary sources, and relate events, issues, problems, and...

Students discover characterization techniques and methods. In this characterization lesson, students choose favorite fiction characters and discuss what makes a character come alive. Students then describe a family member or a friend and...

Have your class examine the work of Gordan Parks. They determine how Park's childhood in Kansas inspired his artwork as they analyze his writings and photographs. Students complete the provided worksheets as they compare, contrast, and...

Your clever kindergartners will enjoy a series of activities based on the West African folktale, The Clever Monkey, adapted by Rob Cleveland. They sequence the story with pictures, copy sentences, illustrate idioms about cats,...

Inntroduce primary learners to essential critical reading strategies with an activity based on James Reeves' poem, "The Wind."  Learners listen as the poem is read, first as a riddle, and then re-read with the title visible. The...

Whether at home or in the classroom, each member of a community has certain responsibilities they must tend to. With the help of the children's story Piggybook by Anthony Browne, kids learn how to assign jobs in a fair and safe...

As this short story unit comes to a close, provide a day for a full examination of theme and allow some time in class for individuals to work on their various assessments. This final lesson before presenting iMovies and portfolios is the...

Designed as the final project concluding a study of Mississippi Trial, 1955, readers select a character from Crowe's novel and craft a portfolio of six entries that reveal not only aspects of the character, but similarities between...

Get the scoop with a fun, engaging newspaper project. After analyzing the parts of a newspaper, including the headline, subtitles, and pictures or images, young journalists get to work by writing their own stories in a newspaper article...

S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders is the anchor text in a unit that asks readers to reflect on their own identity, their place in their family, in groups with which they identify, and in school. 

What role did Buffalo, New York play in the Underground Railroad? Young historians investigate the Underground Railroad ties to Buffalo and western New York. They create a web site or multimedia presentation based on the research. If...

Class members create a PowerPoint presentation showing artifacts they would include in a time capsule. The artifacts and explanations reflect personal hobbies, grooming choices, school life, etc. A great way for class members to...

Why do books end up on the banned book list? How do these banned books contribute to the literary canon? Start by showing the photo slide show, and discussing notably banned books. Then focus on some of the most popular objections:...