Learners read and discuss the poem, The Purple Cow.  In this poetry lesson plan, students discuss the rhyming words in the poem and why this piece of literature is silly or unusual.     

Looking to increase reading comprehension? Teach this lesson, which is flexible enough to use with either informational texts or with literature. Teams of boys and girls work together to answer a comprehension question after listening to...

A Novel Study is the focus of this Literature PowerPoint. A class is about to have author Chris Paul come speak to their class about his novel, The Watson's Go to Birmingham - 1963. Before his appearance, the class is directed to do an...

Are you working on a Central American civilizations unit? Give your class a quiz on the Aztec gods after studying the Aztec culture in social studies or literature. Fifteen questions focus on basic identification.

This thirty-slide presentation, designed to accompany a lecture on the first act of Arthur Miller's The Death of a Salesman, would be appropriate for a college-level American literature class or perhaps as a teacher resource. 

Although it does not properly address how to use the Common Core standard, this resource does provide a decent writing prompt that explores how minor characters influence Hamlet's decisions throughout the play. The prompt can be used for...

Have your class summarize a reading with drawings. This page provides six boxes shaped like photographs, each with small space for pupils to write a caption. A great way for students to process what they've read, use the resource for...

Excerpts from John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath and from John Fante's Ask the Dust, as well as a variety of primary source documents provide the background for an examination of the migrant experience from 1920-1945.

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...

Are your scholars reading Jerry Spinelli's Maniac Magee? If so, use this textual analysis packet and lesson guide to drive deeper thinking about the characters, create personal connections, and apply historical...

Did you know that Currer Bell and Ellis Bell were the pseudonyms for Charlotte and Emily Bronte? Did you know that during the 1800s women’s emotional opinions were not seen as something meant for publication? Introduce Jane Eyre...

“The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” is famous, in part, because it established a uniquely American form of humor. For this famous story, Mark Twain combines the tall-tale, the dialect story, and satire. Here is a resource...

Help learners write a creative story from the viewpoint of a shoe. The teacher brings a variety of different types of shoes to the classroom and each person chooses one. They then write a story from the point of view of the shoe,...

Learners read a given play. They choose the key scenes from the play and write a narration to carry the plot line between those scenes. They create a comic book that depicts these key scenes, complete with pictures and text balloons.

Use a Mad-Libs like activity to create modern poetry! Writers will identify different words and their parts of speech and study "The Red Wheelbarrow" by Williams Carlos Williams. Then, use the sheets attached to craft your own poem! An...

Scholars of all ages can use the various tools of technology to construct and illustrate a story. Utilizing this resource, learners work with a partner to brainstorm and draft a story based on personal experience. They use computer...

Whether you are planning a unit on F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, or simply want to improve your pupils' descriptive writing, this instructional activity could be a good addition to your class. Using the Six-Trait Writing...

Use some of these 80-word passages to practice reading fluency with your beginners. Project the text so all learners can see it, pointing to each word as scholars recite them one at a time. Warn readers of irregularly spelled words by...

Your kids can identify the plot sequence of a short story, but what about an informational article? Have them examine the chronological order of events in informational texts with a lesson on the sequence of events. 

Sixth graders create a slide show presentation of a popular children's storybook. The story will be retold by the "villain" in an effort to explain his side of the story. This activity is based on "The True Story of The Three Little...

Sixth graders read Katherine Paterson's novel, Bridge to Terabithia, and watch a video of Maurice Sendak's book, Where the Wild Things Are. They examine the characters in both stories that share similar characteristics. Students use the...

Mirroring Jerry Spinelli's style in Wringer, chapter 5, pupils use the "counting up/down technique" to recall an important moment in their lives. In the book, the character is being punched, and between blows he remembers details...

Using sentences from the book Where the Red Fern Grows by Wilson Rawls, this presentation explores the use of correct grammar. It starts out by giving examples of complete and incomplete sentences, and then moves on to nouns, verbs, and...

Cultivate young performers while teaching them about helping one another with this interactive storytelling lesson. Elementary schoolers read or listen to the story The Little Red Hen by Mike Lockett and then act out the story while...