After a class discussion that reviews the concept of antonyms, learners get into groups of four. Their first task is to come up with as many antonyms as they can. One person writes an antonym pair and passes the paper to the next...

Jamie Ford’s historical novel, Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet, explores the relationship between a young Chinese American boy and a Japanese American girl set against the backdrop of Seattle during World War II. The teaching...

Looking for supporting materials for a study of So B. It by Sarah Weeks? This resource includes a summary of the book, questions to answer and discuss, a journal starter, a list of related activities, a list of similar books, and links...

In the beginning . . . To conclude a study of creation myths, individuals provide their own explanation for how it all began. They explain who or what did it, how it was done, and present their illustrated story to the class.

Guide young readers through the classic novel The Swiss Family Robinson with this collection of activities and worksheets. From basic spelling and grammar practice, to reading comprehension skills, this resource will enhance...

As part of a study of narrative writing, young story tellers are asked to revise 20 telling sentences and create showing ones.

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,...

Discover the lovely story of Raimundo Arruda Sobrinho with your class. Over the course of the lesson plan, pupils practice descriptive writing, write short narratives, collaborate in small groups, watch a powerful short film about...

Why does an author write an informative article? Learners examine passages of a short reading on Spain and determine what the author wanted to inform the reader about.

Do research projects at your school look like a class of eighth graders staring at a blank screen? Use the Big 6 research method to guide middle schoolers through the process of finding a topic, searching for and evaluating sources,...

What would you do if you got an extra day every week? Partners share some information about their routines and lives and write compositions about one another based on the information. Each partner tries to guess what the other person...

Readers are asked to evaluate Helen Keller's claim, and the evidence she uses to support her argument, that it is more difficult for hearing impaired children to learn to talk with others.

Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass serves as the anchor text for a lesson on symbolism. Readers use the provided worksheets to examine the symbols in the novel as well as in the world around them.

The Grapes of Wrath. The Jungle. Native Son. The Things They Carried. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian. To address a current social, political, economic, or environmental issue, class groups pair the reading of a...

Close reading is key to the analysis and interpretation of literature. A close reading of the title and the epigraph of “The Love Song of J. Alfred Prufrock” offers readers an opportunity to examine how even single words or names can...

A fun and delicious lesson can help your kids learn about plural nouns and story sequencing. After reading The Magic Apple by Rob Cleveland, kids match pictures to story segments and add s to nouns to make them plural....

Interrogatives—who, what, where, when, why, and how—are the focus of a grammar learning exercise that reinforces writing questions and using auxiliary verbs. 

What makes your pupils happy? Find out with a lesson centered around this theme. Class members come up with things that make them happy and write about them in preparation for quick group project. Learners watch and discuss a short film...

Cover Freytag's Triangle and examine Anton Chekhov's "The Bet" in this third lesson plan in a series of fourteen based around short stories. Learners take a quiz and discuss Freytag's triangle. They apply the triangle to "The Bet" and...

Two sonnets, both alike in theme and story, break from ancient language to new glory. The prologue to Act I of Romeo and Juliet provides scholars with an opportunity to examine the language Shakespeare uses to create timeless stories....

Explore new words and examine an unusual alphabet book with your young scholars. They are introduced to an alphabet book containing many unfamiliar words. They are then guided as they search for definitions in a dictionary. They then...

A series of activities based on Elizabeth George Speare's The Sign of The Beaver takes your class through vocabulary, reading comprehension, and literary analysis. A good packet or collection of assignments for a reading circle.

Word roots can be great fun when part of a game! Practice a variety of different roots with this nicely put-together bingo game that comes with plenty of instructional ideas.

Scholars discuss the many ways they use persuasion in their everyday lives and brainstorm specific ideas for encouraging someone to do something. With the list of persuasive techniques they made, young writers complete a graphic...