Curated OER
Hatchet: Vocabulary Strategy
Want your class to use critical thinking when discussing vocabulary? Go beyond the dictionary with a vocabulary activity based on Gary Paulsen's Hatchet. Kids write the word in the center of a graphic organizer that also provides places...
Hong Kong Special Administrative Region
Learning English through Poems and Songs
Exposing learners to the power of words in poetry is a stimulating way to learn languages. Songs, haikus, rhyming words, and narrative works are all employed in a resource for teaching English as a Second Language.
Curated OER
Walk Two Moons: Hook and Concept of a Frame Story
As an introduction to Sharon Creexh's Walk Two Moons, a volunteer dons a pair of boots and walks about the classroom.Observers then ponder the axiom, Don't judge a man until you've walked two moons in his moccasins. Their collaborative...
Curated OER
Tangerine: K-W-H-L Strategy
As part of the introduction to Edward Bloor's Tangerine, class members generate a KWHL chart listing what they know, what they want find out, how they plan to find this information, and what they have learned or still want to learn.
Novelinks
The Cay: Concept Analysis
This overview of Theodore Taylor's The Cay is designed as an introduction for teachers who are considering using Theodore Taylor's novel for whole-class and/or book circle study.
Novelinks
Tunes for Bears to Dance to: Anticipation Guide
As an introduction to the major themes of Robert Cormier's Tunes for Bears to Dance to, class members complete an anticipation guide and share their responses in groups.
Cleveland Metro School District
Novel Lesson for The Giver
Lois Lowry's The Giver is one of the most engaging and thought-provoking works of literature in the middle school curriculum. Round out your novel unit with a collection of reading activities, comprehension questions, memoir and journal...
Curated OER
Story Planner
In this literature worksheet, students write an original animal story filling in a graphic organizer with the setting, characters and a problem/conflict. Students include an introduction and conclusion and write the title of the story in...
Curated OER
Story Plot Terms
This literary terms handout defines introduction, rising action, climax, falling action, and denouement.
Curated OER
Maniac Magee: The Cloze Procedure
Fill in the blanks with a Cloze activity based on Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli. After listening to a passage read out loud, kids complete the worksheet by using their memories and context clues.
Curated OER
Character Tea Party
A tea party in Wonderland? An East Egg brunch with Gatsby, Daisy, Tom, and Nick? Breakfast with Miss Havisham, Lady Macbeth, and Abigail Williams? Or dinner with Andre, Hamlet, and Randle Patrick McMurphy? Class members select a favorite...
MENSA Education & Research Foundation
It’s Greek to Me: Greek Mythology
Designed as extension exercises in homeschool or classroom settings, as well as for individual work, the ideas in this packet are sure to engage learners in an investigation of Greek mythology.
Curated OER
Determining Author's Point of View: The Sneeches
Determine the author's point of view in a text. Young readers read Dr. Seuss' The Sneeches and identify the author's purpose in the story. They identify persuasive techniques in writing, asking and answering questions to better...
Curated OER
NteQ Lesson Plan for S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders
Explore literature through the completion of reading comprehension worksheets in class. After reading the classic book, The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton, middle schoolers review each chapter by completing study questions and story webs....
Curated OER
Out of the Dust: Narrative Essay
To conclude their study of Out of the Dust, the 1998 Newbery Medal winning verse novel, individuals craft a narrative essay based on one of the themes in Karen Hesse's novel.
Novelinks
The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle: Magic Square Vocabulary
After reading chapter one of The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi, take part in a magic square vocabulary activity in which scholars match the term with its definition and insert its corresponding number in to the magic square...
Curated OER
Interaction as Analysis: Emily Dickinson
Emily Dickinson’s “Hope is a thing with feathers” is the focus of a series of activities that model for learners how close reading can lead to understanding. The whole class plays with the metaphor, groups talk about the author’s...
Curated OER
Walk Two Moons: Question Answer Relationship Strategy
Middle schoolers develop a strategy as they read excerpts from Walk Two Moons. Using question and answer relationship strategies class members bolster their reading comprehension as they appropriately identify and create questions.
Curated OER
Humourous Head Planter Spike: Ceramics Lesson
What a great activity. Kids create humorous ceramic character (heads) spikes to enliven a planter. Modern art is full of expressive and exaggerated forms and your class gets to create them out of clay. This would be a lovely activity to...
Curated OER
Coming to America
Through this set of three lessons about Ellis Island, class members will learn about why immigrants came to the United States, find out about the difficulties that went along with coming to America, become familiar with the immigration...
Novelinks
The House on Mango Street: Anticipation Guide
Prior to an in-class reading of "What Sally Said" and"Red Clowns," two vignettes from Sandra Cisneros' The House on Mango Street, class members complete an anticipation guide that asks them to agree or disagree with a series of...
Curated OER
Story Structure Slide Show
Analyzing the sequence of actions in dramatic stories leads to deeper comprehension of story structure. The class identifies the main actions in each section of a story and develops frozen tableau's for the identified actions of the...
Curated OER
Traditional Writing vs. Collaborative Writing
Students examine language arts by completing a group activity. In this writing styles instructional activity, students define and discuss the differences between collaborative writing and traditional writing while answering questions in...
Curated OER
Nothing But the Truth: Anticipation Guide
“What does it mean to be patriotic?” “Should grades factor in to a student’s eligibility for extracurricular activities?” Class members complete an anticipation guide that asks them to respond to a series of statements that highlight...