New York State Education Department
English Language Arts Examination: January 2015
Successful arguing is a learned skill. Pupils read four passages and craft a text-based argument about the return of extinct animals. The resources provides writers with specific guidelines on how to create a well-rounded essay and how...
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The Kite Runner: Problematic Situation
To conclude their study of Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner, class members assume the voice of Amir and write a letter to Hassan, Amir's childhood companion.
Novelinks
The Hobbit: Writing Assignment
As a culminating assignment for a unit study of heroes that uses The Hobbit as the core text, class members engage in a multi-genre writing project.
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Shakespeare Limericks 3
While this Fun Trivia online quiz has little educational merit, the idea of writing limericks to describe Shakespeare's plays is not only fun, but also has academic value. It's worth taking a look!
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Using Pre-reading Strategies: Infer
Use this resource to support your class practicing inference with poetry and visual art. The plan calls for an examination of "The Scream" by Edvard Munch and the "Mona Lisa" to promote speculation about artist's intent. From there, it...
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Half Man, Half Limping Rabbit
Students explore culture and change through reading "Half Main, Half Limping Rabbit" by Nina Porzucki. In this literature and cultural lesson, students discuss Dracula and other folk stories from Romania. Students identify the ways the...
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Anticipation Guide for Death of a Salesman
"It is better to ignore something unpleasant than to face reality." Readers of Death of a Salesman complete an anticipation guide before tackling Arthur's Miller's tale of Willy Loman and his sons. After completing the play, class...
Maine Content Literacy Project
Process of Reading
Assist your pupils with literary analysis by discussing and exploring theme. This plan, the twelfth in a series of fourteen, builds in some time to explore theme as a class. Learners also blog about the main event in their stories and...
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Calling All Directors
Interpret Shakespearian scenes with your middle and high school classes. Groups select scenes from plays that they are familiar with to perform for their classmates. They should attempt to recreate the emotions they think the characters...
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Shakespeare Limericks: Fun Trivia Quiz
Play around with limericks with this resource! This quiz asks participants to identify the name of the play that goes with each limerick. Although it might not be the best tool for your class, the idea is creative. You could create a...
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Henry V Quiz
Five quick questions ask about quotes and characters from Shakespeare's Henry V. Give this quiz to your students as a warm-up or diagnostic test.
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The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck: Fun Trivia Quiz
Are you reading The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck in your class? If so, this quiz might be useful for you. This is an online interactive quiz that covers the novel's theme, plot, and characters. The quiz refers to the entire novel,...
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Homeric Questions
Review all things Homeric with this quiz! It covers the plot of The Odyssey, along with technical questions about poetic meter and stressed syllables. The Greek language is on display with Homer's writings and with this quiz.
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Paradise Lost: Anticipation Guide
To set the stage for reading Paradise Lost, class members compete an anticipation guide containing statements that connect to themes in Milton's epic poem.
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Character Found Poems: Investigating Language in Twelfth Night
Students create found poems to represent characters in Twelfth Night. In this Shakespeare lesson, students discuss how to compose found poems and select characters from the play to write their poems about.
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St. Augustine's Confessions by St. Augustine
In this online interactive reading comprehension worksheet, students respond to 10 short answer and essay questions based on St. Augustine's Confessions. Students may also access an online quiz on the selection using the link at the...
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Of Mice and Men: Fun Trivia Quiz
While I don't recommend this online, interactive quiz, you may want to review it for possible quotes to use in your own assessment on Of Mice and Men. It includes 10 quotes for character identification, but the fill-in-the-blank format...
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Promptbook Act 2.1: Katherine vs. Petruchio
Compile a promptbook with your young theater designers using a scene from Taming of the Shrew. The instructional activity outlines several activities, though it doesn't provide any examples of a promptbook or text from the play....
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Class Book Ideas
Suggested literature and classic books are part of this literature idea book. Ideas about how to interact with books and activities are given along with instructions for art and more. Note: This is not a typical lesson plan, but more of...
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All that Glitters...with William Shakespeare
This Fun Trivia online interactive quiz could be useful if you teach a Shakespeare class; however, its use is limited given that it covers numerous plays and specifically requires identifying works based on quotes referencing gold and...
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Billy's Most Quotable Quotes: Shakespeare Lines and Quotes: Fun Trivia Quiz
Few teachers cover multiple Shakespeare plays in one year unless they teach a class on the Bard, so a quiz on multiple plays may have limited appeal. Despite this, it may be useful to you in planning your own quotation quiz.
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Richard the Second #1: Fun Trivia Quiz
If you are working on Richard II in your class, you might find this brief online interactive quiz useful. While not the most innovative quiz, you might draw a few questions about basic plot understanding from this resource. If you use...
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The Pigman: Problematic Situation
What would you do? To prepare readers for the death of Mr. Pignati, one of the characters in Paul Zindel's The Pigman, individuals complete a problematic situation worksheet and then compare their responses to others in their group.
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Uglies: Problematic Situation
As part of a unit centered around a reading of Uglies, a 2005 young adult dystopian fiction novel by Scott Westerfield, Steven Cummings, and Devin K. Grayson, class members engage in an activity that asks groups to come to a consensus...