Walking in nature is the theme of a unit designed to support English language development lessons. Scholars look, write, speak, and move to explore topics such as camping, woodland animals, instruments,...

Nathaniel Hawthorne as a humorist? Really? The three lessons in this series focus on the the storytelling style, conventions, and literary techniques employed by Hawthorne, George Washington Harris, and Mark Twain. 

Discover the rules of fishing. Pupils read chapter five of World without Fish to discover ideas about the rules and laws of fishing. They use sticky notes to annotate text as they read about fishing in other countries. They focus on...

Why did they say that? What did they mean? How did they feel? Using the six levels of Bloom's Taxonomy, challenge your young readers to answer the comprehension questions about chapters 41 and 42 of Maniac Magee by Jerry Spinelli. Each...

Why do writers choose the language they do? Here's a resource that has the poet himself answer that very question. Joseph Coelho explains why he chose the words and images he used in his poem, "If All the World Were Paper."

Through grand discussion, picture cards, and poems, enhance language proficiency with a Home Sweet Home themed unit created to support English language development. Each lesson follows a listen, speak, move, and/or look routine that...

Whether new to teaching The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn or an experienced pro, you’ll find useful resources in this teacher’s guide. The 40-page packet includes background information, historical context, an annotated list of...

Break out the slide whistles, triangles, and tambourines. It's time for a punctuation lesson. This richly detailed plan is loaded with ideas and activities for using rhythm instruments to accent the punctuation in folk tales. A...

Does Mark Twain’s satire become sarcasm and does he cross the line of propriety in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn? As an introduction of satire, class members view an excerpt from The Daily Show and discuss Stewart's use of this...

Give sentence type instruction a boost with this informative powerpoint presentation! Learn about the four types of sentences; imperative, exclamatory, interrogative, and declarative, then check for understanding with a 10-question pop...

It is just a figure of speech. Readers look for figurative language as they read Taggot, the Blacksmith’s Daughter. They complete a Figurative Language graphic organizer by recording and identifying the types of figurative...

No, not literally. Scholars read Hugo, the Lord’s Nephew to compare figurative and literal language. Readers learn about simile, metaphor, personification, and idioms with a graphic organizer. Pupils then answer text-dependent...

What do your words say about you? Scholars look closely at the Duke's words about the Duchess in Robert Browning’s My Last Duchess. Readers talk in groups to determine how the words help them learn more about the Duke. Learners also...

Is there power in persuasion? After reading paragraphs six and seven of Booker T. Washington's "Atlanta Compromise" speech, learners look at how Washington uses rhetoric and carefully planned word choice to add to the persuasiveness of...

How did Martin Luther King, Jr. sway people with his speeches? Scholars carry out a close reading of the Montgomery Bus Boycott speech and use the Close Reading Guide to help them work through the powerful text. While reading, they...

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail" serves as an exemplar for a mini-instructional activity on semicolons. Working alone or in small groups, class members first circle all the semicolons in the letter, and then...

Looking for a fresh approach to an end-of-unit project for The Odyssey? Check out a resource that has class members write their own hero's journey short story and then craft an illustration that depicts their tale. Apollonio di...

An informative list compiled with quotes, authors, and discussion questions, along with 20 out-of-the-box application ideas, make up the collection of lessons geared to spark dialogue and creative thinking about quotations. 

Using the provided "[Punctuation] Rules to Remember" young grammarians punctuate clauses, phrases, participles, and quotations in a series of worksheets.

After reading The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn and an article about the use of the novel, class members engage in a Socratic seminar focused on whether or not Twain's book should be banned.

“What are we? Humans? Or animals? Or savages?” Ah, the central question of Lord of the Flies. As part of their study of William Golding's riveting novel, readers complete an anticipation guide and respond to a series of survey...

What will I be? What do I want to be? What will I have to do to achieve this goal? These are the essential questions that launches a research project that asks like-minded individuals to identify their goals, the costs of the practical...

How can a screenplay create meaning and drama in ways that other forms of writing cannot? That is the question class members must answer as they compare the cantina scene of the screenplay for George Lucas's Star Wars: A New Hope...

Scholars take a close look at evaluating sources and the information that comes from them. Learners review their research plans, use a handout organizer to learn how to take notes, and begin annotating correctly. They practice what they...