Who knew determining author's purpose could be turned into a game? Four teams compete to correctly identify the author's purpose for writing a series of passages.

Learn all about Eric Carle, find out about his famous caterpillar, and try out related art, science, writing, math, and social studies activities. The resource comes with plenty of materials to support your instruction.

In this editing activity, learners correct grammatical mistakes—including punctuation, capitalization, spelling, and grammar—in a short paragraph about author Virginia Hamilton.

What does the author believe about his topic? Why did he write in the first place? Challenge your class to figure out the answers to these questions as they read through informational texts. The resource provides a breakdown of the...

Why do authors write? Practice determining the author's purpose with a categorizing activity. Learners sort twelve short passages into three categories: persuade, inform, and entertain.

For this everyday editing activity, students correct grammatical mistakes in a short paragraph about author Scott O'Dell. The errors range from punctuation, capitalization, grammar, and spelling.

For this everyday editing instructional activity, students correct grammatical mistakes in a short paragraph about the author, S.E. Hinton. The errors range from capitalization, punctuation, spelling, and grammar.

For this everyday editing activity, students correct grammatical mistakes in a short paragraph about author Katherine Holabird. The errors range from capitalization, punctuation, spelling, and grammar.

Enrich a unit on The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros with a selection of related activities. The packet contains nine activities that go from pre-reading through wrapping up the novel. Young readers work on studying...

Budding poets choose a topic for a sensory-filled poem. Authors describe that topic using detailed language based on the five senses. Then, switch the senses to create a fanciful poem intended to add a touch of fun to the objective. 

The Cay has been criticized by groups such as the Council on Interracial Books for Children because of the way race is portrayed. Explore the argument against the book while taking the author's perspective into account. Class members...

Who was Jan Brett? As learners read this short passage to find out, they search for any errors in punctuation, spelling, capitalization, and grammar. The document contains two copies of the half-sheet edit, so half the printing is required!

Imagine a list that includes Alan Abelson of Baron's, Bob Woodward of the Washington Post, and Mother Jones. High schoolers select a national columnist, read and annotate five columns by this author, noting the rhetorical...

Eliminate the hard work of creating an entire literature unit with this reading guide for the novel Sarah, Plain and Tall. From background information about the author and her motivation for writing the story to...

Students, using the Internet, communicate with peers around the world about winter-themed books. They study authors, write book reviews, re-write endings, interview book characters, create scene dioramas, paint murals, and write...

Authors write about what they know, and that does not exclude songwriters. Invite partners to explore the story behind a song. They analyze and discuss the lyrics, conduct research online, create a poster, and put together a two-minute...

"There comes an end to all things" and ending a study of horror fiction with a multimedia project is "like starting a stone. . . away the stone goes, starting others. . ." In this case, groups start with a question generated by Dr....

This kind of stuff knocks me out, it really does. I mean, five fun project ideas for The Catcher In the Rye? When you're done reading all this stuff you'll wish the author was a terrific friend of yours.

Identifying an author’s choice, especially choices that concern craft and literary devices, is a difficult skill to teach. Here's an activity that will make your job easier. The resource breaks down how to teach the skill to novice,...

Finished your novel? What’s next? Designing the book cover, of course. But how to begin? After examining the covers of published books and noting the common elements of these jackets, young novelists design a front and back cover for...

In this everyday editing activity, students correct grammatical mistakes in a short paragraph about the author of The Polar Express and Jumanji, Chris Van Allsburg. The errors range from capitalization, punctuation, spelling, and grammar.

For this everyday editing worksheet, students correct grammatical mistakes in a short paragraph about author Mildred Wirt Benson. The errors range from punctuation, capitalization, grammar, and spelling.

As the saying goes: there are no new stories. Standard 9 for reading literature in the Common Core addresses this fact and requires that students be able to analyze how authors use the themes, stories, and characters of earlier works....

Imagine a project that informs and entertains. Replace book reports with a bulletin board that highlights all the important elements of a novel. Readers research the author, create a timeline of events in the story, write a...