Class members continue reading "How Bernard Madoff Did It" and annotate how the author refines his idea that the Madoff scandal grabbed the attention of a public fascinated with crime stories.

Poison Dart Frog babies are the focus of a lesson that challenges scholars to compare and contrast two informational texts. Beginning with a read-aloud, followed by a discussion, readers complete a practice page that examines the main...

The eighth lesson plan in this series continues the focus on vocabulary and increasing young readers' awareness of academic language. Pairs of learners participate in a short vocabulary review activity called Interactive Words in which...

Few studies have captured the complex relationships between mothers and daughters, such as Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club. Tenth graders read "Rules of the Game," which describes Waverly's youth in chess tournaments, and compare how she...

Parental relationships have a huge impact on our personalities, for better or for worse. Read about Mike's relationship with his father in H.G. Bissinger's Friday Night Lights and how it informed the novel's central idea.

As a mid-unit assessment, class members demonstrate their understanding of the concepts covered so far by crafting a formal, multi-paragraph essay in which they analyze how Rainer Maria Rilke's word choices develop the meaning and tone...

First graders develop skills in reading music notes. In this reading music lesson, 1st graders clap and chant rhythm patterns and learn music vocabulary. Students also match patterns by listening to the teacher perform the pattern.

Fourth graders, after reading and discussing the book, "Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing," by Judy Bloom, complete a vocabulary worksheet and read sections from the book fluently and accurately. They utilize dictionaries and thesauruses...

A lovely guided reading lesson awaits you and your students. They read the book,Corn is Maize: The Gift of the Indians, by Aliki, summarize the important events of the story, and describe how corn has helped develop culture in America.

Sail with Christopher Columbus on a biographical reading adventure. Young explorers learn about the life of Sir Columbus as they hone their comprehension skills through guiding questions, shared reading, and fluency practice. Included in...

It is much easier for kids to know they have reached a goal when that goal is clearly defined. By providing sixth graders with a checklist of Common Core reading standards written in "I can" format, each child can keep track of his own...

Good discussion questions, quizzes, and tests teach as well as assess. Readers of The Great Gatsby will learn much from the materials in a 36-page packet designed to help students prepare for the AP Literature exam. Included in the...

Students explore the concept of community helpers.  For this community helper lesson, students brainstorm the community helpers in their neighborhood after reading a book about jobs in the community.  Students then host a...

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.

High schoolers investigate the dilemma of a proportional response with a lesson about the history of terrorism and militant extremists in the United States. As they examine memos from the FBI and speeches from President Bush and Obama,...

In this active reading worksheet, learners develop strategies to make text relevant to their own lives and experiences. Students make a list of active reading objectives and then list strategies to use to reach the objectives.

“Growing Up…and Up,” a excerpt from Glenn Stout’s  book about Shaquille O’Neal, provides the text for the listening section of the 2009 New York State English Language Arts Test. Although there are no questions included, the passage...

Learn about the government's role in everyday life in a guided reading activity. Groups create a KWL chart concerning the government's impact on the community.

Second graders engage in an activity of reading a story and have a discussion about the story to measure comprehension. The use of a graphic organizer helps student retention because it is brain compatible for students.

Students read a story and write math problems.  For this reading and math comprehension lesson, students preview and read the book "One is a Snail, Ten is a Crab".  Students predict ways to get a sum of 11, write math equations...

Provide pairs of learners with a three-page Fact vs. Opinion packet. The first page of the packet provides a definition of these terms and an opportunity for guided practice. Partners then share their ideas to complete the practice...

What messages are relayed through magazines? How do magazines shape ideas about people? Scholars analyze a group of magazines focused on teen girls and women. After completing reading comprehension advertisement questioning and group...

A key reading comprehension skill is the ability to identify the main idea and supporting details used in a passage of informational text. Here's a template that encourages young readers to practice this skill. They list the who, what,...

Examine the life of steamboat inventor, Robert Fulton, through reading comprehension worksheet that includes both multiple choice and short answer questions. Then, take part in a word search and write definitions, words, and...