Encourage kids to think deeply about what they are reading with five thought-provoking questions about one passage. After choosing a passage that is intriguing or confusing to them, learners write a summary, explain what they like or...

A passage from Edith Wharton's Ethan Frome provides the text for an assessment that asks readers to use evidence from the excerpt to decide if Ethan is a victim of his social and physical environment, or of his own personal choices and...

Wind turbines, daylight savings time, noise pollution, social problems. To develop close reading skills, high schoolers examine pairs of articles presenting opposing viewpoints of the same topics and respond to questions that...

Did you know that an acre of trees can absorb as much carbon dioxide as a car emits in 11,000 miles of driving? Such fun facts abound in a short reading comprehension passage detailing the benefits of parks and rooftop gardens. After...

Need a quick but comprehensive reading strategies exercise? Even your most reluctant readers will be engaged by the story of a nuclear reactor explosion at a top-secret Idaho base. After reading the short passage, learners answer nine...

As part of a close reading activity, individuals respond to three questions and craft two short essays based on a passage about Islam, one of the world most widespread religion.

Perhaps one of the most famous and illustrative stories featuring irony, "The Gift of the Magi" by O. Henry provides many opportunities for learners to make inferences about its characters. After reading a short introductory passage from...

Three annotated passages from Ralph Waldo Emerson's essay on "Nature" provide young philosophers a chance to improve their reading comprehension skills as they gain insight into Emerson's ideas.

The country of Egypt is more than just big pyramids and ancient pharaohs. After reading a brief overview of this African nation, young learners will demonstrate their understanding of the text by identifying the main idea and supporting...

Early settlers in the American Midwest experienced constant struggle. This reading passage describes for young learners the hardships of homesteaders as they journeyed west and sought to start a new life. When finished, students identify...

Instruct your class on biomimetics while practicing reading comprehension with this worksheet. Learners read a passage that describes the efforts of scientists, starting with Leonardo da Vinci, to emulate nature to solve issues in...

What happens next? Learn to make predictions with five short passages. As kids finish reading each passage, they jot down what they think will happen next, as well as the evidence from the text that supports their prediction.

Learners take a closer look at the presidency of Lyndon B. Johnson, including the Great Society and the passage of the Voting Rights Act, through image analysis and primary source worksheets.

Readers analyze an excerpt from Kate DiCamillo's novel Because of Winn-Dixie. They read silently, and then hear it read aloud. Definitions for underlined vocabulary words are in the margin, and other potentially difficult words...

See how famous books of literature have different perspectives with a short worksheet. After reviewing the difference between first and third person points of view, learners look over six passages from various novels and decide...

Teach your class a thing or two about making educated mathematical guesses. Learners read a passage that explains estimation and approximate and exact answers. They then respond to five questions about and related to the text.

What happens when an animal becomes endangered or extinct? Explore the ways that human influence throughout the environment has threatened the existence of other species with a reading passage. After reading the paragraphs, kids answer...

Lead your class toward mastery of making inferences with a straightforward worksheet. Pupils read four short passages and make inferences based on the questions asked about each passage. They explain their reasoning for each...

Readers are asked to use the provided graphic organizer to list the main idea and supporting ideas in a passage from L. Frank Baum's The Wonderful Wizard of Oz.

The Battle of Fort Sumter was both the first and the least deadly battle of the American Civil War, with no soldiers lost during the lengthy bombardment. Learn more about the first shots of the Civil War with a short reading passage and...

Young scientists will go buggy over this resource. After reading a passage that describes the pseudoscorpion, individuals respond to questions about this clever arachnid and use a Venn diagram to compare the pseudoscorpion to a real...

Read about the safety of a fire alarm in a five-paragraph reading passage. After reading, pupils respond to four short answer, comprehension questions.

Second graders read a brief passage about King Charles XII of Sweden who lived over 200 years ago. Then, they respond to four short answer questions about what they read.

Conduct a lesson that leads into a writing assessment. After reading an excerpt from From Seed to Pumpkin, first graders demonstrate their interpretation of sections of the passage by sketching the details from each part.