Santa Ana Unified School District
The Power of Point of View
Sometimes a whole story can change based on the perspective of the person telling it. Practice identifying and analyzing point of view in various reading passages and writing assignments with a language arts packet, complete with Common...
EngageNY
Getting to Know Esperanza (Chapter 2: "Las Uvas/Grapes")
Delve into Esperanza Rising by Pam Munoz Ryan with close reading and evidence-based, text-dependent questions. Part of a unit series, this well-sequenced, Common Core-designed activity draws on material from the previous day and homework...
BBC
Recognizing Formal and Informal Language
When do you need to use formal language, and when is it cool to speak informally? Read these sentences and use a grid to help decide. This clever tool is followed by ten sample sentences to identify as formal or informal, perfect for...
Curated OER
Using Primary Sources in the Classroom
Scholars study a historical photograph to make predictions of what happened right after the picture was taken. They research a variety of different topics and use primary sources to answer questions about common food, fashion trends, and...
Curated OER
Commas and Colons and Semicolons? OH MY!
Take a close look at both the definitions and uses of commas, colons, and semicolons. Commas set off clear parts of sentences, colons come before an explanation, and semicolons join two complete thoughts. Review these types of...
English Linx
Textual Evidence Worksheet
Perfect for a unit on characterization and simple enough to use with any text. Your class will practice the Common Core standard of citing textual evidence to support their analysis by first making an assertion about a character from a...
Florida Center for Reading Research
Vocabulary: Word Meaning, Word Web
Explore the multiple meanings of common homographs with this fun language arts activity. Given a series of word webs and a pile of definition cards, pupils complete each web by matching four different definitions to each target word.
Curated OER
Folktale Writing
Review literary analysis techniques with this reading lesson about folktale writing. Middle schoolers read different folktales from many authors, and write their own folktales to share with the class. They identify the plot, morals and...
Curated OER
If At First You don't Succeed Try, Try Core Knowledge!
Students relate phrases and sayings to their life experiences. In this phrases and sayings lesson, students participate in activities and listen to stories to understand the meanings of each saying. One day is devoted to each saying.
Odell Education
Reading Closely for Textual Details: Grade 6
Close reading doesn't mean to literally read text close to your face, but rather to pay attention to particular details in order to develop a deep and purposeful understanding of text. The first part of a five-part resource provides an...
Curated OER
Create College-Ready Readers with Text-Dependent Questions
Build content literacy and cater to the Common Core State Standards by creating text-dependent questions to accompany reading passages.
Santa Ana Unified School District
Getting to the Core: Early American Poets
How do poets convey emotion and represent their views of life? Pupils learn more about Whitman and Dickinson through the unit and analyze their bold reinvention of craft and style for poets to come. Looking at classic pieces such as...
Curated OER
Play with Powerful Poetry
Use stations to teach skills relevant to the Common Core and tap into individual creativity.
Curated OER
Intermediate Paragraph Correction #8
If you are looking for a activity to challenge intermediate English learners on verb tense, syntax, and punctuation, you might want to check out this activity. Readers select the correct revisions to a passage in eight multiple choice...
Curated OER
Modals and Their Meaning in Context
By focusing on an oil-related theme, learners answer questions using context clues. They assign meaning to each highlighted modal in an example sentence from a word bank of choices. (Examples of meaning choices include impossibility...
Scholastic
Ruby Bridges: A Simple Act of Courage, Grades K-2
A civil rights movement lesson designed specifically with the Common Core State Standards in mind, young learners are introduced to the story of Ruby Bridges as the first African American child to attend an all-white elementary...
Curated OER
Rooting One's Way to Meaning
Discover the Virtual Thesaurus with your class. They use the Virtual Thesaurus to assist them in an inquiry-based approach to discovering the meanings of some common Latin and Greek roots. Each child then teaches a particular root and...
Curated OER
A New Look at an Old Spelling System
Introducing herself as "a discouraged professor of English education," Alleen Pace Nilsen elaborates on the prominence of incorrect spelling in education today. She laments the overuse of spellcheck (and substituting the wrong words),...
EngageNY
Mid-Unit 1 Assessment: Human Rights Vocabulary and Common Prefixes
Here is a mid-unit assessment for a group of lessons studying the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). The first half of this instructional activity calls for several forms of review. Your class will review the content of the...
Curated OER
Word Structure- Prefix and Suffix
Identify common prefixes and suffixes used in the English language and categorize the different kinds of information provided in a dictionary entry. Learners will write at least five pieces of information that they learn about a word...
Curated OER
Knowing Write from Wrong
Explore how the informality of electronic correspondence has affected communications in the workplace. Writers develop pages for a basic writing guide that contains rules and examples to help correct common writing errors. A great way to...
EngageNY
Grade 9 ELA Module 2, Unit 3, Lesson 12
As the first in a two-part, end-of-unit assessment that encourages readers to synthesize the unit's main ideas, class members review their notes for each of the three texts they read and develop three open-ended discussion questions...
EngageNY
Grade 9 ELA Module 2, Unit 2, Lesson 12
Ninth graders demonstrate their understanding of a central idea in Oedipus the King with a mid-unit writing assessment. Writers formulate a claim about the connection between prophecy and Oedipus's actions and craft an in-class essay...
EngageNY
Grade 10 ELA Module 4: Unit 3, Lesson 3
What's the difference between men and princes? Machiavelli discusses this distinction in chapter 18 of The Prince. Scholars first listen to a masterful reading of the chapter. Then, they write about how the author develops a central idea...