If you plan to utilize the ABC miniseries, "The Path to 9/11" in your classroom, consider incorporating media literacy and research skills. After (or while) learners view the series, they discuss ways information can differ from source...

Ready your pupils for Common Core testing by providing them with practice. For this assessment, learners read and respond to a variety of different passages in both multiple-choice and essay format. An online version is also included.

Get an idea of how your class members might perform on the Common Core tests with a comprehensive practice test. The assessment includes literary and informational passages for learners to read an analyze. Pupils respond to a series of...

Support your eleventh graders with a practice assessment for the Common Core tests. The practice test features a series of literary and informational passages and related multiple choice and essay questions. An online version is also...

Keep an eye on the growth of your sixth graders' reading and writing skills with the help of this practice Common Core assessment. Working their way through the six included fiction and nonfiction reading passages, learners answer a...

Poetry and prose often have more in common than it initially appears. A sample comprehensive English exam has test-takers compare and contrast two passages to answer short response questions. The exam, which is part of a larger set of...

Check in on the development of your fifth graders' reading and writing skills with this Common Core-designed assessment. Given a series of six reading passages ranging from narrative stories to informational texts, young...

Crafting a compare-contrast essay can prove to be a challenge even for experienced writers.  Eradicate the mystery with a PowerPoint that details the rationale for and the structure of this form of expository writing. The 20-slide...

Give your class a taste of the Common Core with a practice test that includes both literary and informational reading passages. Pupils respond to related multiple choice questions and longer written response questions. See the...

Poetry or prose? That is the question facing middle schoolers as they begin a month-long poetry unit by examining the characteristics that differentiate poetry and prose writing. Pupils learn about poetic devices and different types of...

Young historians learn how to make generalizations based on primary sources in a lesson that uses the autobiographies of two women born into slavery. The class watches a historical re-enactment of scenes from the lives of Harriet Jacobs...

In 2011, the Martin Luther King, Jr. Memorial opened in Washington, DC to much praise and some criticism. Part of a series of response questions from the AP® English Language and Composition exam, writers consider what factors...

A shirt can't really swallow you—right? Readers find examples of symbolism and personification in S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders with two straightforward lessons.

Although Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and Malcolm X both work for equal rights, social change, and political empowerment, their approaches were radically different. To better understand these contrasts, class members compare King's "I...

Explore the properties of oil through an experiment. They use the scientific process to investigate oil, participate in experiments, watch videos,and use information from the internet to determine how oil has changed our...

Catch-22, Joseph Heller's send-up of military organizational bureaucracy, provides readers with an opportunity to consider the importance of the anti-hero. Class members fill out a worksheet comparing and contrasting the qualities...

Students analyze "To Build a Fire" by Jack London and "The Open boat" by Stephen Crane. They write an essay in which they compare and contrast the narrators and plots in each story.

Students compare and contrast the experience of the migrant worker as depicted in The Grapes of Wrath with the experiences of migrant children as depicted in the narratives and poems provided.

The resource, a standalone, shows how news coverage of John Brown's Raid began when the event happened and how that reporting shaped perception in West Virginia history. The resource includes interesting anticipatory discussion...

When it comes to comparing and contrasting in an essay, looking at a chart and picking a random transition word may not do the trick. As explained in an informational writing handout, the words writers use to move from one idea to...

As teachers, it is our job to encourage learners to stand up for what they believe in and help them learn lessons from life's events. A set of practice questions designed for the ELA MCAS assessment features passages that teach positive...

To demonstrate their ability to craft an analysis of informational text, class members read excerpts from James Madison's "The Federalist No. 10," from George Washington's Farewell Address, and from Thomas Jefferson's First Inaugural...

Class members explore cultural diversity through a variety of texts that showcase the importance of traditions. Then, they interview their family members to research their own cultural background and write their findings on quilt...

Students compare theme and plot in two short stories by Nathaniel Hawthorne. In this theme and plot analysis lesson, students read Young Goodman Brown and The Minister's Black Veil  as well as take notes about the theme...