Prestwick House
Reading Nonfiction: Analyzing Joseph McCarthy's "Enemies from Within" Speech
Looking for a lesson plan that teaches class members how to analyze nonfiction? Use Joseph McCarthy's famous "Enemies from Within" speech as a instructional text. Worksheet questions direct readers' attention to the many historical...
Speak Truth to Power
Dalai Lama: Free Expression and Religion
How is religious freedom connected to the conflict between China and Tibet? After reading an online passage of background information, your learners will divide into groups and both read and view an interview with the Dalai Lama. They...
Curated OER
We’re Going on a Bear Hunt
Second graders participate in guided reading and writing experience in this set of five lessons. They complete a picture walk of Michael Rosen's, We're Going on a Bear Hunt before listening to the story and retelling it. Working with a...
Prestwick House
Vocabulary in Context: Wilderness Survival
Do you have what it takes to survive in the wilderness? A high-interest reading passage offers practical advice while incorporating vocabulary practice. Follow-up worksheets focus on skills such as defining words, making inferences, and...
Scholastic
The Class Election from the Black Lagoon Storia Teaching Guide
One of my favorite things about this resource is that they use a standardized lexile to help you determine who should be reading what book. I also love this great teacher's guide for the book, The Class Election from the Black Lagoon. In...
Prestwick House
New (March 2016) SAT Reading Test Practice
The SAT. The ACT. AP exams. The very mention of these exams can cause the college bound to feel anxious. One way to combat Test Anxiety is to provide high schoolers with models of these tests and give them opportunities to analyze the...
Curated OER
Phineas Gage: The Teenage Brain and Connections: Free Choice Activity
During this lesson plan, which is all about making connections, learners watch a documentary about the teenage brain and connect it to Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True Story About Brain Science, their own lives, and the world.
Curated OER
5 Broken Cameras: How Storytellers Shape the Story
5 Broken Cameras, the award-winning documentary nominated for a 2013 Academy Award and winner of the Sundance 2012 Directors Award is the focus of a resource packet that includes a lesson plan, discussion guide, reading lists, background...
Curated OER
Genre Lesson: Biography/Autobiography
Practice distinguishing biography from autobiography through point of view. Tell a brief story of your morning. Have a class member retell the story to you (using second person). And have another retell the story to the class (using...
National Endowment for the Humanities
Toni Morrison's Beloved: For Sixty Million and More
Complex, disturbing, and challenging, Beloved is the focus of a lesson plan that provides three activities to guide a close reading of Toni Morrison's novel. Readers create chapter titles based on key plot elements or themes, identify...
Curated OER
Guided Reading using Gail Gibbon's book Frogs
Students read to locate information about the stages of a frog's life and organize on a chart.
Free Library of Philadelphia
Resources for Ghost Boys
Jewell Parker Rhodes, the author of Ghost Boys, wanted to bring the historical legacy of Emmett Till and the current topic of racial prejudice into today's young readers' mindsets. Use a reading guide and set of discussion questions to...
Teaching Tolerance
Understanding the Prison Label
Break the chain. An engaging lesson examines why it is so hard to break free of the prison system in the US. Academics participate in a reader's theater, read primary sources, and discuss their thoughts. The lesson explains the hardships...
Curated OER
The Palm of My Heart: Poetry By African American Children
Elementary students explore African American culture by reading children's poetry. They read the book, The Palm of My Heart which features poetry by an assortment of young African American boys and girls. Students define several...
Curated OER
Confetti
Third graders complete pre reading, writing, during reading, and interdisciplinary activities for the book Confetti. In this reading lesson plan, 3rd graders complete journal entries, go over vocabulary, answer short answer questions,...
Curated OER
The Last Day of Slavery
Students complete pre reading, writing, during reading, and interdisciplinary activities for the book The Last Day of Slavery. In this reading lesson plan, students complete journal entries, go over vocabulary, answer short answer...
Robert F. Kennedy Center for Justice and Human Rights
Vaclav Havel: Free Expression
Develop an understanding of universal human rights, particularly the freedom of expression, with the questions and activities that analyze the conflicts of Vaclav Havel. Learners define, interpret and rephrase the human rights article in...
Prestwick House
Vocabulary in Context: Inside the World of Wizards
Enter the world of Harry Potter and learn new vocabulary at the same time. A high-interest reading passage provides insight into the history of Harry Potter. Follow-up activities incorporate key vocabulary strategies, such as using...
Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media
War and Poetry
A band of brothers or the Devil's agents? Nobel warriors freeing the oppressed or mercenaries working for the military/industrial complex? Groups examine poems from the Civil War, World War I, and World War II to determine the poets'...
Read Works
Signal Words in Expository Text
Signal words are one way that authors make the relationships between their ideas clear. Allow your learners the chance to investigate cause and effect in texts by identifying signal words. They locate and analyze cause-and-effect...
Curated OER
The Active Learner: "Dia's Story Cloth" Literature Guide
Students discuss pre-reading focus questions and complete a KWL chart. In this language arts lesson plan, students mark passages or words they are unsure of with post-it notes to discuss later and answer comprehension questions after...
Curated OER
Out of the Dust: Visions of Dust Bowl History Lesson Overview
Students complete activities with the book Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse. In this literature lesson, students read this story and view the Dust Bowl history from the eyes of a child. They discover the Great Depression and life in the...
Curated OER
Lessons from the Holocaust
Students investigate the horrors of World War II by participating in a role-playing activity. In this holocaust lesson, students read handouts describing the atrocities committed against the Jews in Germany during the mass slaughter. ...
Curated OER
Lesson 1: History of Endangered Species
Young scholars explain why some species are considered endangered. In this biology lesson, students read several articles and explain how the history of endangered species are presented today. They discuss the consequences of losing an...