Should schools be permitted to punish young scholars for off-campus cyberbullying? After reading a passage that details statistics about cyberbullying and Supreme Court rulings about schools' ability to limit student speech,...

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...

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...

Teenagers get the real information about marijuana use based on the history of tobacco legislation and research. As they read an educational passage about marijuana laws, science, and changing attitudes, they address their preconceptions...

How does Oliver Twist, the novel written by Charles Dickens, compare with its screenplay adaptation? Although the activity doesn't require learners to have read the novel, the similarities and differences of the highlighted passages...

A scripted lesson can be a big help for new teachers. This fully scripted three-day learning activity provides teachers with the means to demonstrate how to compare and contrast two topics in two texts. Learners will work as a class to...

An interesting lesson takes pupils on a trip through the carbon cycle. A reading passage allows scholars to take notes and make choices about what happens to the carbon on its journey. This third lesson in a series of 21 discusses...

If you could bring back one extinct animal, what would it be? That is the question your class will ponder. Your budding scientists read a passage, follow a cloning timeline, and review a diagram about the process of reviving a woolly...

Students identify the main idea of a reading passage. In this identifying the main idea lesson, students read short passages, highlight or underline important information and record the main idea of the passage. They participate in a...

"It is my lady, O, It is my Love!" Provide class members an opportunity to develop their skills reading difficult text with an exercise that focuses on the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet (Act II, scene ii). Using the provided...

Everyone has a different opinion about the characters they read about in books. Have your class explore forming an opinion and finding evidence to support it as they read and discuss what they think about a particular character. They...

Good readers question text as they read. The Question Answer Relationships Strategy (QAR) used in this resource with The House on Mango Street, provides readers with a concrete approach for questioning Sandra Cisneros' text and...

Here is a fabulous, five-page lesson plan on how keywords can help a reader with his/her reading comprehension. After a teacher-led discussion, pupils pair off with each other and work together to identify the main idea in a passage of...

Young historians compare the presentation of medical care during the Civil War in passages from fictional and nonfictional texts. They examine passages from Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell and Soldier's...

Students explore how to summarize a text while reading. They discuss what it means to summarize. Students read a non-fiction text and practice summarizing the pages they read. They highlight the main ideas and important details within...

Students explore the concept of summarization. They discuss the importance of summarization and the steps to summarize a text. Students read a text and highlight the important or main ideas within the text. They discuss the information...

This teacher guide provides several ideas for how to structure a unit on the futur simple. Start by having your class read the short passage provided about  Google. As they read, pupils should categorize verbs by type to highlight...

The second lesson in the Lord of the Flies unit asks scholars to consider the characteristics of a good leader. After generating a list of these qualities, they annotate a passage from the novel highlighting the leadership qualities of...

The Sugar Changed the World chapter, "The Sound of Liberty," highlights how the differing attitudes toward the slave trade shifted the issue from an economic concern to a concern for human rights. The passage contrasts Thomas Jefferson's...

Students complete a chart/graphic organizer based on the reading passage and locate specific information within the reading passage to complete the Human Body Cells Chart. They then utilize the Human Body Cells Chart to complete the...

Add to the narrative writing experience. Elementary or middle school writers listen to the teacher read a descriptive passage, then reread the same passage silently. They highlight sensory details and figurative language, then orally...

After reading a book on their own, pupils prepare an oral report on the book,  and sit in the "Readers Report Chair" when giving the report to the class. They are taught to briefly summarize the book by talking about one of two...

Skim, reread, and then take notes. The step-by-step procedure outlined in this resource can be used to help pupils write a summary of a reading passage. Using their notes, class members then draft a summary focusing on the main idea and...

Third graders read passages of text in an effort to improve their fluency and reading comprehension. For this language arts lesson, 3rd graders read passages that are at their reading level, and attempt to increase their number of words...