Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Heavy Boots: Group Discussion

For Teachers 11th - 12th
Jonathan Safran Foer's phrase, "heavy boots," becomes the focus of a class discussion of grief and sadness. During the reading of Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, individuals place examples of their own experiences with these topics...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Speak: Questioning Strategy - ReQuest Strategy

For Teachers 7th - 10th Standards
The best way to analyze a piece of literature is to ask questions about the characters, plot, and theme. Encourage your learners to stump the teacher with the most difficult questions they can create using Bloom's Taxonomy and various...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Pride and Prejudice: KWHL

For Teachers 7th - 10th Standards
How much does your class know about the setting of Pride and Prejudice? Explore Jane Austen's romantic world with a KWHL chart that helps kids note what they already know about 18th century England, what they want to know, how they...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Cold Sassy Tree: Vocabulary Development

For Teachers 7th - 12th
Change places with your pupils, and let them teach their peers! Each learner signs up to teach a word from a list provided by the teacher (included here). Then, they complete a graphic organizer to help them develop a better...
Activity
Curated OER

The Old Man and the Sea: Questioning Strategies

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Readers learn to ask questions about text with an activity based on Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea. As they read, class members craft questions based on Bloom's Taxonomy and then find the answers themselves.
Activity
Novelinks

The Martian Chronicles: Double-Entry Journals

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Teach learners to reflect on their reading with a lesson about double-entry journals. As they read Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles, class members note interesting passages from the text on the left side of their...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Bud, Not Buddy: List-Group-Label Vocabulary Strategy

For Teachers 7th - 8th
Readers of Bud, Not Buddy demonstrate their knowledge of the Great Depression with a list, group, label vocabulary strategy. Included are complete directions for the activity that will also introduce class members to the new vocabulary...
Activity
Novelinks

The Tempest: A-Z Book Project

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Create a picture dictionary for one of William Shakespeare's most famous plays. After readers finish The Tempest, they assign each letter of the alphabet to a concept or character, and add a description and evidence from...
Worksheet
Curated OER

Graphic Organizer for Vocabulary: Gary Paulsen's Canyons

For Students 6th - 8th
Although the activity is designed for Gary Paulsen’s Canyons, these procedures could be used with any novel or vocabulary study. Readers select an unfamiliar word, record the sentence and chapter where the term is found, write two...
Activity
US Department of State

Reader's Theater: The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
The opening chapters of Mark Twain's masterpiece, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, can be daunting for some readers. A reader's theater assignment divides the second chapter of the novel into a seven-role script, allowing...
Lesson Plan
PBS

The Symbolism of Castle's Bedroom in Ghost

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
To conclude a unit study of Jason Reynold's Ghost, class members examine how Castle's feeling about his bedroom change over the course of the novel. Groups use the provided graphic organizer to identify the plot of the novel and then use...
Lesson Plan
CPALMS

Analyzing Vonnegut's View of the Future and His Commentary on the Present in Harrison Bergeron

For Students 9th - 12th Standards
Kurt Vonnegut's short story "Harrison Bergeron" engages adolescents with its theme about the dangers of complete societal equality. Learners complete a graphic organizer to track literary elements in the story, as well as an inference...
Worksheet
Warren County Public Schools

Small Group Discussion Questions

For Students 3rd - 7th Standards
Support a class reading of the novel Song of the Trees by Mildred D. Taylor with this series of discussion questions. Covering a variety of topics from character and setting to historical accuracy and symbolism, these questions...
Worksheet
2
2
Avi Writer

Sophia’s War: A Tale of the Revolution Teaching Guide

For Teachers 5th - 9th Standards
Sophia's War, Avi's novel that tracks the adventures of Sophia Calderwood, a fictional character, as well as the true stories of British Major John Andre and General Benedict Arnold during the American Revolution, is the anchor...
Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Inferring about Character: Analyzing and Discussing Points of View (Chapter 2)

For Teachers 7th Standards
Readers engage in discussion with partners to answer questions about A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park. Next, they complete exit tickets, writing about how the author creates different points of view for her characters.
Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Qualities of a Strong Literary Argument Essay

For Teachers 6th Standards
One activity, two essays, and one central theme: qualities of an argument essay. Here, scholars first describe the qualities of an argument essay regarding Bud's rules to live by from the novel Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis....
Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Revisiting Bud’s Rules: Survive or Thrive?

For Teachers 6th Standards
Bud followed a series of rules from Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis. The question is, how did he use those rules to thrive or survive? After a grand discussion, class members explore the novel to locate and cite textual...
Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Collecting Details: The Challenges Ha Faces and Ha as a Dynamic Character

For Teachers 8th Standards
What is a dynamic character? Using an interesting resource, scholars set out to answer the question. They create graphic organizers to collect details about character development as they read the novel Inside Out & Back Again. They...
Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Introducing Final Performance Task and Analyzing Statistics

For Teachers 8th Standards
How do statistics help people understand the universal refugee experience? Using the resource, scholars engage in an activity called a Chalk Talk, working in teams to analyze statistics from informational texts about refugees. Also, they...
Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Launching To Kill A Mockingbird: Establishing Reading Routines (Chapter 1)

For Teachers 8th Standards
Scholars use a Story Impressions Note-catcher to capture their first impressions of words or phrases from To Kill a Mockingbird. They then listen to a reading of the first six pages of the novel before the teacher asks questions to check...
Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Text to Film Comparison: Taking a Stand at the Jailhouse (Chapters 14-15)

For Teachers 8th Standards
Readers look closely at Scout in chapter 15 of To Kill A Mockingbird. Learners use turn and talk and Analyzing Scout's and the Reader's Perspectives Note-catcher to compare their perspectives to Scout's. They then make a comparison to...
Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Readers Theater: Writing a Conclusion

For Teachers 8th Standards
That's all, folks! Scholars work with their group members to create conclusions for their To Kill A Mockingbird reader's theater scripts. They use a criteria list to help guide their conclusion writing and discuss how the conclusions...
Lesson Plan
Center for the Advancement of Ethics and Character

Charlotte's Web: A Story About Friendship

For Teachers 3rd - 6th Standards
Strengthen the bonds of friendship within your class with a reading of E.B. White's award-winning novel, Charlotte's Web. Focusing on the unique characters in the story and the relationships they develop, young readers draw...
Lesson Plan
PBS

The Symbolism of Sneakers in Ghost

For Teachers 6th - Higher Ed Standards
As part of a study of Jason Reynold's Ghost, readers take a close look at sneaker culture and how Reynold uses sneakers as a symbol in his award-winning young adult novel. Groups explore links to "Sneakerology 101", a Carnegie...