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.

Even though readers investigate matters of the heart, this activity promotes the inner workings of learners' brains. The fifth lesson of six has the teacher first model the strategy to the class before having small groups practice. To...

Passages from Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart provide the text for a QAR: Question Answer Response comprehension activity. Readers respond to right there, think and search, on your own, and author and you questions.  ...

Help your class understand the difference between fact and opinion by exploring the New York Times homepage and articles. In pairs or small groups, pupils complete a scavenger hunt, answering the provided questions. Next, discuss the...

Poetic language is abundant in Natalie Babbitt's beautiful novel, Tuck Everlasting. Learners note the examples of similes, metaphors, and personification they find as they read, and illustrate how the language creates a sensory...

What better way to examine a text than to ask your own questions? Use Bloom's taxonomy to guide kids through Carl Hiaasen's Hoot by asking questions based on knowledge, comprehension, application, analysis, synthesis, and evaluation.

Teach your readers how to engage with a text by using the request strategy. As kids read Antoine de Saint Éxupery's The Little Prince, they choose a passage of text and formulate questions to stump their partners or their...

Readers respond to a series of questions focused onJuliet Marillier's young adult novel Wildwood Dancing, and crafted to reflect the levels in Bloom's Taxonomy.

How does the scientific process begin? Introduce ecology scholars to scientific inquiry through an insightful, data-driven lesson. Partners examine data from an ongoing research study to determine the questions it answers. The resource...

Sexual harassment and sexual violence are by no means new issues. What has changed is the role of social media in these issues. This powerful and troubling lesson uses a specific rape case to launch research into a discussion of the...

Teach your English language learners about conversations by inviting them to participate in a conversation about an interesting object. Through this conversation, learners will naturally use various verb tenses and practice asking...

Six powerful and eyeopening lessons provide scholars with activities designed to challenge stereotypes and discrimination. The unit provides reading material with which pupils read and discuss. Grand conversations lead to physically...

Cross-comparison, the technique of focusing on two different texts with the same themes, motifs, events, etc., is employed in an exercise that asks groups to examine two different translations of “The Ruin,” a poem, written in Old...

Accompany the story, Town Mouse Country Mouse by Jan Brett with an assortment of activities designed to reinforce concepts covering story structure, comprehension, grammar, and social studies. Here, scholars identify the difference...

What experiences lead people to change and how do they do it? After reading about Cole's encounter with Touching Spirit Bear, readers complete the second out of a series of five activities to predict future events in the text. The...

Designed for teachers, this 12-page packet uses passages from Guy de Maupassant's "The Necklace" to model how to design activities that encourage close reading of complex text.

Encourage close reading for young learners with a lesson based on Natalie Babbitt's Tuck Everlasting. The first part of the resource guides readers through a Directed Reading Thinking Activity (DRTA), prompting them to make...

Traditionally, a United States President's Inaugural Address establishes the tone and vision for his presidency. It has stressed the goal to unify the country and bring the political parties together after what are often divisive...

Explore ocean habitats with a lesson that showcases the home of manatees and loggerhead turtles in Belize. Here, pupils compare and contrast the homes of ocean animals to those of humans, listen to an original short story about...

Distinguishing between and understanding the purpose of landmarks and monuments is the focus a short activity designed to provide all learners with the context of a performance task. Images of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial, the...

Charles Schulz' Charlie Brown and Friends, a collection of Peanuts comic strips, provides young readers with an opportunity to engage in full-class discussions, work in groups to examine how Schulz develops his characters, and...

This lesson plan pairs high and low leveled readers together to make partner reading beneficial for both. Learners read a selected text as a team, when the lower leveled reader is stuck, his partner is there to help him out. And by...

Guide your class through a text with resources for before and after reading. Learners ask questions, discuss characters and plot points, point out elements of the reading that stood out, and compose brief summaries.

Do you have pests at your school? Find out through a series of interviews with school personnel. Scholars visit a variety of knowledgable individuals to ask them questions, record their answers, and present their findings to their...