It's hard to beat the beauty of John Steinbeck's prose, so borrow a little of it to form your own found poetry. After kids finish Chapter One of The Pearl, they select the most evocative and vivid words to create found poems.

To demonstrate their understand of the characters in Wuthering Heights and their motivations, readers assume the identity of one of the characters and write a letter to another character in the Bronte's novel.

Scholars choose between a variety of digital media in order to present literary concepts from To Kill a Mockingbird. Technology-heavy, the lesson requires that your class has computers, Microsoft Office Suite, and other devices such as...

Prepare your class for a unit on Ray Bradbury's The Martian Chronicles with an activity that works for pre-reading, during reading, and post-reading. Learners fill out a K-W-H-L chart to reflect on what they already know, what...

Zora Neale Hurston's novel Their eyes Were Watching God has been highly praised and severely criticized for its depiction of African American folk culture. A set of primary source materials, including photographs, articles, essays, and...

Young historians trace the roots of African slavery and learn about the causes and effects of the Trans-Atlantic slave trade through a PowerPoint presentation and by reading and discussing excerpts from the book Copper Sun.

Imagine being stranded all alone on an island for 18 years. How would you survive? Class members are challenged to makes necessities out of natural materials that would likely be found on an island.

Introduce ELA scholars to the basics of literary criticism with a 41-slide presentation that identifies eight different approaches to critical analysis. Each approach is defined, and advantages and disadvantages are listed. Also included...

Support your learners as they work on writing paragraphs by providing graphic organizers, outlines, and frames. Sift through this packet to find the perfect organizers and templates to prepare pupils for writing. The resource...

To reinforce recognition of vocabulary words drawn from Stephen Crane's The Red Badge of Courage, readers engage in a vocabulary bingo game.

Readers are introduced to the key themes in Tennessee Williams' The Glass Menagerie by this carefully crafted anticipation guide. A great discussion starter.

Begin your unit on William Shakespeare's The Tempest with a helpful anticipation guide. Learners read ten statements that connect to the play's literary themes, and note whether they believe the statement is true or false.

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn continues to be one of the most frequently banned books. The satire and social commentary present challenges when using the book as a core text. Direct readers' attention to how Twain uses plot,...

Forgiveness can be a difficult step to take in any circumstance, but is it more difficult if the offense is more egregious? High schoolers consider the concept of forgiveness before reading William Shakespeare's The Tempest. As...

Identifying patterns is a crucial skill for all mathematicians, young and old. Explore the multiplication table with your class, using patterns and symmetry to teach about square numbers, prime numbers, and the commutative and identity...

After completing three body paragraphs of an argument essay about life's rules to live by from Bud, Not Buddy Christopher Paul Curtis, it's time to begin writing the introduction and conclusion. Independently, pupils draft the final two...

Looking for a vocabulary list and exercise to use with a study of The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton? Try out this resource, which provides both the list and the exercise. Each of 19 words is paired with a part of speech and definition or...

The biopoem is a great way for instructors to get to know class members, classmates to get to know each other, and readers to flesh out their understanding of a character. Why not create a biopoem for a character from Oedipus the...

Personal narratives are powerful things. Whether told from the first-person or third-person point of view, whether in the form of an essay, a short story, novel, or video, whether fiction or fact, they capture readers and give them...

COVID-19 = CO (corona) + VI (virus) + D (disease) =19 (the year the disease first appeared) NOVEL (unknown to scientists and never before infected human patients). A colorful nine-slide presentation details what is currently known about...

Director George Pal’s film The Time Machine, based on H. G. Wells’ 1895 science fiction novella and starring Rod Taylor, Alan Young, and Yvette Mimieux, is the focus of a lesson that considers the consequences of time travel. Viewers...

After reading the introduction to Maus I, class members use A KWHL approach to determine what they know, what they want to know, and where they can find information about World War II, the Holocaust, and other topics associated with Art...

“You don’t have to think too hard when you talk to teachers.” Or so says Holden Caulfield.  Challenge his assumption by asking your readers to think about and respond to some of the assertions of Salinger’s narrator. Should a...

As part of their study of Mitch Albom's Tuesdays with Morrie, class groups examine passages from the story and respond to a series of QAR questions.