J.K. Rowling's world of wizards and magic focuses on some topics that relate to our own society, especially in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Have kids complete a KWHL chart (what they know, what they want to know, how...

Readers of Twelfth Night use a KWHL chart to record information about what they know about Shakespeare's play, what they want to find out, how they plan on finding this information, and what they have learned or still want to learn about...

Historical fiction can be a valuable asset when learning about the past. Integrate several novels written about the Civil War into your social studies unit, with groups of four working collaboratively to comprehend the novel from...

What are the effects of competition in an academic environment? The competition between the main characters in A Separate Peace motivates a series of activities that asks readers to take a stance on competition, and then to develop a...

Moving from what to why. After completing questions over the epilogue of Pygmalion, scholars take a close look at their Eliza Character Trackers and complete part II. They have collected a lot of details about Eliza's character and now...

Students read Diary of a Worm by Foreen Cronin. In this journal writing instructional activity, students research an animal and write a diary by their animal. Students apply the research they've completed in their writings. Students...

Students read Ruthanne Lum McCunn's Thousand Pieces of Gold and as a class, discuss the Chinese practice of foot binding. They work in groups to read further about how women of different cultures attempt to conform. They write about...

Eleventh graders participate in a variety of listening, speaking and reading activities. Here, they research the lives and achievements of different famous people. They prepare a creative presentation on a chosen topic. 

Learners compare versions of Cinderella and draw conclusions based on the story elements identified. In this literacy comprehension and story elements lesson, students read several versions of Cinderella, complete a "Comparing Folklore"...

Discuss the importance of comprehension and the use of summarization with your class. Through guided practice, they follow three steps in finding and highlighting important information, deleting information that is not needed and...

Young scholars summarize an article by reading fast for details and reading slow for important facts. They practice outlining an article. They identify parts of an article such as the title and subheading. They write a short and concise...

Learners study strategies that aid comprehension. They focus on the main ideas of a passage and eliminate unnecessary and repetitive information. They substitute super ordinate terms for a list of items and create a topic sentence.

Learners define a summary and discuss the elements of writing a summary. In this summary writing lesson, students take notes while reading a book and use to write a summary.

After analyzing and evaluating news summaries found in the New York Times "Week in Review" section, middle schoolers study the steps for summarizing a news article briefly and accurately. They write two news summaries: one on a newspaper...

Students get rid of unnecessary information. They pick out the most important information. Students write a sentence that covers everything that is important information from the passage. They fill out a check list to check behind...

Students goal is to achieve summarization. They read familiar words and decode words at their reading level. They summarize articles through the use of an outline in order ot improve reading comprehension. Students complete a basic...

Students research the US Presidential election of 1824. They explain why the election of 1824 was decided in the House of Representatives. They summarize relevant portions of the Constitution on presidential election procedures.

Brian Jacques’ novel Redwall provides the focus for a series of lessons involving the analysis of folklore. Adopting the persona of a character, groups write letters in the voice of their character, assemble a collage using Microsoft...

Amazing! Any 5th grader would be more than willing to participate in this project. Students are broken into groups, each group reads one book from a list of five. They use their book as the basis for choosing an animal and environment to...

Historical accounts of various events have proven to differ depending on the point of view of the person documenting the event. Learners read and analyze two first person accounts of acts of slave resistance seen at a southern...

Why is it important to use precise language? Participants explore this question in the fourth activity in a series of 15 on effective instruction. Perfect for all content areas, the activity promotes appropriate language choice through...

Learners review their knowledge on the First Amendment. After reading an article, they identify specific church and state issues. Using the Internet, they research President Bush's proposal from a specific point of view. They summarize...

Use a list of environmentally related words to engage learners in a discussion about ecosystem conservation legislation. As a class, read "Aware of Political Ecosystem, Property Rights Advocate Embraces Conservation Plan." Then, present...

Students read and discuss Socrates's "Crito" and examine the arguments he made supporting his own death penalty. They consider the still-relevant debate between the rights of the individual and the rule of law.