Wall Reading

After completing Nightjohn, Gary Paulsen's young adult novel about slavery set shortly before the Civil War, readers respond to a series of questions crafted to reflect Bloom's taxonomy.

Master a well-organized thesis statement with a short activity for a persuasive writing unit. Young writers read five different introductory paragraphs about various topics, find the main ideas addressed in each thesis statement, and jot...

Only a thorough understanding of history can save us from repeating it. Practice close reading skills with an eighth grade unit that focuses on 19th century America, including European immigration into Ellis Island and Frederick...

Focus on chapter two of Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True Story About Brain Science with a questioning activity. After teaching and modeling several types of questions, learners work with partners and then independently to answer and...

Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, the fourth novel in the series by J.K. Rowling, is the focus of a directed reading worksheet that begins by asking readers to examine the book cover and chapter titles and to predict what the story...

Analyze any nonfiction text with the set of questions on this sheet. Class members practice inferring by noting the main idea and purpose of a passage. They also analyze an opinion in the passage and write a brief summary. See the...

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...

Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address provides the text for a series of close reading exercises that model for instructors how carefully crafted guiding questions can help readers think critically about what they read, thus developing...

What would you ask a presidential candidate if you had the chance? Bring politics to your language arts classroom with this lesson, in which young readers brainstorm questions they would have liked the presidential candidates to answer....

Who wants to learn about Honest Abe? The reading passage highlights the early life of Abraham Lincoln, detailing his experience as a young boy growing up in Kentucky. Readers read the brief passage and then answer 10 comprehension...