Novelinks
Walk Two Moons: Unsent Letter
Take a journey with your class as they explore the different settings from Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech. Middle schoolers write postcards in first person as if they were the characters of the story.
Curated OER
Investigating Fables
Time for a story! Learners of all ages enjoy listening to stories, so read them some common fables and have them work cooperatively to create a fable. Differentiate for varying ability levels by providing sentence frames, graphic...
Leading Learner
Using Music to Tell a Story or Describe a Scene
Young composers demonstrate their understanding of the stylistic features of descriptive music, including pitch, tempo, dynamics, rhythm, and timbre, by developing a melody and countermelody for a main character in a story. As part of...
Curated OER
Oliver Twist Goes to Hollywood
How does Oliver Twist, the novel written by Charles Dickens, compare with its screenplay adaptation? Although the activity doesn't require learners to have read the novel, the similarities and differences of the highlighted passages...
Curated OER
Introduction to Exponents
Problem solve using exponents. Pupils read One Grain of Rice: A Mathematical Folktale and write powers to represent amounts from the story.They compare actual solutions to their predictions and play a game to practice using exponents.
Tide Global Learning
Drama Activities: Role Play
Young actors willingly suspend their disbelief as they improvise a scenario in which they are workers at a clothing factory and must decide their attitude toward the actions of co-worker Rosa Parks.
Curated OER
Historical Fiction: A Wealth of Interpretations
How can understanding the genre of historical fiction help your language arts class with literary analysis? Use this lesson to help young readers learn about historical fiction. After reading a selection from the "Dear America" or "My...
Curated OER
Poems that Tell a Story: Narrative and Persona in the Poetry of Robert Frost
Students investigate and explore the poems of Robert Frost. They read and discuss poems by Frost, define narrative and personal, write narratives in a journal, and present a dramatic reading of a poem to the class.
Curated OER
The Princess's Point of View
Everyone wants to be part of a royal family. Let your pupils experience the privilege of royalty by rewriting the story The Frog Prince from the point of view of the princess. While the story line remains the same, perspective is bound...
Curated OER
Hamlet's Soliloquy
Everyone is familiar with the beginning of Hamlet's soliloquy, "To be or not to be..." While reading Hamlet, help your middle schoolers analyze the lines that follow, but how do you help them make personal connections to the text? Use...
Curated OER
"User Friendly" Cause and Effect
Bring literature to life with your SMART board and this literary analysis lesson. While reading "User Friendly" by T. Ernesto Bethancourt (from the Holt Elements of Literature textbook by Kylene Beers), have your class discuss the theme...
EngageNY
Close Reading of Nasreen's Secret School: How Do People Access Books in Afghanistan?
Third graders continue to practice the close reading skills of capturing the gist and reading again for important details in the sixth lesson in a larger unit. This is a great beginning-of-the-year unit for establishing visible thinking...
EngageNY
End of Unit 1 Assessment: Close Reading and Powerful Note-Taking on My Own
As the final lesson plan in a larger beginning-of-the-year unit to establish routines and teach close reading skills, this plan is designed as an assessment piece. Using the story, The Librarian of Basra, learners independently complete...
EngageNY
Close Reading of The Boy Who Loved Words: How Do People Build Their Word Power?
Third graders practice the skills of identifying the main message in a story, describing the main character, and sorting the key details of a story into specific categories. The story they read is, The Boy Who Loved Words. Using a...
EngageNY
Close Reading of Waiting for the Biblioburro: Finding the Main Message and Taking Notes
Expose your class to Waiting for the Biblioburro, narrative nonfiction that will act as the bridge between ficiton and informational texts to come. Class members do a close reading of the text, looking at excerpts instead of the whole...
Curated OER
The Common Core Literacy Standards - Grade 3 Posters
Brighten your third grade classroom with this series of colorful Common Core displays. Including all of the English Language Arts standards and substandards, each with supporting illustrations and examples, this resource provides clear...
Social Skills Central
Photo Cartoons: How To Give A Compliment
Help learners develop the ability to offer appropriate, meaningful compliments to others—an essential social skill. Here you'll find a quick photo cartoon illustrating a right and wrong way to give a compliment, as well as a brief...
Leadership Challenge
That's a Chop!: Developing Leadership Trough Teamwork
"The more trusted people feel, the better they innovate." To conclude a series of activities designed for a leadership seminar, participants engage in a trust building activity.
Penguin Books
A Teacher's Guide to William Shakespeare's Hamlet
Should Hamlet avenge his father's death? Is the ghost telling the truth or is it trying to trick Hamlet? Is Hamlet's inconsistent behavior a ploy or is he really insane? Something really is rotten in Denmark, and with the help of the...
BBC
Julius Caesar Teacher Pack
A great actor has the ability to make or break a play. A series of lesson plans related to William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar looks closely at the choices actors make during a production of the play to help provide insight into the...
The Alamo
A Teacher’s Guide to Lorenzo De Zavala
Who was Lorenzo de Zavala to the Texas Revolution, and how did he change the Alamo? Find out using an educational resource that asks learners to fill out graphic organizers and respond to short-answer questions to further solidify their...
Penguin Books
Addressing Text Complexity - Making Independent Reading Meaningful
Many English teachers dream of a classroom full of readers silently enjoying their books. A useful guide helps make that dream become a reality by providing book recommendations for a range of readers. Each suggestion includes the...
William & Mary
Inferential Reading Comprehension Considerations Packet
Don't forget to read between the lines! Educators learn tips and activities to help scholars learn to infer to increase reading comprehension. Activities suggested include think alouds, backwards words, and who's who. the packet includes...
Curated OER
Come On, Rain!
Students read and analyze the story. In this language arts lesson, students read Come on, Rain! and examine how mood and tone are created, the use of figurative language and the characteristics of the genre. Students research the time...