In this activity, students learn key details about Dr. King’s life and accomplishments, including his belief in equality and non-violence.

In this lesson, students explore figurative language and point of view in the novel "Jacob I Have Loved".

In the Drive-In Movies, young Gary Soto wants his mother to take him and his siblings to the drive-in movies, a special treat. His plan is to be very good and to do lots of chores one Saturday morning and afternoon in order to impress his mother. Unfortunately, he works so hard at weeding, mowing, and waxing the car that he falls asleep during the movie. In this CCSS lesson, students will explore this story through text dependent questions, academic vocabulary, and writing assignments; writing samples included.

In this lesson, students engage in a close reading of Hopper's painting and an Edward Hirsch poem to explore the types of emotion generated by each work in the viewer or reader, and how the painter and poet each achieved these responses.

This lesson helps students explore the elements of poetry and their effect on meaning, tone, and style. Students also analye various forms of poetry both in pairs and independently and create their own poems and presentation slide show to show how to analyze poetic elements within their writing.

Rachel wakes up on her eleventh birthday feeling as if she’s still ten—and nine, and eight, and all the ages that came before and the day just gets worse from there. In this CCSS lesson, students will explore this story through text dependent questions, academic vocabulary, and writing assignments; writing samples included.

In this lesson, students will work independently to find evidence of Laurence Yep's perspective on being Chinese in Dragonwings.

In this lesson, students read a short essay in Euro English, then rewrite it using standard English spellings.

In this lesson, students will read the myth of Prometheus in order to analyze allusions in The Lightning Thief.

This activity tells the story of Wilma Rudolph, the fastest woman in the world.

Learn to determine the meaning of figures of speech, like similes and metaphors, that authors use in poetry. You will also be able to analyze how these word choices reveal an author’s tone, or attitude, in a poem. You will also be able to analyze how these word choices reveal an author’s tone, or attitude, in a poem. 

Students can view these slides to learn more about figurative language: alliteration, analogies, idioms, similes, metaphors, personification, onomatopoeia, and hyperbole.

In this lesson, students will focus on Chapter 2 of Bud, Not Buddy, focusing on figurative language and word choice and how those elements help readers gain insight into Bud's character.

In this lesson, students will use a graphic organizer in order to add textual evidence of author Laurence Yep's perspective of the police present in Dragonwings.

This lesson provides hands-on differentiated instruction by guiding students to search for the literal definitions of figurative language using the Internet. It also guides students in understanding figurative meanings through the use of context clues and making inferences.

Science fiction has the potential to spark lively discussions while inviting students to extrapolate from their own working knowledge of scientific principles. They first define the science fiction genre and then read and discuss science fiction texts. Next, they conduct research to find science facts that support or dispute the science included in the plot of the science fiction book they read. Students then revisit their definition of the genre and revise based on their reading. Finally, students complete a project that examines the science fiction genre in relation to real-world science concepts and topics.

In the activity, students read about a fisherman who catches a fish who grants wishes — perhaps too many.

In this lesson students do a close reading of “Learning to Read,” a poem by Francis Watkins Harper about an elderly former slave which conveys the value of literacy to blacks during and after slavery. The activities also prompt students to examine the nature of literacy in the 21st century and the value they put upon it.

Franklin R. Chang-Diaz is an immigrant from Costa Rica who began thinking about space at age seven when the Soviet Union launched the first satellite into space. After going through many obstacles he was accepted to NASA and became “the first Hispanic to be in the space program for the long run". In this CCSS lesson, students will explore his story through text dependent questions, academic vocabulary, and writing assignments; writing samples included.

In this lesson students read about the myth of Prometheus in order to analyze allusions in The Lightning Thief.