The Semantic Feature Analysis strategy engages students in reading assignments by asking them to relate selected vocabulary to key features of the text. This technique uses a matrix to help students discover how one set of things is related to one another. Use this strategy to help students: understand the meaning of selected vocabulary words; group vocabulary words into logical categories; analyze the completed matrix.

This resource contains a Powerpoint on commas, colons, semicolons, as well as worksheets on the correct use of semicolons.

A collection of worksheets for various student levels in combining and varying sentence patterns in writing.

A lesson on the differing types of sentence structures including simple, compound, complex, dependent and independent clauses.

Lessons, Powerpoints, activities and games on the differing types of sentence structures including simple, compound, complex, dependent and independent clauses.

This resource contains lessons, Powerpoints, activities and more on the differing types of sentence structures including simple, compound, complex, dependent and independent clauses.

This resource is a brief instrucional guide on the use of sentence fragments.

On the first day of seventh grade, Victor and his friend Michael try to hide their insecurities and impress the girls in their class. In turn they learn that teachers can be kind, that girls are approachable, and that taking a risk to fit in can pay off. In this CCSS lesson, students will explore this story through text dependent questions, academic vocabulary, and writing assignments.

These study guides from Shakespeare in the Ruins are simplified versions of the originals and include only the most crucial text from each play, a cast of characters, anticipation guides and activities. Perfect for readers that may be below grade level. Select plays include: The Comedy of Errors, Hamlet, Julius Caesar, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Henry V, Romeo & Juliet, Henry IV Parts I & II, Macbeth, As You Like It, King Lear, Othello, and The Taming Of the Shrew.

Lesson plan where students must write an original short story that cannot contain over 100 words.

Sir Gawain and the Green Knight is a legend about King Arthur’s court and the Knights of the Round Table. During a New Years celebration, a strange man, only referred to as the Green Knight, enters the court and challenges the knights to a game. He will allow whoever accepts the challenge to strike him with his own ax. There is one condition, the challenger must return in one year for the Green Knight to return the same blow. In this CCSS lesson, students will explore this story through text dependent questions, academic vocabulary, and writing assignments.

This fantasy takes place on the planet Pern, an imaginary world where dragons help protect the inhabitants from the dangerous Red Star, which rains deadly plant spores every 200 years. These spores can devour every living thing if they land on the planet. In this CCSS lesson, students will explore this story through text dependent questions, academic vocabulary, and writing assignments.

identify and discuss elements of a storydiscuss and understand new vocabulary wordsparticipate in activities in a group and individually

This resource is a collection of discussion questions to supplement Sounds of the River by Da Chen, the story of a young Bejing teenager Da Chen who takes his first train ride away from the farm he was raised on to his new university life in Beijing. He soon faces a host of ghastly challenges, including poor living conditions, lack of food, and suicidal roommates.

In this lesson, students learn the Spelling in Parts (SIP) strategy by dividing a polysyllabic word into parts, thinking about spelling patterns of each part, saying each part, and spelling each part. Students also learn to demonstrate the transfer of SIP by explaining how they spell or decode big words when reading or writing.

This is a resource that can be used for whole group, small group, independent practice to help students monitor their comprehension. Teachers can adapt it and make it fit the needs of their classroom. It has suggestions for how to use/integrate the resource, but as mentioned above, can be adapted to teach a variety of RL standards. 

Story Maps are used for teaching students to work with story structure for better comprehension. This technique uses visual representations to help students organize important elements of a story. Students learn to summarize the main ideas, characters, setting, and plot of an assigned reading.

Activities, readings and quizzes with answer keys for a variety of levels to help students identify and/or reveal story structures in seleceted passages.

Worksheets with answer keys for a variety of levels to help students identify and/or reveal story structures in seleceted passages.