English Language Arts Toolkit

This Nonfiction Text Structures Bundle includes fifteen lessons perfect for teaching high school students the nonfiction text structures used in informational and explanatory texts: description, sequence or chronological order, comparison and contrast, cause and effect, and problem and solution. Through guided notes, teacher modeling, and independent practice, students understand and apply the concept of nonfiction text structure when reading, summarizing, and writing informational and explanat

This Nonfiction Text Structures Bundle includes fifteen lessons perfect for teaching middle school students the nonfiction text structures used in informational and explanatory texts: description, sequence or chronological order, comparison and contrast, cause and effect, and problem and solution. Through guided notes, teacher modeling, and independent practice, students understand and apply the concept of nonfiction text structure when reading, summarizing, and writing informational and explan

Looking for an engaging peer review activity that teaches students to effectively give and receive helpful, specific peer feedback? The Glows and Grows peer feedback strategy has students use peer review sheets and sentence stems to share positive comments and help each other identify priorities for revising and improving their writing. HOW IT WORKSStudents take ownership of the collaborative peer review process as they read and respond to each other’s work. Peer feedback forms and sentence sta

Feedback has a powerful impact on students’ growth as writers, and the peer critique and revision process is an essential part of a student-centered writing classroom. This resource makes it easy to teach students how to effectively peer review each other’s writing, supports them as they give meaningful, constructive peer feedback, and guides the reflection and revision process as they apply the feedback from their peers. This bundle includes an I ntroduction to Effective Peer Feedback lesson,

This engaging and interactive hands-on nonfiction text structure concept sort activity helps high school students review and gain deeper understanding of the organizational text structures found in informational and explanatory nonfiction texts. HOW IT WORKS❊ Students work individually, in pairs, or in small groups to create tables of information about five text structures: description, sequence or chronological order, comparison and contrast, cause and effect, and problem and solution. ❊ Stude

Looking for an engaging peer review activity that teaches students to effectively give and receive helpful, specific peer feedback? The Praise Question Suggestion (aka P.A.M.) peer feedback strategy has students use peer review forms and sentence stems to share positive comments, ask questions, and offer suggestions for revising and improving their partner’s writing. HOW IT WORKSStudents take ownership of the collaborative peer review process as they read and respond to each other’s work. Peer

Looking for an interactive and engaging way for students to learn about connotation and denotation, expand their character trait vocabularies, and practice their word choice skills as writers? This Connotation and Denotation of Character Traits Hands-On Word Sorts Bundle includes eight lessons with guided notes on denotation and connotation, hands-on word sort activities, and a writing activity for students to practice applying character traits with similar denotations and different connotati

Looking for an engaging peer review activity that teaches students to effectively give and receive helpful, specific peer feedback? The T.A.G. Peer Feedback strategy has students use peer review sheets and sentence stems to share positive comments, ask thoughtful questions, and offer suggestions to help each other identify a focus for revising and improving their writing. HOW IT WORKSStudents take ownership of the collaborative peer review process as they read and respond to each other’s work.

Ready to boost your students' reading comprehension and academic discussion skills? Say Something is a during-reading strategy that engages students in active reading and text-based conversation to construct meaning as they read and discuss a text in pairs. Reading with a partner, students stop periodically to share their thinking using the prompts and sentence stems provided on the Say Something Conversation Cards. ★ GET MORE FOR LESS ★ with Conversation Card Bundles!HOW IT WORKSThis acti

Ready for your students to gain a deeper understanding of Romeo and Juliet? Hexagonal Thinking combines a concept sort and visible thinking strategy with student-centered text-based discussion to engage students in creative thinking and literary analysis as they develop critical insights into the play. ★ GET MORE FOR LESS ★ with the Romeo and Juliet Hexagonal Thinking Digital and Printable Duo!HOW IT WORKSStudents arrange hexagon-shaped cards to show meaningful connections between chara

This engaging and interactive hands-on nonfiction text structure concept sort activity helps middle school students review and gain deeper understanding of the organizational text structures found in informational and explanatory nonfiction texts. HOW IT WORKS❊ Students work individually, in pairs, or in small groups to create tables of information about five text structures: description, sequence or chronological order, comparison and contrast, cause and effect, and problem and solution. ❊ Stu

In this poetry writing lesson, students take inspiration from the natural world and focus on figurative language – especially metaphors, similes, and personification – as they incorporate descriptive writing into their poems about nature. HOW IT WORKSStudents closely examine a nature object to brainstorm descriptive words and phrases including metaphors, similes, and personification. After annotating and analyzing a mentor text, they write poems using figurative language comparing their natur

Ready for your students to gain a deeper understanding of Romeo and Juliet? Hexagonal Thinking combines a concept sort and visible thinking strategy with text-based discussion to engage students in creative thinking and literary analysis as they develop critical insights into the play. HOW IT WORKSStudents arrange hexagon-shaped cards to show meaningful connections between characters, themes, symbols, and quotations from Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. Working together, they must explain, jus

Here's a fun and memorable way to teach students about the importance of punctuation on Valentine's Day! This two-page worksheet has a message that can be punctuated in two different ways. One way, it’s a love letter. The other way, it’s a break-up letter. Students add punctuation and capitalization with drag-and-drop editing symbols to create both letters without changing, adding, or deleting any of the words. ★ GET MORE FOR LESS ★ with the Valentine's Day Middle School ELA Bundle or

Ready for your students to gain a deeper understanding of Lord of the Flies? Hexagonal Thinking combines a concept sort and visible thinking strategy with text-based discussion to engage students in creative thinking and literary analysis as they develop critical insights into the play. HOW IT WORKSStudents arrange hexagon-shaped cards to show meaningful connections between characters, themes, symbols, and quotations from William Golding’s Lord of the Flies. Working together, they must explai

The Nonfiction Text Structure: Cause and Effect Bundle includes three integrated reading and writing lessons perfect for teaching high school students the nonfiction text structure: cause and effect. Through guided notes, teacher modeling, and independent practice, students learn to understand and apply the concept of nonfiction text structure when reading, summarizing, and writing informational and explanatory texts that are organized using the cause and effect text structure. This resource in

Ready for your students to gain a deeper understanding of Hamlet? Hexagonal Thinking combines a concept sort and visible thinking strategy with student-centered text-based discussion to engage students in creative thinking and literary analysis as they develop critical insights into the play. HOW IT WORKSStudents arrange hexagon-shaped cards to show meaningful connections between characters, themes, symbols, and quotations from Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Working together, they must explain, justif

Feedback has a powerful impact on students’ growth as writers, and the peer critique and revision process is an essential part of a student-centered writing classroom. This resource makes it easy to teach students how to effectively peer review each other’s writing. The Effective Peer Feedback for Writing Peer Review scaffolds and support students as they learn to give meaningful, constructive feedback when they peer review each other’s writing. HOW IT WORKSThis lesson includes direct instruct

Ready for your students to gain a deeper understanding of Animal Farm? Hexagonal Thinking combines a concept sort and visible thinking strategy with student-centered text-based discussion to engage students in creative thinking and literary analysis as they develop critical insights into the novel. HOW IT WORKSStudents arrange hexagon-shaped cards to show meaningful connections between characters, themes, symbols, and quotations from George Orwell’s Animal Farm. Working together, they must ex

Ready for your students to gain a deeper understanding of Hamlet? Hexagonal Thinking combines a concept sort and visible thinking strategy with text-based discussion to engage students in creative thinking and literary analysis as they develop critical insights into the play. HOW IT WORKSStudents arrange hexagon-shaped cards to show meaningful connections between characters, themes, symbols, and quotations from Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Working together, they must explain, justify, and defend the