Say hello to a platform dedicated to industrious, yet overtasked teachers like you. Say goodbye to countless hours spent developing relevant and engaging ELA lessons. Whether you are teaching the fundamentals of grammar, creative writing skills, classic literature, or contemporary fiction, you will find thousands of activities and assessments to help you achieve a healthier work-life balance without sacrificing academic rigor.
Say hello to a platform dedicated to industrious, yet overtasked teachers like you. Say goodbye to countless hours spent developing relevant and engaging ELA lessons. Whether you are teaching the fundamentals of grammar, creative writing skills, classic literature, or contemporary fiction, you will find thousands of activities and assessments to help you achieve a healthier work-life balance without sacrificing academic rigor.
Help high school students go beyond basic reading comprehension and develop critical thinking skills with this close reading analysis worksheet covering Edgar Allan Poe’s short story “The Murders in the Rue Morgue.” An answer key and copy of the public domain narrative are provided. Materials are delivered in Word Document and PDF formats.
This resource may facilitate small-group discussions in which students decode language and pose/respond to questions relating to plot, broad topics, and character development. Using this resource for structured guidance, students will improve their ability to present information, conclusions, and supporting textual evidence clearly and convincingly.
Students will perform the following tasks:
Make a logical inference based on the narrative’s title
Identify what the text states explicitly and implicitly
Discern the intended effect of the author’s language in context
Determine the function of the narrative’s point of view
Consider the effects of the author’s narrative techniques
Verify interpretations of language using reference materials as needed
Examine how characters think, behave, interact, and develop
Contrast the characterizations of the protagonist and the police
Apply knowledge of literary devices with an emphasis on red herring and symbolism
Frontload assigned readings with these vocabulary games and activities to facilitate comprehension of Mary Shelley’s science fiction novel Frankenstein, also known as The Modern Prometheus. Alternatively, stash these materials in an emergency sub folder to keep students meaningfully engaged in the book during unexpected teacher absences. Included are eight vocabulary application activities, eight crossword puzzles, eight word search games, answer keys, and the public domain novel. Materials are delivered in Word Document and PDF formats.
A total of 160 challenging words are addressed:
abhorrent, abstruse, acquiesce, adduce, adjuration, adversary, amiable, apathy, apothecary, approbation, arbiter, ardent, arduous, assuage, augury, balmy, barbarous, benefactor, benumbed, beseech, bewildered, brood, chasten, chimera, chivalrous, combustible, conciliate, congeal, conjecture, console, consternation, convalescence, covet, dart, degenerate, delirium, despondent, detrimental, diffuse, dilatory, dirge, disconsolate, dissipate, docile, dogmatic, emaciated, enraptured, entreat, ephemeral, eradicate, erroneous, exculpate, execration, extricate, feeble, fervently, fester, fetter, fidelity, fortitude, fruitless, gesticulation, haggard, hapless, havoc, ignominy, immerse, immutable, impediment, impervious, impetuous, implore, imprudently, incantation, incessantly, indefatigable, indolence, indulge, inexorable, infallible, ingratitude, innumerable, inquisitive, insuperable, insurmountable, interment, invective, irksome, irresolute, irretrievable, keen, lamentation, lassitude, loathsome, malice, minuteness, mortification, obdurate, obliterate, odious, ominous, omnipotent, opaque, pallid, palpable, paroxysm, pensive, persecute, pertinacity, pertinent, pittance, placid, poignant, precipice, precipitous, predilection, procure, profundity, prognosticate, propagate, radiant, rankle, ravenous, reconcile, redress, rejoice, remissness, remonstrate, replete, reproach, retribution, sagacity, salubrious, satiated, scoff, shrill, singular, solitude, stealth, stigma, strife, stupendous, subsist, superfluous, sustenance, timorous, transitory, tremulous, undulation, unhallowed, unsullied, variegated, venerable, verdure, vivacity, waft, wan, withered, woeful, zeal
By engaging with these activities, students will:
Determine the meaning of unfamiliar and complex words
Consult reference materials in order to learn and verify word meanings
Discern the most proper application of words as they are used in sentences
Frontload assigned readings with these vocabulary games and activities to facilitate comprehension of the dystopian science fiction novel The War of the Worlds by H. G. Wells. Alternatively, stash these materials in an emergency sub folder to keep students meaningfully engaged in the book during unexpected teacher absences. Included are five vocabulary application activities, five crossword puzzles, five word search games, and answer keys. Materials are delivered in Word Document and PDF formats.
A total of 100 challenging words are addressed: abruptly, accost, acuteness, anguish, ashen, assiduously, attenuate, billowy, blundering, brooding, circuitously, circumspection, clamber, complacency, consolation, continuous, dart, denounce, desolate, despondent, dethronement, dexterous, diffuse, diminution, dismal, dissuade, domicile, dominion, dubiously, exhort, expostulate, exuberance, exultant, fecundity, feeble, formidable, fortnight, gesticulation, gloaming, gluttony, grating, haggard, hoarse, imminent, impede, impediment, implore, incandescent, incessant, incongruity, indefatigable, ineffectual, inkling, insensible, instantaneous, interminably, irresolute, jostle, keen, lackadaisical, languid, lethargic, lurid, melancholy, monotony, multitude, noisome, palpable, peril, persecution, persistence, petrify, pitiless, pluckily, propagation, ransack, remonstrance, reproach, repugnance, scarcely, scoff, serenity, shabby, smite, smoldering, solitude, squeamish, stupefy, subtlety, tediously, totter, transient, transitory, tumult, ultimatum, unkempt, vague, vestige, waylay, and weariness.
By engaging with these activities, students will:
Determine the meaning of unfamiliar and complex words
Consult reference materials in order to learn and verify word meanings
Discern the most proper application of words as they are used in sentences
Support vocabulary development and enhance reading comprehension with this set of games and activities to complement the dystopian novel The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood (chapters 40, 41, 42, 43, 44, 45, and 46). A crossword puzzle, word search activity, vocabulary application worksheet, and answer keys are provided. Materials are delivered in Word Document and PDF formats.
Specifically, the following vocabulary terms are addressed: abdicate, assent, banter, complicity, decorous, implore, incredulous, munificent, penance, pervade, placid, platitude, purloin, relinquish, sardonic, serene, shrill, and zeal.
By engaging with these activities, students will:
Determine the meaning of unfamiliar and complex words
Consult reference materials in order to learn and verify word meanings
Discern the most proper application of words as they are used in sentences
Frontload assigned readings with these vocabulary games and activities to facilitate comprehension of Margaret Atwood’s dystopian fiction novel The Handmaid’s Tale. Alternatively, stash these materials in an emergency sub folder to keep students meaningfully engaged in the book during unexpected teacher absences. Included are nine vocabulary application activities, nine crossword puzzles, nine word search games, and answer keys. Materials are delivered in Word Document and PDF formats.
A total of 162 challenging words are addressed: abdicate, absolve, acquisitive, adrenaline, affront, ambiguous, anguished, apathetic, appease, approbation, archaic, assent, atrocity, audacity, banter, barren, bedraggled, benevolent, bereaved, beseech, blasphemy, blatantly, blitzkrieg, camaraderie, candid, catastrophe, clad, clamber, commotion, commune, complicity, condone, conspicuously, debase, decadent, decorous, deferential, defiantly, demurely, diffuse, dingy, disconsolate, dismay, eccentric, emaciated, evasive, falter, famished, fervor, festoon, frivolous, frowzy, fruitful, furtively, futility, gaiety, genial, genteel, grudgingly, heretical, ignominious, illicit, implore, incredulous, indifferent, indignation, indignity, ingratiate, innocuous, insatiability, inscrutable, irreverent, jaunty, jocularity, juvenile, languid, lethargic, lithe, lugubrious, lurid, luxuriate, macabre, martyr, melancholy, melodramatic, menial, mirth, monotony, munificent, obscurity, obsolete, obstinately, opaque, ornate, palpable, paranoid, penance, perfunctory, pervade, pious, placid, plaintively, platitude, plumage, precarious, primitive, procure, prude, purloin, quagmire, querulous, rancid, ravenous, rebuke, relinquish, reminiscence, repentance, replenish, reproach, respectively, revile, rickety, sanctity, sardonic, sedately, serene, servile, shrill, smoldering, sneer, solemn, solitude, squeamish, stagnant, stealthily, suave, subdued, subversive, suffuse, sulky, superfluous, surly, tactile, transgression, treachery, tremulous, trivial, trivialize, uncouth, undulate, vague, viable, vindictive, volition, wary, whimper, whimsical, wimple, wince, wistful, withered, and zeal.
By engaging with these activities, students will:
Determine the meaning of unfamiliar and complex words
Consult reference materials in order to learn and verify word meanings
Discern the most proper application of words as they are used in sentences
Support vocabulary development and enhance reading comprehension with this set of games and activities to complement chapter 1 of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. A crossword puzzle, word search activity, vocabulary application worksheet, and answer keys are provided. Materials are delivered in Word Document and PDF formats.
Specifically, the following vocabulary terms are addressed: ajar, banter, boast, contempt, continually, epigram, feign, fervent, murmur, reproach, riotous, shrill, solemn, subdued, supercilious, swank, totter, and wistfully.
By engaging with these activities, students will:
Determine the meaning of unfamiliar and complex words
Consult reference materials in order to learn and verify word meanings
Discern the most proper application of words as they are used in sentences
Support vocabulary development and enhance reading comprehension with this set of games and activities to complement chapter 2 of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. A crossword puzzle, word search activity, vocabulary application worksheet, and answer keys are provided. Materials are delivered in Word Document and PDF formats.
Specifically, the following vocabulary terms are addressed: ambiguously, apathetically, coarse, countenance, deft, desolate, flounce, haste, incessant, jovially, languid, muslin, obscure, saunter, scrawny, strident, sumptuous, and vigorously.
By engaging with these activities, students will:
Determine the meaning of unfamiliar and complex words
Consult reference materials in order to learn and verify word meanings
Discern the most proper application of words as they are used in sentences
Support vocabulary development and enhance reading comprehension with this set of games and activities to complement chapter 5 of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. A crossword puzzle, word search activity, vocabulary application worksheet, and answer keys are provided. Materials are delivered in Word Document and PDF formats.
Specifically, the following vocabulary terms are addressed: abortive, confounding, corrugated, defunct, disheveled, exultant, fumble, gaudily, innumerable, nebulous, obliged, obstinate, peasantry, ragged, reluctance, scrutinize, suppressed, and tactlessly.
By engaging with these activities, students will:
Determine the meaning of unfamiliar and complex words
Consult reference materials in order to learn and verify word meanings
Discern the most proper application of words as they are used in sentences
Support vocabulary development and enhance reading comprehension with this set of activities to complement the Gothic fiction novel Dracula by Bram Stoker (chapters 1, 2, 3, and 4). A vocabulary application worksheet, a crossword puzzle, a word search game, and answer keys are provided. Materials are delivered in Word Document and PDF formats.
Specifically, the following vocabulary terms are addressed: alacrity, bauble, coarse, dilapidated, disheveled, doggedly, famished, gloomy, impalpable, imperious, menial, mirth, nebulous, polyglot, precipice, reticent, salient, serpentine, tangible, and uncanny.
By engaging with these activities, students will:
Determine the meaning of unfamiliar and complex words
Consult reference materials in order to learn and verify word meanings
Discern the most proper application of words as they are used in sentences
Support vocabulary development and enhance reading comprehension with this set of games and activities to complement chapter 9 of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. A crossword puzzle, word search activity, vocabulary application worksheet, and answer keys are provided. Materials are delivered in Word Document and PDF formats.
Specifically, the following vocabulary terms are addressed: adventitious, aesthetic, brooding, complacency, continuously, ghastly, imply, indignantly, lingeringly, raspingly, recede, reverent, solidarity, squeamishness, superfluous, transitory, unpunctual, and vestibule.
By engaging with these activities, students will:
Determine the meaning of unfamiliar and complex words
Consult reference materials in order to learn and verify word meanings
Discern the most proper application of words as they are used in sentences
Support vocabulary development and enhance reading comprehension with this set of games and activities to complement chapter 8 of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. A crossword puzzle, word search activity, vocabulary application worksheet, and answer keys are provided. Materials are delivered in Word Document and PDF formats.
Specifically, the following vocabulary terms are addressed: ashen, bewildered, corroborate, dejection, exasperated, humidor, incoherent, incorruptible, indiscernible, interminable, protégé, ravenously, redolent, scarcely, scurry, tranquil, unscrupulously, and withered.
By engaging with these activities, students will:
Determine the meaning of unfamiliar and complex words
Consult reference materials in order to learn and verify word meanings
Discern the most proper application of words as they are used in sentences
Support vocabulary development and enhance reading comprehension with this set of games and activities to complement chapter 6 of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. A crossword puzzle, word search activity, vocabulary application worksheet, and answer keys are provided. Materials are delivered in Word Document and PDF formats.
Specifically, the following vocabulary terms are addressed: cordial, dilatory, dismayed, elicit, euphemism, genially, hospitality, ingratiate, insidious, laudable, lethargic, meretricious, notoriety, obtrusive, reveries, shiftless, turgid, and unwavering.
By engaging with these activities, students will:
Determine the meaning of unfamiliar and complex words
Consult reference materials in order to learn and verify word meanings
Discern the most proper application of words as they are used in sentences
Support vocabulary development and enhance reading comprehension with this set of games and activities to complement chapter 7 of The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald. A crossword puzzle, word search activity, vocabulary application worksheet, and answer keys are provided. Materials are delivered in Word Document and PDF formats.
Specifically, the following vocabulary terms are addressed: abounding, abyss, affront, dart, earnestly, elude, gibberish, inviolate, keenly, portentous, presumptuous, relinquish, sagely, sneer, tangible, truculent, weary, and whimper.
By engaging with these activities, students will:
Determine the meaning of unfamiliar and complex words
Consult reference materials in order to learn and verify word meanings
Discern the most proper application of words as they are used in sentences
Frontload assigned readings with these vocabulary games and activities to facilitate comprehension of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novel The Great Gatsby. Alternatively, stash these materials in an emergency sub folder to keep students meaningfully engaged in the book during unexpected teacher absences. Included are nine vocabulary application activities, nine crossword puzzles, nine word search games, and answer keys. Materials are delivered in Word Document and PDF formats.
A total of 162 challenging words are addressed: abortive, abounding, abyss, adventitious, aesthetic, affront, ajar, ambiguously, apathetically, ashen, banter, bewildered, boast, brooding, coarse, complacency, confounding, contempt, continually, continuously, cordial, corroborate, corrugated, countenance, credulity, dart, deft, defunct, dejection, desolate, dilatory, disheveled, dismayed, earnestly, effectually, elicit, elude, engrossed, epigram, euphemism, evoke, exasperated, exultant, feign, fervent, flounce, fluctuate, fumble, gaudily, genially, ghastly, gibberish, haste, haughty, hospitality, humidor, implore, imply, incessant, incoherent, incorruptible, incredulous, indifferent, indignantly, indiscernible, ingratiate, innumerable, inquire, insidious, interminable, inviolate, jauntily, jovially, keenly, languid, laudable, lethargic, lingeringly, melancholy, melodious, meretricious, modish, monopolize, murmur, muslin, nebulous, notoriety, notorious, obliged, obscure, obstinate, obtrusive, peasantry, penitentiary, permeate, poignant, portentous, presumptuous, protégé, punctilious, ragged, raspingly, ravenously, recede, redolent, relinquish, reluctance, reproach, retribution, reverent, reveries, riotous, sagely, saunter, scamper, scarcely, scornful, scrawny, scrutinize, scurry, sentimental, shiftless, shrill, skeptically, sneer, solemn, solidarity, squeamishness, strident, subdued, subtle, sumptuous, supercilious, superfluous, suppressed, swank, swoon, tactlessly, tangible, tinny, totter, tranquil, transitory, truculent, turgid, unintelligible, unpunctual, unscrupulously, unwavering, urbane, vacuous, vague, vehemently, veranda, vestibule, vigorously, vitality, wan, weary, whimper, wistfully, and withered.
By engaging with these activities, students will:
Determine the meaning of unfamiliar and complex words
Consult reference materials in order to learn and verify word meanings
Discern the most proper application of words as they are used in sentences
Evaluate reading comprehension, support the development of critical thinking skills, and eliminate assessment planning responsibilities with this bundle for teaching the classic Grimm’s fairy tale “The Fox and the Cat,” a cautionary story about hubris and its consequences. A plot-based quiz, a close reading analysis worksheet, the public domain short story, and answer keys are included. The brevity of the narrative helps to fill awkward gaps in the teaching schedule, while the supporting activity upholds rigor in the classroom. Materials are delivered in Word Document and PDF formats. By engaging with these materials, students will:
Identify what the text states explicitly and implicitly
Describe the tone of a given excerpt
Verify interpretations of language using reference materials as needed
Discern the intended effect of figurative language in context
Consider the greater significance of a given detail
Examine how complex characters think, behave, interact, and develop
Apply knowledge of literary devices with an emphasis on hubris, invective, and metaphor
Explore themes in context
Support vocabulary development and enhance reading comprehension with this set of activities to complement the Gothic fiction novel Dracula by Bram Stoker (chapters 5, 6, and 7). A vocabulary application worksheet, a crossword puzzle, a word search game, and answer keys are provided. Materials are delivered in Word Document and PDF formats.
Specifically, the following vocabulary terms are addressed: acquiesce, assent, brooding, brute, cackle, cerebration, exquisite, gnarled, haggard, heresy, humbly, implore, pious, pique, resolute, reverently, salvation, sneer, and vivacity.
By engaging with these activities, students will:
Determine the meaning of unfamiliar and complex words
Consult reference materials in order to learn and verify word meanings
Discern the most proper application of words as they are used in sentences
Support vocabulary development and enhance reading comprehension with this set of activities to complement the Gothic fiction novel Dracula by Bram Stoker (chapters 8, 9, and 10). A vocabulary application worksheet, a crossword puzzle, a word search game, and answer keys are provided. Materials are delivered in Word Document and PDF formats.
Specifically, the following vocabulary terms are addressed: furtively, haughty, horrid, injunction, languid, lethargic, lurid, melancholy, obstinately, obviate, omnipotent, paroxysm, remonstrate, stupendous, suavely, swoon, vocation, and woefully.
By engaging with these activities, students will:
Determine the meaning of unfamiliar and complex words
Consult reference materials in order to learn and verify word meanings
Discern the most proper application of words as they are used in sentences
Support vocabulary development and enhance reading comprehension with this set of activities to complement the Gothic fiction novel Dracula by Bram Stoker (chapters 11, 12, and 13). A vocabulary application worksheet, a crossword puzzle, a word search game, and answer keys are provided. Materials are delivered in Word Document and PDF formats.
Specifically, the following vocabulary terms are addressed: ashen, avarice, badinage, decorum, dismay, emaciated, engrossed, feeble, fitfully, harrowing, insolent, obsequious, pedantry, placidly, poignant, sentimental, wary, and weary.
By engaging with these activities, students will:
Determine the meaning of unfamiliar and complex words
Consult reference materials in order to learn and verify word meanings
Discern the most proper application of words as they are used in sentences
Support vocabulary development and enhance reading comprehension with this set of activities to complement the Gothic fiction novel Dracula by Bram Stoker (chapters 14, 15, 16, and 17). A vocabulary application worksheet, a crossword puzzle, a word search game, and answer keys are provided. Materials are delivered in Word Document and PDF formats.
Specifically, the following vocabulary terms are addressed: beseech, chagrin, consternation, demurely, desecration, detrimentally, eccentricity, genially, indignation, laconically, livid, phlegmatic, redress, reproach, repudiate, tacit, tremulous, and verbatim.
By engaging with these activities, students will:
Determine the meaning of unfamiliar and complex words
Consult reference materials in order to learn and verify word meanings
Discern the most proper application of words as they are used in sentences
Support vocabulary development and enhance reading comprehension with this set of activities to complement the Gothic fiction novel Dracula by Bram Stoker (chapters 25, 26, and 27). A crossword puzzle, a word search game, a vocabulary application worksheet, and answer keys are provided. Materials are delivered in Word Document and PDF formats.
Specifically, the following vocabulary terms are addressed: afresh, appease, ardor, conspicuously, corroborate, desolate, enigmatical, hasten, impetuosity, incite, keen, meekly, peril, procure, quaint, remonstrance, subdued, and vindictive.
By engaging with these activities, students will:
Determine the meaning of unfamiliar and complex words
Consult reference materials in order to learn and verify word meanings
Discern the most proper application of words as they are used in sentences