Evaluate general reading comprehension, facilitate vocabulary development, and sharpen critical thinking skills with this bundle of materials for teaching Louise Erdrich’s short story “The Leap.” A plot-based quiz, close reading analysis worksheet, vocabulary application activity, crossword puzzle, word search game, and answer keys are provided. Materials are delivered in editable Word Document and printable 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. By engaging with these activities, students will: Identify what the text states explicitly as well as implicitly Determine the meaning of unfamiliar and complex words Consult reference materials in order to learn and verify word meanings Choose the most proper application of words as they are used in sentences Consider the multiple possible meanings of the story’s title Isolate examples of figurative language used in the text Discern the intended effect of the author’s narrative techniques Explore how the author conveys a sense of liveliness and urgency Determine the function of a given excerpt Examine how complex characters think, behave, interact, and develop Support claims and inferences with sound reasoning and relevant evidence Write about literature with clarity, accuracy, and precision

Frontload assigned readings with these vocabulary games and activities to facilitate comprehension of Aldous Huxley’s novel Brave New World. Alternatively, stash these materials in an emergency sub folder to keep students meaningfully engaged in the book during unexpected teacher absences. Included are six vocabulary application activities, six crossword puzzles, six word search games, and answer keys. Materials are delivered in Word Document and PDF formats. A total of 79 challenging words are addressed: anguish, apoplectic, apprehension, bleakly, clamber, concede, conspicuous, continual, continuous, crude, curtly, deferential, derisive, earnestly, eccentricity, effect, emaciated, emphatic, exasperated, exultant, feebly, ferocity, flare, furtively, gaudily, genial, haggard, heretical, illicit, implore, importunately, impudent, incessant, indefatigable, indignation, inexorable, infamous, ingratiating, innocuous, irrepressibly, irresolute, keen, languish, melancholy, menial, mirth, morsel, multitudinous, obstinately, pallid, persecution, plaintive, portentously, precipitous, proffer, propagation, propitiatingly, quaint, reminiscence, respectively, reverently, scurry, shrill, shudder, sibilant, solemn, solidarity, solitude, sonorous, stealthy, suffuse, superfluous, tangible, timid, tremulous, undulate, vague, venerable, 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

Frontload assigned readings with these vocabulary games and activities to facilitate comprehension of William Golding’s novel Lord of the Flies. Alternatively, stash these materials in an emergency sub folder to keep students meaningfully engaged in the book during unexpected teacher absences. Included are 12 vocabulary application activities, 12 crossword puzzles, 12 word search games, and answer keys. Materials are delivered in Word Document and PDF formats. A total of 132 challenging words are addressed: abruptly, antagonism, aromatic, assent, barmy, befoul, bleakly, bough, brandish, bravado, brooding, cascade, ceaseless, clamber, clamor, coarse, complementary, contemptuously, continual, continuous, conviction, corpulent, crepitation, crestfallen, curtly, cynically, dart, daunting, declivity, decorous, derisive, diffidently, dreary, dun, earnestly, ebullience, eccentric, effect, effigy, elephantine, embroiled, emphatic, enmity, ensconce, exult, farthest, feeble, ferocity, fervor, festoon, flare, fleeting, flinch, flitter, flourish, furtive, gaudy, gesticulate, glower, goad, governable, grim, illusive, impervious, incredulous, indignation, ineffectual, inexpertly, inimical, inscrutable, intently, interrogative, iridescent, jeeringly, lamentation, lavatory, leaden, leviathan, liberation, luminous, meekly, minutely, multitudinous, murmur, mutinously, mutter, nimble, obscurity, oppressive, pallidly, pallor, pitilessly, primly, proffer, propitiatingly, quench, rebuke, relentlessly, saunter, scowl, scurry, sensibly, serenade, shrill, shudder, sneer, sodden, solemn, splutter, steadfast, strident, stupendous, subdued, tacit, theological, torrid, tottery, tremulous, ululation, unendurable, ungainly, ungraspable, unhandily, vague, vexed, vicissitude, vivid, wary, waxy, weary, wield, and woebegone. 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