Why use 50 words when 15 gets the same point across? Use an online interactive webpage to fine tune the writing skills of your middle schoolers. As they read 10 sentences, they eliminate as many words as possible...

Review some commonly confused words with your middle schoolers. With this two-page learning exercise, they review lay and lie. With each sentence provided, they must choose which one of the target words would best complete the sentence....

Are you struggling to get a rich discussion going between your learners? Use these questions to spark a natural conversation about advertising and the media. Learners pair up, and each speaker gets a different set of questions to ask...

In this Earth Science worksheet, students read about the Greenhouse Effect and the difference between natural and amplified warming. Following, they answer ten short answer questions related to what they read about global climate issues.

In August of 2011 an earthquake shook the nation's capitol, and became a newsworthy event; learners read this New York Times article to find out why. They read the piece then answer nine related comprehension questions. Two additional...

Responding to text is a very important skill that follows learners wherever they go. They respond to two comprehension questions after reading an excerpt from William Bennett's The Great Famine in Ireland. They consider what they read in...

Informational texts come in all shapes and sizes. Your kids will read the New York Times article, "Preparing for Passover" then answer seven comprehension questions. The answer to each question is located in embedded hyperlinks. 

This is an awesome exercise. Learners use this worksheet as they examine an advertisement from a past decade (you need to provide). They answer five questions that aid them in analyzing the ad and the portrayal of women from that time...

Being able to read and recall is a very important skill. Why not have learners read about an American holiday phenomenon? They'll answer who, what, when, where, why, and how with regard to a New York Times article about a school for...

Having an interesting reading passage can really help some kids get into history. Here are five reading comprehension and recall questions related to the provided reading passage. They'll read about King John II of Portugal, his...

After reading the article "Fun, and Risks, at the Beach in Tel Aviv," learners consider eight related questions. They'll answer who, what, when, where, why, and how about the risks several Palestinian women took as they snuck over the...

This is both a great idea and a great way to help your class organize a themed project. They use these worksheets to assist them in writing a creative historical narrative about the life and travels of an explorer. They'll compare and...

In this making a time capsule worksheet, students collect a variety of family items to place in a container to be buried and then reopened in a year. Students write why what they chose to bury was important to them on the lines provided.

As middle and high schoolers experiment with their writing styles, it's easy to slip in a few accidental sentence fragments. After reading a full-page of information regarding how to identify and avoid sentence fragments, learners...

What a great review of reflexive pronouns! Grammarians of all ages will benefit from this packet. The first page gives descriptions and examples of different reflexive pronouns and common mistakes. The second page holds two, short...

Timelines of historical events can be very handy for compare and contrast, recalling dates, or understanding cause and effect. Hand out this timeline that outlines events related to the control and formation of government in the...

Building fluency in reading informational text is part of the common core. Get learners reading information about past and current issues related to the country of Afghanistan. They read the seven paragraph passage, then answer four...

In this Christopher Columbus worksheet, students utilize the Internet to access a specific website to find the answers to eight short answer questions associated with the voyages of Christopher Columbus.

Not all homographs are the same! Actually, that's exactly what the definition means; the spelling is the same, but the meanings are different! Look at some common homographs with your class. Example words include: bow, desert, produce,...

Inspire creative writing by studying similes. This sheet provides learners with 10 different topics, and they must create a simile for each topic. Example topics include: favorite teacher, the waterfall, a parrot, the first day of...

The use of metaphors really paints a picture in the reader's mind. Get your class using metaphors in their writing by studying them first. This worksheet has four simple metaphors, and the reader must identify which two things are being...

Add interest to your class's writing by having them focus on strong verbs. Using this worksheet, first have them identify all of the main verbs in each sentence. Then, have them rewrite each sentence using a stronger verb. Practice often...

Could have, should have, would have learned your auxiliary verbs! Use this resource to describe the meaning of each set of words, and then let your kids try to complete the given sentences. Since most people don't actually take the time...

How are active and passive sentences constructed? After introducing your intermediate writers to each and providing examples, complete this two-page worksheet. Your writers take the sentences written and transform them from active to...