Course Standards
General Course Information and Notes
Version Description
The purpose of this course is to provide instruction that enables students to accelerate the development of reading and writing skills and to strengthen those skills so they are able to successfully read and write middle grade level text independently. Instruction emphasizes reading comprehension, writing fluency, and vocabulary study through the use of a variety of literary and informational texts encompassing a broad range of text structures, genres, and levels of complexity. Texts used for instruction focus on a wide range of topics, including content-area information, in order to support students in meeting the knowledge demands of increasingly complex text. Students enrolled in the course will engage in interactive text-based discussion, question generation, and research opportunities. They will write in response to reading and cite evidence when answering text dependent questions orally and in writing. The course provides extensive opportunities for students to collaborate with their peers. Scaffolding is provided as necessary as students engage in reading and writing increasingly complex text and is removed as the reading and writing abilities of students improve over time.Important Note: Reading and writing courses should not be used in place of English language arts courses; reading and writing courses are intended to be used to supplement further study in English language arts.
The Intensive courses have been designed for the teacher to select and teach only the appropriate standards corresponding to a student’s grade and/or instructional level. The courses should not be used in place of grade level English language arts courses and are intended to provide intervention for students who have reading deficiencies.
General Notes
General Notes: The course includes, but is not limited to, the following:- determining central ideas or themes of a text and analyzing their development as well as summarizing the key supporting details and ideas;
- interpreting words and phrases as they are used in a text, including determining technical, connotative, and figurative meanings, and analyzing how specific word choices shape meaning or tone;
- analyzing the structure of texts, including how specific sentences, paragraphs, and larger portions of the text (e.g., a section, chapter, scene, or stanza) relate to each other and the whole;
- integrating and evaluating content presented in diverse formats and media, including visually and quantitatively, as well as in words;
- delineating and evaluating the argument and specific claims in a text, including the validity of the reasoning as well as the source, relevance and sufficiency of the evidence;
- analyzing how two or more texts address similar themes or topics in order to build knowledge or to compare the approaches the authors take;
- writing in response to reading, emulating authors’ structures, word choices, styles, etc.
It is necessary to implement a combination of research-based programs and strategies that have been proven successful in accelerating the development of literacy skills in older readers. The following practices should be incorporated in the course:
- Scaffolding of close reading is provided but does not preempt or replace text.
- Systematic instruction in vocabulary is provided.
- Explicit instruction in applying grammatical structures and conventions is provided.
- Student independence is cultivated.
Instructional Practices: Teaching from well-written, grade-level instructional materials enhances students’ content area knowledge and also strengthens their ability to comprehend longer, complex reading passages on any topic for any purpose. Using the following instructional practices also helps student learning.
- Reading assignments from longer text passages, as well as shorter ones when text is extremely complex.
- Making close reading and rereading of texts central to lessons.
- Asking high-level, text-specific questions and requiring high-level, complex tasks and assignments.
- Requiring students to support answers with evidence from the text.
- Providing extensive text-based research and writing opportunities (claims and evidence).
In those instances when this course is repeated for credit, the content should be differentiated based on reliable and valid assessment data. If repeated, the required level of student proficiency should increase. If students are making adequate progress (accelerated growth) in a given intervention, that intervention should be continued. If students are not making adequate progress, a new intervention should be implemented.
General Information
- Class Size Core Required
Educator Certifications
Student Resources
Original Student Tutorials
Learn to identify aspects of setting and character as you analyze several excerpts from “The Yellow Wallpaper," a chilling short story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman that explores the impact on its narrator of being confined to mostly one room. You'll also determine how the narrator’s descriptions of the story’s setting better reveal her emotional and mental state.
This interactive tutorial is Part One in a two-part series. By the end of Part Two, you should be able to explain how the narrator changes through her interaction with the setting. Click below to launch Part Two.
The Power to Cure or Impair: The Importance of Setting in 'The Yellow Wallpaper' -- Part Two
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Continue to examine several excerpts from the chilling short story “The Yellow Wallpaper” by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, which explores the impact on its narrator of being confined to mostly one room. In Part Two of this tutorial series, you'll determine how the narrator’s descriptions of the story’s setting reveal its impact on her emotional and mental state. By the end of this tutorial, you should be able to explain how the narrator changes through her interaction with the setting.
Make sure to complete Part One before beginning Part Two. Click HERE to launch "The Power to Cure or Impair: The Importance of Setting in 'The Yellow Wallpaper' -- Part One."
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore the mysterious poem “The House on the Hill” by Edwin Arlington Robinson in this interactive tutorial. As you explore the poem's message about the past, you’ll identify the features of a villanelle in the poem. By the end of this tutorial, you should be able to explain how the form of a villanelle contributes to the poem's meaning.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Continue to explore the significance of the famous poem “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus, lines from which are engraved on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty.
In Part Two of this two-part series, you’ll identify the features of a sonnet in the poem "The New Colossus." By the end of this tutorial, you should be able to explain how the form of a sonnet contributes to the poem's meaning.
Make sure to complete Part One before beginning Part Two.
Click HERE to launch "A Giant of Size and Power -- Part One: Exploring the Significance of 'The New Colossus.'"
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Continue to explore excerpts from the beginning of the historical fiction novel The Red Umbrella by Christina Diaz Gonzalez in Part Two of this two-part series. In Part Two, you'll examine how setting influences characters.
Make sure to complete Part One first. Click HERE to launch "Analyzing the Beginning of The Red Umbrella -- Part One: How Setting Influences Events."
Type: Original Student Tutorial
In Part One, explore the significance of the famous poem “The New Colossus” by Emma Lazarus, lines from which are engraved on the pedestal of the Statue of Liberty.
This famous poem also happens to be in the form of a sonnet. In Part Two of this two-part series, you’ll identify the features of a sonnet in the poem. By the end of this tutorial series, you should be able to explain how the form of a sonnet contributes to the poem's meaning. Make sure to complete both parts!
Click HERE to launch "A Giant of Size and Power -- Part Two: How the Form of a Sonnet Contributes to Meaning in 'The New Colossus.'"
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore excerpts from the beginning of the historical fiction novel The Red Umbrella by Christina Diaz Gonzalez in this two-part series. In Part One, you'll examine how setting influences events. In Part Two, you'll examine how setting influences characters.
Make sure to complete both parts! Click HERE to launch Part Two.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how characters' actions and responses develop the main characters and advance the plot during key events in the beginning of the novel Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli with this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Continue to explore references to sight in the first chapter of Edward Bloor's novel Tangerine and how they convey different meanings and reveal information about characters.
This interactive tutorial is part 2 of 2. Click HERE to launch Part One.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore the difference between vision and perception and how words related to sight convey different meanings and reveal information about characters in the first chapter of Edward Bloor's novel Tangerine.
This interactive tutorial is part 1 of 2. Click HERE to launch Part Two.
In Part Two, you'll continue to examine references to sight in the first chapter of Tangerine. You'll examine how these references convey different meanings and reveal information about characters.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn more about how dialogue, a character’s thoughts, and key events can reveal aspects of a character as you read excerpts from the exciting science fiction novel Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. As you learn more about Ender, the main character, you’ll piece together information about the world in which he lives and his unique situation given the demands of his environment.
This interactive tutorial is Part Two of a two-part series. Make sure to complete both parts! Click HERE to launch Part One.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how dialogue, a character’s thoughts, and key events can reveal aspects of a character as you read excerpts from the exciting science fiction novel Ender’s Game by Orson Scott Card. As you learn more about Ender, the main character, you’ll piece together information about the world in which he lives and his unique situation given the demands of his environment.
This interactive tutorial is Part One of a two-part series. Make sure to complete both parts! Click HERE to launch Part Two.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore excerpts from the nonfiction book George Washington’s Secret Six: The Spies Who Saved America in this interactive tutorial. This tutorial is the final part of a four-part series. In this tutorial, you’ll read two more passages from the book about Washington’s spies. You’ll also determine the central ideas of the passages, identify key details, and practice writing a summary of a text.
You should complete the previous tutorials in this series before beginning Part Four.
Click HERE to launch Part One.
Click HERE to launch Part Two.
Click HERE to launch Part Three.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore excerpts from the nonfiction book George Washington’s Secret Six: The Spies Who Saved America in this interactive tutorial. This tutorial is Part Three of a four-part series. In this tutorial, you'll read another passage from the book, identify the topic, and determine the central idea. Then, you'll review the central ideas from all the passages you've read throughout this series and examine how each central idea helps develop an overarching central idea of all the passages.
Make sure to complete the other tutorials in this series.
Click HERE to launch Part One.
Click HERE to launch Part Two.
Click HERE to launch Part Four.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore excerpts from the nonfiction book George Washington’s Secret Six: The Spies Who Saved America with this interactive tutorial. In this four-part series, you'll analyze several passages from the book and learn how to extract key information along the way. In Part Two, you'll read another passage from the book, identify the topic, determine the central idea, and examine how key details help develop the central idea.
Make sure to complete the other tutorials in this series.
Click HERE to launch Part One.
Click HERE to launch Part Three.
Click HERE to launch Part Four.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore excerpts from the nonfiction book George Washington’s Secret Six: The Spies Who Saved America with this interactive tutorial. In this four-part series, you'll analyze several passages from the book and learn how to extract key information along the way. By the end of Part One, you should be able to distinguish topics from central ideas and identify central ideas and key details in the text.
Make sure to complete the other tutorials in this series.
Click HERE to launch Part Two.
Click HERE to launch Part Three.
Click HERE to launch Part Four.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Examine how a significant event can influence individuals and ideas in this tutorial series about one of the most studied human injuries of all time. Read excerpts from John Fleischman’s book, Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True Story About Brain Science to learn about a young man’s remarkable survival after a near-fatal accident.
This tutorial is Part Three of a three-part series. Make sure to complete the other parts first.
Click HERE to launch Part One.
Click HERE to launch Part Two.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Examine how a significant event can influence individuals and ideas in this tutorial series about one of the most studied human injuries of all time. Read excerpts from John Fleischman’s book Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True Story About Brain Science to learn about a young man’s remarkable survival after a near-fatal accident.
This tutorial is Part Two in a three-part series. Make sure to complete Part One first. Click HERE to launch Part One.
Then, make sure to complete Part Three! Click HERE to launch Part Three.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Examine how a significant event can influence individuals and ideas in this interactive tutorial series about one of the most studied human injuries of all time. Read excerpts from John Fleischman’s book Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True Story About Brain Science to learn about a young man’s remarkable survival after a near-fatal accident. Phineas Gage, at the age of twenty-six, survived a traumatic brain injury that would not only challenge the scientific understandings of his time but would also provide interesting revelations about the human brain to this day.
In Part One, you’ll begin to identify what makes a particular event significant, such as how a life-altering injury—like what happened to Phineas Gage—can influence an individual.
This tutorial is Part One of a three-part series. Make sure to complete all three parts!
Click HERE to launch Part Two.
Click HERE to launch Part Three.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore excerpts from astronaut Scott Kelly’s autobiography, Endurance: A Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery, in this interactive tutorial. Using these excerpts, you’ll identify several important experiences in Scott Kelly’s young life that had a crucial impact on his later success. You’ll also determine how these events shaped important ideas or life lessons that Scott learned along the way. Finally, you’ll examine the connection between these important life events and the ideas or lessons Scott learned to determine how he discovered what it takes to achieve the nearly impossible.
This tutorial is Part Three of a three-part series. Make sure to complete Part One and Part Two before beginning Part Three.
Click HERE to launch Part One.
Click HERE to launch Part Two.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore excerpts from astronaut Scott Kelly’s autobiography, Endurance: A Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery, in this interactive tutorial. Using these excerpts, you’ll identify several important experiences in Scott Kelly’s young life that had a crucial impact on his later success. You’ll also determine how these events shaped important ideas that Scott learned along the way.
This tutorial is Part Two of a three-part series. Make sure to complete all three parts!
Click HERE to launch Part One.
Click HERE to launch Part Three.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore excerpts from astronaut Scott Kelly’s autobiography, Endurance: A Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery, in this interactive tutorial. Using these excerpts, you’ll identify several important experiences in Scott Kelly’s young life that had a crucial impact on his later success. You’ll also determine how these events shaped important ideas or life lessons that Scott learned along the way. Finally, you’ll examine the connection between these important life events and the ideas or lessons Scott learned to determine how he discovered what it takes to achieve the nearly impossible.
This tutorial is Part One of a three-part series. Make sure to complete all three parts!
Click HERE to launch Part Two.
Click HERE to launch Part Three.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Study excerpts from the essay “America and I” by Anzia Yezierska and learn about how she immigrated to America from Russia in the early 1900s. In this interactive tutorial, you'll analyze the comparisons she makes between her dream of life in America with the reality of her experience as an immigrant in America.
This tutorial is Part Four of a four-part series. Make sure to complete the previous tutorials before beginning Part Four.
Click HERE to launch Part One.
Click HERE to launch Part Two.
Click HERE to launch Part Three.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore the poem “The Twelfth Song of Thunder” from the Navajo Mountain Chant. In this interactive tutorial, you'll examine how a refrain in the poem better develops the theme of the poem.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Study excerpts from the essay “America and I” by Anzia Yezierska and learn about how she immigrated to America from Russia in the early 1900s. In this interactive tutorial, you'll analyze the comparison she makes between being in America but not being seen as American. Analyzing this comparison will help you better understand how her vision of life in America was different from the reality she experienced after arriving.
This is the second tutorial of a 4-part series. Make sure to complete Part One before beginning Part Two. Click HERE to launch Part One.
Then, make sure to complete the rest of the tutorials in this series:
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Study excerpts from the essay “America and I” by Anzia Yezierska and learn about how she immigrated to America from Russia in the early 1900s. In this interactive tutorial, you'll analyze the comparison she makes between the reality of living in Russia and her vision of what life will be like in America. You'll also identify her use of vivid contrasts to better understand what motivated her to go to America.
This tutorial is Part One. Make sure to complete the other tutorials in this series!
Click HERE to launch Part Two.
Click HERE to launch Part Three.
Click HERE to launch Part Four.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn 12 new academic vocabulary terms in this interactive tutorial! You'll practice the words' synonyms, antonyms, parts of speech, and context clues in order to add them to your vocabulary.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore excerpts from the novel The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian written by Sherman Alexie. In this interactive tutorial, you'll learn about how a character is developed through a novel written as a diary.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn 12 new academic vocabulary terms in this interactive tutorial! You'll practice the words' synonyms, antonyms, parts of speech, and context clues in order to add them to your vocabulary.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn 12 new academic vocabulary terms in this interactive tutorial! You'll practice the words' synonyms, antonyms, parts of speech, and context clues in order to add them to your vocabulary.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore the poem “The Railway Train” by Emily Dickinson in this interactive tutorial. Learn about personification and vivid descriptions and determine how they contribute to the meaning of a poem.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore the poem “The Road Not Taken” by Robert Frost and learn how the poem’s structure develops theme, setting, and plot as you complete this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore the poem "Fire and Ice" by Robert Frost and learn about denotation and connotation. In this interactive tutorial, you will examine the impact of word choice on the meaning of a poem.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Examine how the story elements of plot, setting, and character interact in an excerpt from the novel Little Women by Louisa May Alcott. In this interactive tutorial, you'll focus especially on how setting can shape the characters and plot of a story.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Analyze multiple texts in which authors disagree about the harmfulness of sugar in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how authors create mood in a story through this interactive tutorial. You'll read a science fiction short story by author Ray Bradbury and analyze how he uses images, sound, dialogue, setting, and characters' actions to create different moods. This tutorial is the first in a two-part series. In part two, you'll use Bradbury's story to help you create a Found Poem that conveys multiple moods.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn 12 new academic vocabulary terms in this interactive tutorial! You'll practice the words' synonyms, antonyms, parts of speech, and context clues in order to add them to your vocabulary.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn 12 new academic vocabulary terms in this interactive tutorial! You'll practice the words' synonyms, antonyms, parts of speech, and context clues in order to add them to your vocabulary.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn 12 new academic vocabulary terms in this interactive tutorial! You'll practice the words' synonyms, antonyms, parts of speech, and context clues in order to add them to your vocabulary.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Use context clues to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words in an informative text about the Revolutionary War in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how to create a Found Poem with changing moods in this interactive tutorial. This tutorial is part two of a two-part series. In part one, students read “Zero Hour,” a science fiction short story by author Ray Bradbury and examined how he used various literary devices to create changing moods. In part two, students will use words and phrases from “Zero Hour” to create a Found Poem with two of the same moods from Bradbury's story.
Click to view Part One: It's all about Mood: Bradbury's "Zero Hour."
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn about text structures found in informational texts by reading an article about lotteries in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn 12 new academic vocabulary terms in this interactive tutorial! You'll practice the words' synonyms, antonyms, parts of speech, and context clues in order to add them to your vocabulary.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Cite text evidence and make inferences about the "real" history of Halloween in this spooky interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn 12 new academic vocabulary terms using synonyms, antonyms, parts of speech, and context clues in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn 12 new academic vocabulary terms in this interactive tutorial! You'll practice the words' synonyms, antonyms, parts of speech, and context clues in order to add them to your vocabulary.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn 12 new academic vocabulary terms in this interactive tutorial! You'll practice the words' synonyms, antonyms, parts of speech, and context clues in order to add them to your vocabulary.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn 12 new academic vocabulary terms in this interactive tutorial! You'll practice the words' synonyms, antonyms, parts of speech, and context clues in order to add them to your vocabulary.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn 12 new academic vocabulary terms using synonyms, antonyms, parts of speech, and context clues in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Read a story called “A Crooked Election" and learn to describe how the plot of a story unfolds in a series of episodes. In this interactive tutorial, you will also explore how the characters change and evolve throughout the plot of a story.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn about point of view and dramatic irony as you follow a circus elephant named Abraham on an eventful and surprising journey in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore how an author develops the point of view of a narrating character through the incredible story of Melody, a girl who cannot speak. Excerpts in this interactive tutorial are taken from the award-winning novel Out of My Mind by Sharon Draper.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn to define and explain the term allusion in this interactive tutorial. You will also be able to identify allusions in stories and myths. Finally, you’ll be able to explain how modern stories draw on recurring themes from well-known myths.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore allusions and analogies and how authors use figurative language in their writing throughout this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Analyze how specific events and particular lines of dialogue help reveal aspects of a character, a character named Mr. Ebenezer Scrooge from Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. In this interactive tutorial, you’ll also analyze how conversations and events help provoke Scrooge to make a decision about the way he lives his life. By the end of this tutorial, you should be able to use specific evidence from the story to explain how Scrooge’s character changed, as well as what caused him to change.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Practice citing evidence and drawing inferences using an informational text about hacking and cyberwarfare in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore the structure and meaning of poetry and learn how poems are organized to express and develop themes. Along the way, you will also learn some key terms like diction, imagery, and mood. This interactive tutorial uses two famous poems as examples, one by William Blake and one by Emily Dickinson.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn to identify and understand themes in poetry in this interactive tutorial. This skill will bolster your ability to read and analyze poetry, and along the way you will read several classic poems and learn about diction and imagery.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Select a character and learn to identify and explain the central idea within a text. In this interactive tutorial, you'll analyze an article about video games to find the central idea of each paragraph and the entire article.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Discover how different authors approach the same topic in different ways by examining several passages that describe how insects have become a common food in certain parts of the world. With this interactive tutorial, you will learn how to analyze an author's approach based on the central idea of the text and the evidence used as support.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn to identify and understand the evidence presented within a text about Sacagawea. In this interactive tutorial, you will analyze information within the text, identify and cite textual evidence, and make inferences based on the information provided in the text.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how writers and speakers create arguments by stating a claim and backing it up with reasons and evidence. In this interactive tutorial, you'll hear speeches from candidates for Student Council President and complete practice exercises.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn about puns--a type of figurative language--in Philip K. Dick's science fiction short story "The Eyes Have It." In this interactive tutorial, you'll identify puns, interpret their various meanings, and explain how the author’s use of puns adds humor to the story.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn to evaluate argumentative claims based on evidence with this interactive tutorial. You'll also learn about statistics, facts, expert quotations, and anecdotes, and how each kind of evidence can strengthen an argument.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
In this interactive tutorial, you'll study written arguments and look at four kinds of evidence that can be used to support an argumentative claim: facts, statistics, anecdotes, and expert quotations.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Read about dinosaurs like Spinosaurus and Tyrannosaurus rex to learn about the text structures of different paragraphs in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore foreshadowing and theme through the suspenseful story The Monkey's Paw by W.W. Jacobs in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Help solve a case by figuring out the meanings of "mystery words" using several different vocabulary strategies with this mystery-themed, interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how to evaluate the soundness of several speakers' arguments as they debate whether or not the driving age should be raised from 16 years old to 18 or even higher with this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Read the famous poem "The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere" and see how its author embellishes historical fact to create historical fiction in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn the difference between metaphors and similes and unpack the meanings of several extended metaphors in poems like Robert Frost's "The Road Not Taken."
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Read an original short story about a car crash to analyze the points of view of the different characters in the story. This interactive tutorial will help you decide if they objective or subjective.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Analyze the interactions between individuals, ideas, and events in an excerpt from the famous autobiography, The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass with this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Find the meanings of unfamiliar words by analyzing their word parts, like roots and prefixes. In this interactive tutorial, you'll see how these "signs" will guide you in your reading.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how to use evidence from an informational, nonfiction text to support your analysis of what you have read. In this interactive tutorial you make inferences, or draw conclusions, from a passage about Philani Dladla, "The Pavement Bookworm."
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Read several short stories about pirates and treasure and learn how to summarize a story, identify its theme, and tell the difference between the two with this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn to find the meanings of "mysterious" words by analyzing context clues, word roots, prefixes, and suffixes in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how to identify sound devices such as repetition, alliteration, and assonance in the poems of Edgar Allan Poe. As you complete this interactive tutorial, you'll read portions of "The Raven," "The Bells," and "Annabel Lee."
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how to identify explicit evidence and understand implicit meaning in a text.
In this interactive tutorial, you'll engage with a variety of short informational texts to determine an author's point of view and an author's purpose in writing.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Read the short story "The Last Leaf" by O. Henry to learn how to make inferences based on explicit and implicit information and your own reasoning as you complete this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Make connections between the key individuals in an informational text about concussions and high school football as you complete this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how to find the central ideas of informational texts that are all about train travel! "Ride the rails" and learn about topics, central ideas, supporting details, and summaries.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Read Jack London's short story "To Build a Fire" and gain experience using text evidence in your descriptive writing in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn about text evidence using excerpts from Carl Hiaasen's novel Hoot in this interactive tutorial. You'll learn how to find explicit and implicit information in the story, as well as how to make inferences.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Discover how authors of informational texts "hook" their readers in the introduction with techniques like interesting or unusual information, anecdotes, and quotes. Practice spotting these techniques in this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Explore different kinds of structure a story can have--from linear and nonlinear structures to open and closed endings. In this interactive tutorial, you'll learn how authors use story structure to bring style to their storytelling.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how figures of speech like simile, metaphor, and personification are used in the speeches of famous individuals. In this interactive tutorial, you'll examine text from speeches by John F. Kennedy, Barack Obama, and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how to identify explicit evidence and understand implicit meaning in a text.
In this tutorial, you will learn how to identify a speaker’s argument or claim. You will also learn how to evaluate the evidence and reasoning presented in a speech.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how nonfiction informational texts have a structure, that signal words can serve as your clues to determine that structure, and that parts of a text contribute to the development of the whole text structure with this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how to analyze what a literary text says directly and indirectly. With this interactive tutorial you will also cite evidence to support conclusions you draw from a text.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how to summarize a story based on its details, determine a story's theme, and understand the differences between the two in this detective-themed, interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn to determine the meaning of figures of speech, like similes and metaphors, that authors use in poetry. You will also be able to analyze how these word choices reveal an author’s tone, or attitude, in a poem. You will also be able to analyze how these word choices reveal an author’s tone, or attitude, in a poem.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Learn how to analyze details from a nonfiction informational text about robots to identify and write about the central idea with this interactive tutorial.
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Study excerpts from the essay “America and I” by Anzia Yezierska and analyze the comparison she makes between her actual work experience in America and her dream of finding work that would bring out the best in her. Analyzing this comparison in this interactive tutorial will help you understand how Anzia's vision of life in America was different from the reality she experienced after immigrating to America.
This is the third tutorial in a 4-part series. Make sure to complete Part One and Two first.
Then, make sure to complete the final tutorial in this series:
Type: Original Student Tutorial
Tutorials
This fun and interactive exercise will give you practice with two words that are commonly misused: whose and who’s. For each practice item, you must type the appropriate word to complete the sentence. After every response, you will get immediate feedback. Explanations of each correct answer are provided at the top of the screen. If you don’t know which word to type, the “I Give Up” button will help you out.
Type: Tutorial
This fun and interactive exercise will give you practice with two words that are commonly misused: its and it’s. For each practice item, you must choose the appropriate word to complete the sentence. After every response, you will get immediate feedback. Explanations of each correct answer are provided at the top of the screen.
Type: Tutorial
This fun and interactive exercise will give you practice with two words that are commonly misused: its and it’s. For each practice item, you must type the appropriate word to complete the sentence. After every response, you will get immediate feedback. Explanations of each correct answer are provided at the top of the screen. If you don’t know which word to type, the “I Give Up” button will help you out.
Type: Tutorial
This fun and interactive exercise will give you practice with two words that are commonly misused: lose and loose. For each practice item, you must choose the appropriate word to complete the sentence. After every response, you will get immediate feedback. Explanations of each correct answer are provided at the top of the screen.
Type: Tutorial
This fun and interactive exercise will give you practice with two words that are commonly misused: lose and loose. For each practice item, you must type the appropriate word to complete the sentence. After every response, you will get immediate feedback. Explanations of each correct answer are provided at the top of the screen. If you don’t know which word to type, the “I Give Up” button will help you out.
Type: Tutorial
This fun and interactive exercise will give you practice with two words that are commonly misused: loss and lost. For each practice item, you must type the appropriate word to complete the sentence. After every response, you will get immediate feedback. Explanations of each correct answer are provided at the top of the screen. If you don’t know which word to type, the “I Give Up” button will help you out.
Type: Tutorial
This fun and interactive exercise will give you practice with two words that are commonly misused: who and whom. For each practice item, you must choose the appropriate word to complete the sentence. After every response, you will get immediate feedback. Explanations of each correct answer are provided at the top of the screen.
Type: Tutorial
This fun and interactive exercise will give you practice with two words that are commonly misused: who and whom. For each practice item, you must type the appropriate word to complete the sentence. After every response, you will get immediate feedback. Explanations of each correct answer are provided at the top of the screen. If you don’t know which word to type, the “I Give Up” button will help you out.
Type: Tutorial
This fun and interactive exercise will give you practice with two words that are commonly misused: whoever and whomever. For each practice item, you must type the appropriate word to complete the sentence. After every response, you will get immediate feedback. Explanations of each correct answer are provided at the top of the screen. If you don’t know which word to type, the “I Give Up” button will help you out.
Type: Tutorial
This fun and interactive exercise will give you practice with three words that are commonly misused: to, too, and two. For each practice item, you must choose the appropriate word to complete the sentence. After every response, you will get immediate feedback. Explanations of each correct answer are provided at the top of the screen.
Type: Tutorial
This fun and interactive exercise will give you practice with three words that are commonly misused: to, too, and two. For each practice item, you must type the appropriate word to complete the sentence. After every response, you will get immediate feedback. Explanations of each correct answer are provided at the top of the screen.
Type: Tutorial
This fun and interactive exercise will give you practice with two irregular verbs that are commonly misused: lie and lay. For each practice item, you must select the correct irregular verb and its appropriate tense to complete a sentence. After every response, you will get immediate feedback. Explanations of each correct answer are also provided. There's also an explanation of the rules for using these irregular verbs; simply click the hyperlinked word "rules."
Type: Tutorial
This fun and interactive exercise will give you practice with two words that are commonly misused: whose and who’s. For each practice item, you must choose the appropriate word to complete the sentence. After every response, you will get immediate feedback. Explanations of each correct answer are provided at the top of the screen.
Type: Tutorial
This fun and interactive exercise will give you practice with three words that are commonly misused: their, they’re, and there. For each practice item, you must type the appropriate word to complete the sentence. After every response, you will get immediate feedback. Explanations of each correct answer are provided at the top of the screen. If you don’t know which word to type, the “I Give Up” button will help you out.
Type: Tutorial
This fun and interactive exercise will give you practice with three words that are commonly misused: their, they’re, and there. For each practice item, you must choose the appropriate word to complete the sentence. After every response, you will get immediate feedback. Explanations of each correct answer are provided at the top of the screen.
Type: Tutorial
In this tutorial from ReadWriteThink, you will learn about the hero's journey, an ancient story pattern that can be found in texts from thousands of years ago to newly released Hollywood blockbusters. This interactive tool will provide you with the background of the hero's journey and give you a chance to explore several of the journey's key elements. Also, you can use the tool to record examples from a hero's journey you have read or viewed or to plan out a hero's journey of your own.
Type: Tutorial
This 40-question exercise will give you practice in determining the main (central) idea of a paragraph. For each practice item, you will read a short paragraph and determine the main idea based on the details provided. If you get a question wrong, the program will remind you of your answer and show you the correct answer.
Type: Tutorial