I am entering my fifth year in education as of the 2015-16 school year. I primarily teach Freshman English courses, though I have taught numerous electives in a high school setting. My goal is to share resources with other educators in an effort to facilitate their professional experiences, particularly for those new to the profession or the field of English.
I am entering my fifth year in education as of the 2015-16 school year. I primarily teach Freshman English courses, though I have taught numerous electives in a high school setting. My goal is to share resources with other educators in an effort to facilitate their professional experiences, particularly for those new to the profession or the field of English.
This close reading resource promotes thoughtful, critical analysis of “The Lottery” by Shirley Jackson, helping students focus on significant details to develop a deeper understanding of the text and contribute more meaningfully to class discussion. Featuring nine multiple choice questions, this resource also includes an answer key with detailed rationale for each correct option. When you purchase this item, you will receive three versions: a Word version, a Rich Text Format version, and a PDF version.
By engaging in this exercise, students will…
Define unfamiliar or challenging vocabulary terms in context.
Determine the tone of a particular passage.
Determine the author’s intent and its effect on readers.
Read actively and closely to accurately determine what the text states explicitly and less directly.
Apply literary devices (foreshadowing).
Isolate accurate statements about the text from inaccurate statements.
Questions pertain to the following:
Defining unfamiliar or challenging vocabulary in context (profusely).
Determining the author’s tone in the opening passage.
Defining unfamiliar or challenging vocabulary in context (soberly).
Determining the author’s intent when she begins to write about the lottery process commencing.
Defining unfamiliar or challenging vocabulary in context (stoutly).
Reading actively to identify the origins of the community’s annual lottery process.
Applying literary devices (foreshadowing).
Accurately characterizing Old Man Warner.
Isolating accurate statements from inaccurate statements in regard to the story’s resolution.
This resource aligns well to Adolescent Literacy Project teaching principles. I recommend using these worksheets as the basis for small-group discussions, letting students discuss, debate, and support their reasoning for answer choices. In the role of facilitator, I observe my students becoming more consistently engaged with the novel and taking greater ownership of their learning.
In addition to helping students gain deeper understanding of the material and greater confidence in their ability to read harder texts, this resource was designed to prepare students for ACT-style questioning.
This quiz measures reading comprehension of “To Build a Fire” by Jack London. It features 13 multiple choice questions, and an answer key is provided. Questions pertain to the following key ideas:
♦ The arrogance of the protagonist
♦ The old timer’s disregarded advice
♦ The protagonist’s husky companion
♦ The lack of understanding of the severe climate
♦ The omnipresent dangers of the setting
♦ The building of the fires
♦ The protagonist’s lack of imagination and its consequences
♦ The protagonist’s alarming thought concerning the husky
♦ The protagonist’s realization before his demise
This zip file contains a summative test on Shakespeare's Othello and its corresponding answer key.
Part 1 - Matching - Characters - 15 questions
♦ Iago's motivations
♦ The conflict between Desdemona and Brabantio
♦ Othello's background
♦ Emilia's discovery of the handkerchief
♦ Characters who commit homicide
♦ Bianca's reputation
♦ Emilia's testimony and its ramifications
♦ A character's suicide
♦ And more
Part 2 - Multiple Choice - Plot - 6 questions
♦ Roderigo's desires
♦ The love story of Othello and Desdemona
♦ Iago's manipulation of Cassio
♦ A husband-and-wife conflict
♦ A crumbling father-daughter relationship
♦ Iago's desire for revenge against Othello
Part 3 - Matching - Quote Association - 10 questions
♦ “Do you perceive in all this noble company where you owe most obedience?”
♦ “Cassio, I love thee but never more be officer of mine.”
♦ “Thou hast set me on the rack: I swear tis better to be much abused than but to know a little.”
♦ “For I will make him tell the tale anew, where, how, how oft, how long ago, and when he hath, and is again to cope you wife.”
♦ “O brave Iago, honest and just, that has such noble sense of thy friend’s wrong! Thou teachest me.”
♦ “Think on thy sins.”
♦ “Within these three days let me hear thee say that Cassio’s not alive.”
♦ “Our general’s wife is now the general: confess yourself freely to her…”
♦ “I have very poor and unhappy brains for drinking…”
♦ “We must straight employ you against the general enemy Ottoman.”
Part 4 - Short Answer - Quote Analysis - 6 questions
♦ “O, beware my lord of jealousy; it is the green-eyed monster…”
♦ "He takes her by the palm…with as little a web as this will I ensnare as great a fly as Cassio.”
♦ “Reputation is an idle and false imposition: oft got without merit, and lost without deserving.”
♦ “Now, whether he kill Cassio, or Cassio him… every way makes my gain.”
♦ “Put out the light, and then put out the light.”
Part 5 - Short Answer - Lit Term Application - 3 questions
♦ Dramatic irony
♦ Foreshadowing
Part 6 - Essay - Character Analysis (Iago) - 1 question
This grammar packet includes explanations and examples of verbs in their principal parts with an emphasis on irregular verbs. Practices involve filling in blanks to correctly apply verb tenses. This resource is recommended for middle school students preparing for high school composition classes, as well as for high school students enrolled in composition courses emphasizing foundational writing skills. An answer key is included.
This comprehensive, 29-page To Kill a Mockingbird reading guide promotes active reading, reading comprehension, vocabulary comprehension, plot recall, character analysis, quote analysis, an awareness of historical context, and more. A complete key is included.
The guide is grouped by chapters. Each section includes a vocabulary section, requiring students to define potentially challenging words. Additionally, each section includes a series of plot-based questions and features meaningful quotations, which require an articulation of context. Finally, each section identifies several aspects of the assigned reading which students should review post-reading.
This reading guide in Word format encourages active reading and facilitate plot comprehension and recall. Each section is divided by chapter.
1. A list of challenging vocabulary terms.
2. Questions pertaining to the novel's plot.
3. Quotations -- students must identify the speaker and the context of the quote.
In addition, you receive two PDF files. The first offers answers to questions from chapters 1 through 11. The second offers answers to questions from chapters 15 through 18.
This item, which features hundreds of questions, covers the following and more:
♦ Description of a hobbit
♦ Gandalf's first meeting with Bilbo
♦ Thorin's ancestral history
♦ Bilbo's reluctance to participate in the journey
♦ Bilbo's role
♦ The trolls
♦ Gandalf as the mentor
♦ The adventurers' general disdain toward Bilbo
♦ Elrond
♦ Moon letters
♦ Bilbo's significant discovery
♦ Gollum's characterization and peculiar habits
♦ The riddle contest
♦ The escape from Gollum and the cave
♦ The incident with the wargs
♦ The Eages' aid
♦ Beorn's background
♦ Beorn's role as a protector of nature
♦ The dangers of Mirkwood
♦ Bombur's dream
♦ The conflict involving spiders
♦ Bilbo's strategic thinking and heroic victory
♦ The change in the adventurers' perception of Bilbo
♦ The characterization of the wood elves
♦ Thorin's imprisonment and stubbornness
♦ Bilbo's growing frustrations with the other adventurers
♦ Lake Town, its inhabitants, and their reaction to the adventurers
♦ Bilbo's plan to rescue the dwarves -- and its weakness
♦ Lonely Mountain
♦ Bilbo's growing seriousness toward his role
♦ The secret door of the mountain
♦ The significance of the thrush
♦ Smaug's interactions with Bilbo
♦ Smaug's reaction to the people of Lake Town
♦ The Arkenstone
♦ The exit from the mountain
♦ Bard's talents and significance
♦ How the Master of Lake Town infuriated his people
♦ Smaug's death
♦ The relationship between Thror's people and ravens
♦ Roac's recommendation
♦ The return to the mountain
♦ Bard's attempt to rationalize with Thorin
♦ Thorin's disinterest in sharing his wealth
♦ Bilbo's secret bargaining with Bard and the Elvenking
♦ Gandalf's pride in Bilbo
♦ Bilbo's justification for the bargain
♦ Thorin's angry response
♦ Dain's involvement
♦ Battle of Five Armies
♦ Unity among factions
♦ Thorin's dynamic character/sudden realization
♦ The Eagles' return
♦ Honoring the dead
♦ Various new roles for previously met characters
♦ Bilbo's return home
♦ Bilbo's shocking discovery
♦ Bilbo's new reputation
This resource measures reading comprehension and holds students accountable for their assigned reading of "The Wife's Story" by Ursula K. Le Guin. A multiple choice assessment, this quiz features 11 questions and includes an answer key. Questions pertain to the following key details:
♦ The narrator's emotional state
♦ The narrator's characterization of her husband
♦ The relationship between the narrator and her sister
♦ A quality about the narrator's husband that "brings the shivers on" her
♦ The moon's role in the husband's transformation
♦ The "curse in his blood"
♦ The husband's tendency to leave home abruptly
♦ The husband's strange smell upon returning
♦ The children's fear of their own father
♦ A physical transformation
♦ The story's resolution
Common Core Standards Addressed:
RL.9-10.1, RL.9-10.2, RL.9-10.3, RL.9-10.10, RL.11-12.1, RL.11-12.2, RL.11-12.3, RL.11-12.10, CCRA.R.1, CCRA.R.2, CCRA.R.3, CCRA.R.10
This editable 8-question close reading resource helps students derive deeper meaning from Act 1, Scene 4, of Romeo & Juliet by William Shakespeare. By engaging in this exercise, students will read to identify what the text says explicitly and implicitly, apply literary devices, analyze character, interpret figurative expressions, isolate accurate statements from inaccurate ones, and more. An answer key is included. More specifically, this resource covers the following:
Identifying puns: heavy/light; soles/soul; sore/soar.
Analyzing character: Mercutio’s mocking attitude.
Interpreting uncommon phrases: "Betake him to his legs."
Interpreting uncommon phrases: "We burn daylight."
Applying literary devices: allusion (Queen Mab).
Analyzing character: Mercutio’s active imagination.
Understanding character intent: what Mercutio wants Romeo to know about dreams.
Citing evidence in support of claims: “My mind misgives some consequence, yet hanging in the stars…” as an example of foreshadowing.
This resource aligns well to Adolescent Literacy Project teaching principles. I recommend using these worksheets as the basis for small-group discussions, letting students discuss, debate, and support their reasoning for answer choices. In the role of facilitator, I observe my students becoming more consistently engaged with the novel and taking greater ownership of their learning.
In addition to helping students gain deeper understanding of the material and greater confidence in their ability to read harder texts, this resource was designed to prepare students for ACT-style questioning.
This zip file contains 17 individual Word documents (for ease of revision). Included are directions, templates, and/or examples of the following poetry forms:
1. Autobiographical Poem
2. Color Poem
3. Epitaph
4. Five Senses Poem
5. Free Verse Poem
6. Guilty Pleasures Poem
7. Haiku
8. I Am Poem
9. If/What If Poem
10. Nonet
11. Ode
12. Phone Poem
13. Self-image Poem
14. Syllabic Cinquain
15. Symbolic Poem
16. Title-down Poem
Also included is a document outlining the culminating unit project -- the poetry portfolio. A simple evaluative rubric for this project is also attached.
Common Core Standards Addressed:
W.9-10.3d, W.9-10.4, W.9-10.5, W.9-10.10, W.11-12.3d, W.11-12.4, W.11-12.5, W.11-12.10, L.8.1, L.8.2, L.8.3, L.8.5, L.9-10.1, L.9-10.2, L.9-10.3, L.9-10.5, L.11-12.1, L.11-12.2, L.11-12.3, L.11-12.5
This resource features eight short-answer questions on Edith Wharton’s “A Journey.” An answer key is provided. Questions cover plot comprehension and literary term application. More specifically, questions pertain to the following:
♦ The woman’s former occupation
♦ Marriage’s influence on how the woman viewed life
♦ The husband’s health
♦ The woman’s regrets and worries
♦ The passenger’s reactions to the husband’s illness
♦ The woman’s fright at the passenger’s reactions
♦ Defining psychological fiction
♦ Supporting the text’s classification as psychological fiction
♦ Metaphor and the protagonist’s state of mind
This file contains the following quizzes and keys, covering the entirety of 1984 by George Orwell and designed to measure comprehension and hold students accountable for assigned readings. Quizzes break down as follows:
Book 1: Chapter 1.
This is a 10-question short answer quiz. Questions pertain to the following key details:
♦ "Big Brother is watching you"
♦ Setting
♦ Winston's job
♦ The telescreen and its purpose
♦ The ironic role of the Ministry of Peace
♦ Characteristics of proles
♦ Writing as an act of rebellion
♦ The Party's efforts to stir up hate
♦ Winston's feelings toward the Party
♦ Winston as a thought-criminal
Book 1: Chapters 2-3.
This is an 11-question short answer quiz. Questions pertain to the following key details:
♦ Winston's fear of the Thought Police
♦ The Junior Spies and their job
♦ Public executions of the Party's dissidents
♦ Winston's dream involving O'Brien's voice
♦ Winston's dream involving his mother
♦ A government purge
♦ Physical jerks
♦ Why it is so difficult to recall one's childhood
♦ Oceania's enemy country
♦ Communication via the telescreen
Book 1: Chapters 4-6.
This is a 10-question short answer quiz. Questions pertain to the following key details:
♦ Comrade Withers
♦ The concept of "unpersoning" an individual
♦ The purpose of Newspeak
♦ Understanding Doublespeak
♦ Syme's intelligence and Winston's concerns about it
♦ Ironic messaging from the Ministry of Plenty
♦ Winston's diary entry
♦ The government's goal concerning sexual behavior
♦ Winston's ex-wife
♦ Winston's internal strife
Book 1: Chapters 7-8.
This is a 9-question short answer quiz. Questions pertain to the following key details:
♦ Winston's assessment on who would best stage a revolt against the government
♦ Winston's reasoning behind the aforementioned assessment
♦ The logic as to why the proles would not likely stage a revolt
♦ Living conditions
♦ A photograph and Winston's concerns about it
♦ Winston's belief on how reality should be determined
♦ Winston's curiosity about actual history (not the Party-sanctioned accounts of it)
♦ Winston's fear over being followed
♦ An alternative to the Thought Police's torture
Book 2: Chapters 1-3.
This is a 10-question short answer quiz. Questions pertain to the following key details:
♦ The irony of Julia's message to Winston
♦ Analysis of Julia's comment, " We're not dead yet."
♦ Hate Week
♦ The prisoner transport
♦ Winston's reaction to Julia's very personal admission
♦ Primary influences on Julia's behaviors
♦ How the government manipulates people into frenzy
♦ Winston's alarming admission about his ex-wife
Book 2: Chapters 4-6.
This is an 11-question short answer quiz. Questions pertain to the following key details:
♦ The room Winston rents
♦ Julia's encounter with a rat
♦ The significance of the paperweight
♦ Winston's imagination as he stares into the paperweight
♦ The expected vanishing of a character
♦ Winston's reaction to the singing of a prole woman
♦ The hate song and other preparations for Hate Week
♦ Julia's accusations against the Party
♦ An encounter with O'Brien
♦ O'Brien's offer to Winston
Book 2: Chapters 7-8.
This is a 10-question short answer quiz. Questions pertain to the following key details:
♦ Winston's nightmare
♦ Winston's previous belief that he was responsible for his mom's death
♦ A flood of memories returning
♦ The Party's influence on its members
♦ How Winston and Julia are jeopardizing their own safety
♦ Winston and Julia's desire to join the Brotherhood
♦ An encounter with O'Brien
♦ Winston's feelings after his meeting with O'Brien
Book 2: Chapters 9-10.
This is a 9-question short answer quiz. Questions pertain to the following key details:
♦ Winston's 90-hour work week
♦ Oceania's new enemy
♦ Goldstein's book
♦ A singing prole woman
♦ "We are the dead"
♦ The picture on the wall and what it conceals
♦ The sudden appearance of troops
♦ A realization about Mr. Charrington
Book 3: Chapters 1-3.
This is a 10-question short answer quiz. Questions pertain to the following key details:
♦ Winston's imprisonment
♦ A prole woman with the last name of Smith
♦ An imprisoned poet and his crime
♦ Parson's imprisonment and his crime
♦ Who turned Parsons in for his crime
♦ Winston's suicidal thoughts
♦ O'Brien's torture techniques/methods of persuasion
♦ The Party's efforts to control the mind
♦ Winston's growing appreciation for O'Brien
♦ The Party's efforts to eliminate their opposition
♦ O'Brien's comments about Julia
♦ Room 101
Book 3: Chapters 4-6.
This is an 11-question short answer quiz. Questions pertain to the following key details:
♦ Winston's efforts to see the Party's way
♦ Winston's nightmare
♦ Winston's confession that he still hates the Party
♦ Room 101
♦ Winston's worst nightmare and O'Brien's most effective torture technique
♦ Winston's means of getting out of his torturous situation (betrayal)
♦ A reunion at the Chestnut Tree Cafe
♦ Winston's ultimate feelings about Big Brother
This editable 11-question close reading resource helps students derive deeper meaning from Act 1, Scene 5, of Romeo & Juliet by William Shakespeare. By engaging in this exercise, students will read to identify what the text says explicitly and implicitly, apply literary devices, analyze character, interpret figurative expressions, define unfamiliar vocabulary in context, and more. An answer key is included. More specifically, this resource covers the following:
Citing textual evidence in support of claims: "O, she doth teach the torches to burn bright!"
Applying literary devices: simile.
Applying literary devices: situational irony.
Interpreting unfamiliar phrases: "an antic face."
Defining unfamiliar vocabulary in context: fleer.
Analyzing character motivations: Tybalt’s desire to see Romeo dead.
Discerning the significance of textual details: Lord Capulet’s comment that "I would not for the wealth of all this town / Here in my house do him disparagement."
Applying literary devices: foreshadowing.
Analyzing author’s choices: the use of metaphor to indicate the intensity of Romeo and Juliet’s feelings toward each other.
Applying literary devices: onomatopoeia.
Analyzing author’s choices: the use of paradoxical language to indicate a theme relating to love.
This resource aligns well to Adolescent Literacy Project teaching principles. I recommend using these worksheets as the basis for small-group discussions, letting students discuss, debate, and support their reasoning for answer choices. In the role of facilitator, I observe my students becoming more consistently engaged with the novel and taking greater ownership of their learning.
In addition to helping students gain deeper understanding of the material and greater confidence in their ability to read harder texts, this resource was designed to prepare students for ACT-style questioning.
This editable 9-question close reading resource helps students derive deeper meaning from Act 1, Scene 3 of Romeo & Juliet by William Shakespeare. By engaging in this exercise, students will read to identify what the text says explicitly and implicitly, apply literary devices, analyze character, interpret figurative expressions, isolate accurate statements from inaccurate ones, and more. An answer key is included. More specifically, this resource covers the following:
Identifying what the text says explicitly and implicitly: Juliet’s age.
Identifying what the text says explicitly and implicitly: what happened to the nurse’s daughter.
Identifying textual evidence in support of a claim: the close bond between Juliet and the nurse.
Analyzing character: the nurse’s brand of humor.
Identifying what the text says explicitly and implicitly: Lady Capulet’s age.
Interpreting figurative expressions: "Why he’s a man of wax."
Applying literary devices: metaphor.
Analyzing character: what Lady Capulet means when she tells Juliet, "And what obscured in this fair volume lies / Find written in the margent of his eyes."
Analyzing character: Juliet’s reaction to her mother’s request to return Paris’s affections.
This resource aligns well to Adolescent Literacy Project teaching principles. I recommend using these worksheets as the basis for small-group discussions, letting students discuss, debate, and support their reasoning for answer choices. In the role of facilitator, I observe my students becoming more consistently engaged with the novel and taking greater ownership of their learning.
In addition to helping students gain deeper understanding of the material and greater confidence in their ability to read harder texts, this resource was designed to prepare students for ACT-style questioning.
Act 1.
This multiple choice quiz covers the following:
♦ The purpose of a chorus
♦ A character known as a peace-maker
♦ The reason for street-fighting in Verona
♦ Prince Escalus's declaration
♦ Romeo's cause for sadness
♦ Lord Capulet's attitude toward marrying off Juliet
♦ Benvolio's encouragement (to Romeo)
♦ Juliet's attitude toward marriage
♦ Mercutio's treatment of Romeo
♦ A foreshadowing fear
♦ Tybalt's temperament
♦ Lord Capulet's reaction to Romeo's presence at the party
♦ The revelation of Juliet's true identity
Act 2.
This multiple choice quiz covers the following:
♦ Juliet's beauty and Romeo's metaphor
♦ The rejection of one's name
♦ Romeo's great fear, expressed during the balcony scene
♦ Juliet's concerns over acting to hastily
♦ Friar Laurence's specialty
♦ Friar Laurence's beliefs and philosophies
♦ Friar Laurence's thoughts regarding the union of Romeo & Juliet
♦ Tybalt's letter
♦ Offensive comments toward the Nurse
♦ The Nurse's news for Romeo
♦ Friar Laurence's assessment of Romeo & Juliet's love
Act 3.
This multiple choice quiz covers the following:
♦ Mercutio's reason for fighting Tybalt
♦ Romeo's ill-fated attempt to stop the fight
♦ Romeo's reason for leaving Verona
♦ Juliet's criticisms of the Nurse
♦ The Nurse's confusing news
♦ Juliet's conflicting emotions toward her husband
♦ Friar Laurence's perspective on the Prince's punishment
♦ Romeo's erratic behavior
♦ Lord Capulet's arrangement with Paris
♦ Mantua
♦ A character who plans to have Romeo killed
♦ A threat of being disowned
♦ The Nurse's advice to Juliet
♦ Juliet's foreshadowing comments
Act 4.
This multiple choice quiz covers the following:
♦ Paris's perspective on Lord Capulet's motivations
♦ Juliet's confession to Paris
♦ Paris's lack of awareness about Lord Capulet's threat
♦ Juliet's confession to Frair Laurence
♦ Friar Laurence's plan
♦ Juliet's request for her father's forgiveness
♦ Lord Capulet's attitude toward Friar Laurence
♦ A terrible thought in Juliet's mind
♦ An alarming discovery
♦ A shift in Lord Capulet's emotions
Act 5.
This multiple choice quiz covers the following:
♦ Friar John's task
♦ The reason Friar John cannot complete his task
♦ Balthasar's significance
♦ Balthasar's lack of awareness
♦ A visit to the apothecary
♦ A conflict between Romeo and Paris in the churchyard
♦ Romeo's suicide
♦ Juliet's suicide
♦ Friar Laurence's emotional reaction
♦ The resolution
This visually appealing 33-slide PowerPoint presentation introduces your students to the key characters in The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkien. I created this PowerPoint as a means of previewing the novel with my high school students, offering them context on character traits, relationships, conflicts, and development over the course of the novel.
The following are covered:
Bilbo Baggins.
♦ Modest nature
♦ Appreciation for the simple things
♦ His reluctance and obligation to help
♦ His role along the journey
♦ His brushes with adversity
♦ His sense of justice
♦ His dynamic character
♦ And more
Gandalf.
♦ His noteworthy character traits
♦ The mentor archetype
♦ And more
Thorin Oakenshield.
♦ His leadership
♦ His bravery and his pretentiousness
♦ His family background
♦ His classification as a foil to Bilbo
♦ His fatal flaws
Dwalin.
♦ General character details (e.g., family ties)
Balin.
♦ General character details (e.g., his acceptance of Bilbo)
Gloin.
♦ General character details (e.g., his skepticism of Bilbo)
Oin.
♦ General character details (e.g., family ties)
Dori.
♦ General character details (e.g., his strength)
Nori.
♦ General character details (e.g., his appearance)
Ori.
♦ General character details (e.g., his musical talent)
Kili & Fili.
♦ General character details (e.g., their youth)
Bombur.
♦ General character details (e.g., his laziness)
Bifur.
♦ General character details (e.g., family ties)
Bofur.
♦ General character details (e.g., family ties)
Gollum.
♦ His home
♦ His miserable disposition
♦ His interests and talents
♦ His significant loss
Smaug.
♦ His greediness
♦ His vengefulness
♦ His appearance
♦ His symbolism
♦ The cultural perspective on dragons
Elrond.
♦ The Last Homely House
♦ His special, helpful traits
♦ His graciousness
♦ Foreshadowing
Beorn.
♦ His personality traits
♦ His special skills
♦ His discomfort toward visitors
♦ His pursuit of justice
♦ His help given to the adventurers
♦ And more
Bard of Esgaroth.
♦ His tremendous talent
♦ His honorable nature
♦ His leadership
♦ His response to tragedy
♦ His sense of fairness and justice
The Elvenking.
♦ His suspicion of strangers
♦ His weakness
♦ His crucial role late in the novel
