Free Homeschool Literature Resources
Fiction & Nonfiction Reading Genre Posters Freebie
By SPO Resources
Introduce your students to the basics of genre with these engaging Fiction and Nonfiction Genre Posters! Perfect for elementary classrooms or library displays, these posters feature student-friendly definitions and eye-catching graphics, helping students easily identify the differences between fiction and nonfiction.
This free set includes only the Fiction and Nonfiction posters.
Want more? Discover the full Reading Genre Posters set, featuring 28 unique genres to cover everything you need for teaching book genres.
WHAT’S INCLUDED
This set includes the fiction and nonfiction genre posters in the following formats:
★ Full-Size Poster (8.5” x 11”)➜ Color and black & white options
★ Half-Size Poster (5” x 4”)➜ Color and black & white options; perfect for student notebooks or smaller spaces
WHY USE GENRE POSTERS?
Boost reading comprehension by giving students a quick reference to help them identify fiction and nonfiction elements. These posters provide a strong foundation for understanding the basics of genre and are perfect for displaying year-round.
WAYS TO USE THIS RESOURCE
- Display & Reference: Use on focus walls, in notebooks, or at literacy centers.
- Student Engagement: Encourage students to refer to the posters as they explore texts.
- Customization: Tailor the editable version to best fit your classroom needs.
- Long-Term Use: Print, laminate, and reuse these posters year after year.
- Digital Integration: Incorporate digital versions for virtual learning or in-class activities.
WHO IS THIS FOR?
Ideal for elementary teachers looking for a clear, ready-to-use tool to introduce fiction and nonfiction genres. This set is designed specifically for younger students needing a strong foundation in genre types.
Looking for the complete set of 28 genres? Explore these resources:
⭐ Reading Genre Posters — Ideal for classroom displays and word walls, featuring vibrant visuals for every genre.
⭐ Reading Genre Anchor Charts & Interactive Templates — Dive deeper into each genre with detailed definitions, key features, and student-friendly note-taking guides.
⭐ Spanish Genre Posters — Available in Spanish to support bilingual classrooms.
Want to try another freebie? Sample the quality with this resource:
⭐ Fairy Tale Genre Poster Freebie
If you have any questions, comments, or concerns, please don't hesitate to reach out to me at samantha@sporesources.com. I am always happy to help!
Created by Samantha McNally | ©SPO Resources
All rights reserved by the author.
Create an engaging learning space for genre exploration with these fiction and nonfiction genre posters for your ELA classroom!
By Geography & Math Made Easy
Print these fun bookmarks on colored or white cardstock and provide them to your students. The goal is to challenge the students to read and keep up with the number of books they read. Once they have finished a book, they are to color it to reflect they have finished the book.
You may also choose to laminate and them and have them use a permanent marker to cross out the emoji.
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein: Thematic Introduction (Pre-Reading Handout)
By Rigorous Resources for High School English
This four-page handout introduces students to the themes which are most prominent in Mary Shelley's literary masterpiece, Frankenstein (1818). By having your students read and discuss this thematic introduction together, you will have them captivated by the complex questions invoked by Frankenstein before they open the novel's cover.
Mary Shelley's Frankenstein asks a series of profound questions about human nature. Are human beings inherently benevolent or malevolent? Are humans better off when they live alone in isolation or when they live together in society? Can the development of modern technology have the effect of transforming human nature?
This handout is part of a larger bundle of Frankenstein resources which includes discussion questions, short writing prompts, vocabulary lists, daily quizzes, and an analytical writing assignment. To view my comprehensive bundle of Frankenstein resources, visit the following link:
Thank you for choosing "Rigorous Resources"!
Happy teaching,
Adam Jernigan
P.S. Don't forget to click “follow” for email updates on new products by Rigorous Resources. New products will be 50% OFF for the first 24 hours!
Character Analysis Sidewalk Characters
By Beth Hammett
Character traits and analysis fun!
Have some outdoor fun (or use butcher paper for indoors) with sidewalk novel characters! Students choose a character from their novels then do body outlines with sidewalk chalk. Fill these with physical and character traits from quotes within the novel...full directions for implementing and making a competitive game. Can be used with all ages and novels. Excellent for comprehension and assessment.
Stone Soup - Sample lesson from Thanksgiving Dinner Theme Unit
By Sassycat Corner
Have you made Stone Soup with your upper grade students? They LOVE IT! Try this twist on the traditional reading and comprehension passages for Thanksgiving. These lessons focus on Thanksgiving Dinner! Open up a great discussion on the importance of sharing what we have with those who are less fortunate. This free activity includes a lesson plan for making stone soup, along with a four page pdf of the story "Stone Soup", and 2 comprehension pages - 1 multiple choice and 1 constructed response - to accompany the story. Like this free lesson! It's part of a larger theme unit - Thanksgiving Dinner. The large unit includes the following lessons. Click here to view the full unit! Thanksgiving Dinner Theme Unit - ELA, Math, and Science ★ Thanksgiving Then & Now paired reading passages with constructed response questions page, Venn Diagram, and three paragraph writing assignment. ★ The World’s Largest Pumpkin Pie reading passage with constructed response page and 8 math word problems involving all four operations. ★ Calories Count nonfiction science passage on what a calorie is and how many we often consume with our Thanksgiving meal. Includes a constructed response page and word problem page involving all four operations. ★ Homemade Cranberry Sauce recipe page with sequencing activity and math worksheet. ★ Pumpkin Pie in a Bag recipe page with science report form and question page. ★ Gobble! Gobble! Plan your own Thanksgiving dinner activity – complete with instructions, budget sheet, grocery list, menu page, and student / teacher scoring guides. ★ Stone Soup – When Sharing Benefits Everyone – Story, comprehension pages, directions for making stone soup, find a word puzzle, and a reader’s theater. ★ Bonus just for fun Family Dinner coloring page titled “Give Thanks”
Story Map | Editable Digital and Printable Graphic Organizer
By Teach Savvy Store
Story Map | Editable Graphic Organizer: Help guide students' thinking when it comes to story writing and story elements with this easy to use digital or printable graphic organizer. This freebie includes these story elements: title/author, setting, characters (antagonists & protagonists), key details and events, conflict, and resolution.
✨This resource goes great with Roll a Story Bundle✨
Directions
- Share the PowerPoint (or convert to a Google Slides) with students and allow students to enter their own text in the boxes.
- OR print and allow students to write on the handout.
Elements Included on Graphic Organizer
- title/author
- setting
- characters (antagonists & protagonists)
- key details and events
- conflict
- resolution.
What's Included
- Digital and printable options
- Options to edit the included elements
- Options to allow students to type in their responses digitally
- Options to print and use as a worksheet
- Black & White versions
ELA Resources
Writing Resources
*AVID Nerds resources are available for use in virtual systems like Outschool without the need to purchase extra licenses
By Meggen Loew
Use these book awards to celebrate books you have read this year. Pick out your favorites to highlight from the year. An easy recording system for your favorite books at the end of the year.
Billie B. Brown: The Extra-Special Helper by Sally Rippin Book Study
By Mr. Lee's Learners
The Extra-special Helper by Sally Rippin is part of the Billie B. Brown series. This file contains comprehension questions for each chapter of the book. It has an Accelerated Reading level of 2.6. About the Story: Billie and her class are off on an excursion to the zoo. Billie is especially excited because she has been chosen to be Ms Walton’s extra-special helper. Billie really wants to do a good job but she soon learns that having such an important responsibility is not as easy or as enjoyable as she thought! However, when Billie gets lost, she wishes for an extra-special helper of her own. Other Billie B. Brown Book Studies Billie B. Brown: The Secret Message by Sally Rippin Book Study Billie B. Brown: The Birthday Mix-up by Sally Rippin Book Study Billie B. Brown: The Soccer Star by Sally Rippin Book Study Billie B. Brown: The Big Sister by Sally Rippin Book Study Billie B. Brown: The Beautiful Haircut by Sally Rippin Book Study Billie B. Brown: The Little Lie by Sally Rippen Book Study Billie B. Brown: The Second-best Friend by Sally Rippen Book Study Billie B. Brown: The Copycat Kid by Sally Rippen Book Study *** How to get TeachShare credits to use on future purchases *** Go to your My Purchases page. Beside each purchase you'll see a Provide Feedback button, click it and you will be taken to a page where you can leave a quick rating and a short comment about the product. Why is feedback so important? Each time you provide feedback, you’ll earn TeachShare credits that can be applied to future purchases to save you money! Plus, the feedback you provide helps me make my products better suit your needs! *** How To Follow My Store *** Click the green star beside my name at the top of this page OR at the top of my store page. Following me notifies you when I post a new item and you will receive customized email updates about my store.
Character Graphic Organizer and Descriptive Paragraph
By Susan Wolfe
Character analysis, graphic organizer, and descriptive writing for any novel.
Free PDF
For grades 6 to 9
Syllabus for 9th-Grade English | Coming-of-Age Fiction | World Literature Course
By Rigorous Resources for High School English
This syllabus is for a 9th-grade English course on World Literature. The syllabus features literary texts guaranteed to keep modern-day teenagers highly engaged. For the syllabus is focused on a topic which globally connected teenagers find intrinsically interesting: namely, coming-of-age literature from around the globe. In this 9th-grade English course, students learn about how the experience of growing up is shaped by social conditions and cultural traditions which are specific to countries like Afghanistan, England, Iran, and the United States — all while reading amazing literature!
Skills Objectives: The curriculum is designed to build foundational skills in the analysis of literary form. It equips students with the tools and techniques for analyzing the formal elements of various literary genres: novels, plays, poems, and graphic novels. It also prepares students to identify and analyze a wide range of literary devices: various types of imagery, figurative language, etc.
Because this syllabus fully editable, you'll be able to customize this syllabus to suit your own literary tastes and/or the skill levels of your students — year after year!
Here are the 8 units featured in this World Literature course focused on coming-of-age fiction from around the globe:
1. The Coming-of-Age Novel (United States)
• J. D. Salinger, The Catcher in the Rye
2. Friendship & Ethics: Doing What's Right (Afghanistan)
• Khaled Hosseini, The Kite Runner
3. Love vs. Duty: Teenage Romance & Generational Conflict (England)
• Introduction to Shakespeare
• William Shakespeare, Romeo and Juliet
4. Poetry Unit: Formalist Analysis (Various)
• Sensory Imagery in Poetry
• Figurative Language in Poetry
• Figurative Language Stations
• Love Poetry: Traditional vs. Modern
• Sonnets: Traditional vs. Modern
5. Coming of Age in a Revolution (Iran & Austria)
• Marjane Satrapi, The Complete Persepolis
6. Poetry Unit: Thematic Analysis (Various)
• Poetry on Ethical Dilemmas
• Poetry on Family Dynamics
• Poetry on Cultural Identity
7. The Feminist Bildungsroman: Finding One's Voice (U.S.)
• Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God
8. New Immigrant Literature (Post-1965 U.S.)
• Gene Luen Yan, American Born Chinese
Writing Instruction Tools
• Introducing Quotations: How to Properly Embed Textual Evidence
• How to Write an Analytical Essay
Discussion Tools
• Discussion-Based Teaching Toolkit: Socratic Seminar Rubrics
Syllabus
• 9th-Grade English Syllabus
If you like this syllabus, you'll love the full-year 9th-Grade English Curriculum— a mega-bundle of teaching resources to get you through the entire school year! The year-long curriculum features over 1,400 pages of printable teaching resources: reading quizzes, discussion questions, and writing prompts for every book. And it's currently on sale for over 50% off!! Click to learn more about the 9th-Grade English Curriculum!
Rigorous Resources is your one-stop shop for top-quality teaching resources on diverse authors. Every resource was created by a Ph.D. in English who has taught for 20+ years and published award-winning essays on fiction and poetry.
If you have any questions about the syllabus or curriculum, please don't hesitate to get in touch via the email address below. I love hearing from fellow teachers who share a passion for great literature. I'll be eager to do everything I can to make sure you have an amazing experience with 9th-grade English!
Happy teaching,
Adam Jernigan
P.S. Don't forget to click “follow” for email updates on new products by Rigorous Resources. New products will be 50% OFF for the first 24 hours!
P.P.S. This syllabus will always be free — so please don't hesitate to share the link with your colleagues and friends. If you'd be willing to post a brief review for this free resource, I'd be sincerely grateful for your support.
By Meggen Loew
15-day lesson plans for the classroom or family during the 2020 advent season. The free version has basic lesson plans for classrooms and families to follow. The lesson plans include follow along plans for bible reading, a read aloud, suggested picture books and movies. It also includes suggested weekly themes for each week.
Shakespeare's Hamlet | Pre-Reading Handout on Major Themes in Hamlet | Free
By Rigorous Resources for High School English
This 3-page pre-reading handout introduces students to the most prominent themes in William Shakespeare's Hamlet. By having your class read and discuss this thematic introduction together, students will be captivated by the complex questions invoked in Shakespeare's play before they begin reading the enigmatic first scene.
If you like this 3-page pre-reading handout, you'll definitely want to check out my 200-page Complete Teaching Unit on Hamlet. The complete unit features worksheets on every scene in Shakespeare's longest play. Because the complete unit is both professionally designed and academically rigorous, it is especially well-suited for courses like Honors English and AP Literature.
Wishing you an amazing experience with teaching this complex play. If you have any questions along the way, please don't hesitate to get in touch. And don't forget to check out the Complete Teaching Unit on Hamlet...
Happy teaching,
Adam Jernigan, Ph.D.
P.S. Don't forget to click “follow” for email updates on new products by Rigorous Resources. New products will be 50% OFF for the first 24 hours!
Please check out these complete units on Shakespeare's masterpieces:
COMPLETE UNIT with Workbooks on Romeo and Juliet
COMPLETE UNIT with Workbooks on Julius Caesar
COMPLETE UNIT with Workbooks on Macbeth
COMPLETE UNIT with Workbooks on Othello
COMPLETE UNIT with Workbooks on Hamlet
COMPLETE UNIT with Workbooks on Much Ado About Nothing
INTRO TO SHAKESPEARE: Biography, Globe Theater, Language, & Meter
Julius Caesar PRE-READING HANDOUT: A History of the Roman Republic | Shakespeare
By Rigorous Resources for High School English
This 4-page pre-reading handout provides students with important background information for understanding William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. This resource includes a two-page handout on the history of the Roman Republic. The resource also included is a comprehension check and answer key so that teachers can assess whether students have understood important details from the handout.
Learning about the history of the Roman Republic will provide students with the contextual information necessary for understanding certain lines in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. You could have students read this handout for homework before starting the play; or you could have students read the handout aloud together in class before giving them the comprehension check worksheet.
If you like this pre-reading handout, you'll definitely want to check out my 160-page Complete Teaching Unit on Julius Caesar. The complete unit features colorful and engaging worksheets on every scene in Shakespeare's play. Because the complete unit is both professionally designed and academically rigorous, it is especially well-suited for courses like Honors English and AP Lang.
Wishing you an amazing experience with teaching this complex play. If you have any questions along the way, please don't hesitate to get in touch. And don't forget to check out the Complete Teaching Unit on Julius Caesar....
Happy teaching,
Adam Jernigan, Ph.D.
P.S. Remember to “follow” my store to receive email updates on new products by Rigorous Resources. New products will be 50% OFF for the first 24 hours!
Feel free to check out these complete units on Shakespeare's masterpieces:
COMPLETE UNIT with Workbooks on Romeo and Juliet
COMPLETE UNIT with Workbooks on Julius Caesar
COMPLETE UNIT with Workbooks on Macbeth
COMPLETE UNIT with Workbooks on Othello
COMPLETE UNIT with Workbooks on Hamlet
COMPLETE UNIT with Workbooks on Much Ado About Nothing
INTRO TO SHAKESPEARE: Biography, Globe Theater, Language, & Meter
African-American Literature Syllabus | High School English | Great Black Writers
By Rigorous Resources for High School English
This syllabus is for a course on African-American Literature. The year-long course features literary texts by some of the best African-American novelists, playwrights, and poets: Frederick Douglass, Langston Hughes, Zora Neale Hurston, Lorraine Hansberry, Toni Morrison, and more.
The curriculum is organized chronologically and was designed to highlight several important African-American literary and cultural movements: slave narratives, the Harlem Renaissance, Civil Rights Literature, Black Arts Poetry, etc. The curriculum is deliberately diverse in its representation of gender and brings an intersectional approach to the study of literary characters.
In addition, the curriculum features works by African-American authors written in a wide range of literary genres: novels, memoirs, plays, and poems. The daily lesson plans equip students with the terminologies and techniques for analyzing texts written in those different genres.
The units for each book listed on the syllabus can be found via the links below:
• Frederick Douglass, Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass (1845)
• Langston Hughes, Selected Poetry
• Nella Larsen, Passing (1929)
• Zora Neale Hurston, Their Eyes Were Watching God (1938)
• Gwendolyn Brooks, Selected Poetry
• Lorraine Hansberry, A Raisin in the Sun (1959)
• Toni Morrison, The Bluest Eye (1972)
• Octavia Butler, Kindred (1979)
• Writing Analytical Papers
Rigorous Resources your one-stop shop for top-quality teaching resources on complex literature by diverse authors. Each unit was created by a Ph.D. in English who has taught for 20+ years and published award-winning essays on American literature.
Because this syllabus fully editable, you'll be able to customize this syllabus to suit your own literary tastes and/or the skill levels of your students — year after year! If you have any questions about the syllabus or any of the unit plans, please don't hesitate to get in touch via the email address below. I'm eager to do everything I can to make sure you have an amazing experience with teaching African-American Literature!
Finally, this syllabus will always be free — so please don't hesitate to share the link with your colleagues. If you'd be willing to leave a brief review, I'd be sincerely grateful for your support. I love hearing from the amazing teachers who share a passion for great literature!
Happy teaching,
Adam Jernigan
First-Day Lesson Plan for American Literature: Poems about "America"
By Rigorous Resources for High School English
This lesson was designed to be used on the first day of a year-long 11th-grade American Literature course. The lesson includes a poetry packet with 7 poems by diverse American authors. Each of the poems raises important questions about what "America" represents. A land of freedom and equality? A refuge for immigrants? A diverse and inclusive nation? Or a land with entrenched inequality? A saber-rattling evil empire?
Here is a list of the poems:
1. Ada Limón, "A New National Anthem" (2018) — our new Poet Laureate!
2. Emma Lazarus, "The New Colossus" (1883)
3. Walt Whitman, "I Hear America Singing" (1860)
4. Langston Hughes, "I, Too" (1923) — responding directly to Whitman!
5. Claude McKay, "America" (1921)
6. James Lasdun, "The Question" (2012) — is America "good or bad"?
7. Tony Hoagland, "America" (2003)
This resource also comes with a classwork packet that features discussion questions on the poems by Ada Limôn, Emma Lazarus, and Langston Hughes. The discussion questions come on three handouts, each of which contains 7 questions about a particular poem. Each handout also has a quick write where students can answer one of the questions in writing.
How might the concept of "America" represent a set of ideals and promises? Has this nation lived up to its ideals and promises? How might the idea of America be different from the reality?
Thank you for choosing Rigorous Resources!
Happy teaching!
Adam Jernigan, Ph.D.
P.S. Don't forget to click “follow” for email updates on new products by Rigorous Resources. New products will be 50% OFF for the first 24 hours!
Rigorous Resources is your one-stop shop for resources on American literature. Every unit was designed by a Ph.D. with a research specialization in American literature. Feel free to check out these complete units on canonical texts by diverse American authors:
Complete Unit on Tommy Orange's There There
Complete Unit on Arthur Miller's The Crucible
Complete Unit on Frederick Douglass's Narrative
Complete Unit on F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby
Complete Unit on Zora Neale Hurston's Their Eyes Were Watching God
Complete Unit on Nella Larsen's Passing
Complete Unit on J. D. Salinger's The Catcher in the Rye
Complete Unit on Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun
Complete Unit on Toni Morrison's The Bluest Eye
Complete Unit on Gene Luen Yang's American Born Chinese
The Great Gatsby SLIDESHOW: Over 40 Slides on Fitzgerald & the Roaring Twenties
By Rigorous Resources for High School English
NEW IN 2020: Rigorous! Engaging! Thought-provoking! This EDITABLE slideshow will kindle a fascination with Fitzgerald's novel before your students even crack the cover of The Great Gatsby. Open your unit on Fitzgerald's masterpiece with this powerful 41-slide PowerPoint SLIDESHOW presentation on the life of F. Scott Fitzgerald's and the culture of 1920s America called "The Road to Gatsby: A Slideshow on F. Scott Fitzgerald and the Roaring Twenties."
While this slideshow can be downloaded for free, it is meant to be accompanied by a 9-page LECTURE that you can preview and/or purchase for $1.99 by clicking HERE!!
Here's a quick glimpse into each of the four sections featured in the slideshow:
• Part I. The Artist as a Young Man: This section features photographs of Fitzgerald from his childhood in Minnesota, his college years at Princeton, his military training at Camp Sheridan, and his romantic courtship of Zelda Sayre in Montgomery, Alabama. Your students will be fascinated by the parallels between Fitzgerald's life and Jay Gatsby's upbringing, military training, and romantic life. After all, it is only because Gatsby is wearing his military uniform — which erases the signs of his class status — that he can get close to Daisy Faye! (13 slides)
• Part II. New York in the Artistic Imagination: This section features photographs and paintings of the rapidly changing skyline of New York in the 1920s. Photographs by Alfred Stiegliz reveal how 5-story brownstones were replaced by 50-story skyscrapers. Paintings by Georgia O'Keefe and Howard Thain reveal how the invention of electric lights imbued the cityscape with color and romantic allure. (7 slides)
• Part III. The Characters as Readers: This section will not only prepare students to catch the literary allusions in The Great Gatsby but will get students thinking about what the books that various characters are reading might reveal about their personalities. What does his interest in Horatio Alger's rags-to-riches novels reveal about the character of Jay Gatsby? What does his interest in Lothrop Stoddard's The Rising Tide of Color reveal about the racist and xenophobic views of Tom Buchanan? (7 slides)
• Part IV. Drafting The Great Gatsby: This section features photographs of the mansions and parties that Scott and Zelda attended on Long Island in 1923. It also features Fitzgerald's handwritten drafts of the first and last pages of his novel, a list of the six titles that Fitzgerald rejected (plus the title he actually preferred but requested after the book had gone to print), and the painting by Fancis Cugat that Fitzgerald selected for the cover of The Great Gatsby. (12 slides)
This slideshow will come to you in a 41-slide EDITABLE PowerPoint presentation which you can customize to the needs of your students! The 9-page EDITABLE lecture accompanying the slideshow can be previewed and/or purchased for $1.99 by clicking HERE. (Sellers are only able to upload one document per TeachShare product, so I've had to upload the lecture under a separate product listing. Apologies in advance for the inconvenience). As a bonus for purchasing the lecture, you'll also get a Spotify playlist of the songs that characters listen to in The Great Gatsby.
Thank you for choosing “Rigorous Resources”!!
Happy teaching!
Adam Jernigan, Ph.D.
Note: This slideshow and lecture also included in my Gatsby MEGA-Bundle. The bundle contains everything you'll need to deliver amazing and comprehensive lessons on Fitzgerald's novel: over 40 slides and over 240 pages of content-rich handouts and activities. If you've already purchased the bundle, you don't need to purchase this slideshow. Thanks!
Click to view the Gatsby MEGA-Bundle
Click to view my TeachShare store