Learning Units
Learning Units
Curated collections of books grouped around targeted learning goals — each with activities, discussion questions, and printable lesson plans.
Loss & Healing
A curated collection of 4 books exploring loss & healing, each with discussion questions, activities, and printable lesson plans.
Targeted Goal
Students will explore how characters cope with loss and find paths toward healing, building emotional awareness and empathy.
Emotions & Feelings
A curated collection of 11 books exploring emotions & feelings, each with discussion questions, activities, and printable lesson plans.
Targeted Goal
Students will explore how characters navigate big emotions, and develop strategies for understanding and expressing feelings.
Teamwork & Cooperation
A curated collection of 7 books exploring teamwork & cooperation, each with discussion questions, activities, and printable lesson plans.
Targeted Goal
Students will analyze how characters work together, identify what makes cooperation succeed, and practice collaborative skills.
Honesty & Integrity
A curated collection of 9 books exploring honesty & integrity, each with discussion questions, activities, and printable lesson plans.
Targeted Goal
Students will examine why honesty matters, how truth shapes trust, and what it means to act with integrity.
Empathy & Compassion
A curated collection of 4 books exploring empathy & compassion, each with discussion questions, activities, and printable lesson plans.
Targeted Goal
Students will practice seeing the world from others' perspectives and develop compassion through storytelling.
Overcoming Adversity
A curated collection of 7 books exploring overcoming adversity, each with discussion questions, activities, and printable lesson plans.
Targeted Goal
Students will identify how characters overcome adversity, develop resilience strategies, and apply them to their own challenges.
Growing Up
A curated collection of 8 books exploring growing up, each with discussion questions, activities, and printable lesson plans.
Targeted Goal
Students will explore the challenges and triumphs of growing up, building confidence and self-awareness along the way.
Family & Community
A curated collection of 14 books exploring family & community, each with discussion questions, activities, and printable lesson plans.
Targeted Goal
Students will analyze how families and communities support one another, and connect these themes to their own lives.
Courage & Bravery
A curated collection of 18 books exploring courage & bravery, each with discussion questions, activities, and printable lesson plans.
Targeted Goal
Students will identify how characters face fears, take risks, and find the courage to do what is right.
Acceptance & Belonging
A curated collection of 12 books exploring acceptance, each with discussion questions, activities, and printable lesson plans.
Targeted Goal
Students will explore what it means to accept others and themselves, recognizing that everyone deserves to belong.
Identity & Speaking Up
Stories of kids navigating who they are and finding the courage to raise their voices — in school, in their community, and in the world.
Targeted Goal
Students will examine how identity shapes perspective, and articulate how finding your voice can create justice and belonging.
STEM Explorers
Dive into brains, sharks, birds, ocean zones, and windmills — five books that turn curious kids into scientists and inventors.
Targeted Goal
Students will investigate how observation and experimentation help us understand the natural world and solve real problems.
Courage & Making a Difference
Meet real and fictional heroes who saw a problem and chose to act — from a boy who grew a forest to a girl who demanded the right to learn.
Targeted Goal
Students will analyze how determination and courage create change, and connect each character's actions to their own community.
Finding Your Voice
Stories about creative expression, storytelling, and discovering the power of your own unique perspective.
Targeted Goal
Students will explore how characters express themselves, identify their own creative strengths, and craft personal narratives.
Resilience & Courage
Stories of perseverance, grit, and finding strength in the face of challenges — from everyday struggles to extraordinary journeys.
Targeted Goal
Students will identify how characters overcome adversity, develop resilience strategies, and apply them to their own lives.
Friendship & Belonging
Explore what it means to welcome others and build a community where everyone belongs — through ghost stories, pet clubs, and unlikely friendships.
Targeted Goal
Students will identify how small acts of kindness create belonging, and articulate what makes someone a good friend.
Nature & Environment
Explore the natural world — from ocean depths to arctic tundras — and discover the interconnectedness of ecosystems.
Targeted Goal
Students will observe and describe natural phenomena, identify cause-and-effect relationships in ecosystems, and develop environmental stewardship.
Pace-Activate It! Activities
Hands-on writing activities from the Pace-Write-Read handbook.
Pacing Through Paragraphs
Identify how the author controls pacing through paragraph breaks and white space, then apply the technique.
Dialogue Detective
Analyze how the author uses dialogue to reveal character, then write a new conversation between two characters.
Sensory Details Hunt
Find three sensory details in the story and rewrite a paragraph adding your own sensory language.
Sentence Length Stretch
Experiment with sentence length — write a scene using only short sentences, then rewrite using only long sentences.
Pace the Plot Mountain
Map the story's plot onto a plot mountain, identifying the inciting incident, rising action, climax, and resolution.
Standards Connections
Curriculum standards addressed across all learning units.