Critical thinkers and proficient readers use a composite of similar cognitive skills that are challenging to assess and difficult to cultivate. Therefore, students and teachers require an instructional model that demonstrates the acuity involved in these proficiencies. This quasiexperimental study aimed to investigate the impact of Equalities as Metaphors instruction on the critical thinking and reading comprehension achievement of grade 7 students during and after language arts instruction versus traditional teaching methods. A nonrandom sample of 43 grade 7 students from one elementary school in Northern New Jersey participated in the study. Students placed in the intervention group (n = 21) received Equalities as Metaphors instruction. The control group (n = 22) received traditional language arts instruction. The teacher used grade 7 textbooks with supplementary materials for language arts instruction in both groups. Following the pretest-posttest nonrandom control group design, t-test results indicated that language arts instruction affected the critical thinking and reading comprehension achievement of grade 7 students regardless of teaching method (i.e., traditional versus Equalities as Metaphors instruction). However, the intervention group significantly outperformed the control group. The researcher recommended using Equalities as Metaphors instruction on a larger sample throughout an instructional year.