+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Newcomers

For Teachers K - 3rd
Explore emotions associated with moving to a new home with young learners. First they listen to the books Painted Words/Spoken Memories by Aliki and Going Home by Eve Bunting. Then they are invited to share their experiences as well as...
+
Lesson Plan
1
1
Curated OER

1984 by George Orwell

For Teachers 8th - 12th Standards
Readers of Nineteen Eighty-Four engage in a close reading exercise that directs their focus to the key details Orwell provides in the opening paragraphs to introduce his dystopian society. The included worksheeet is divided into three...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Gettysburg Address by Abraham Lincoln

For Teachers 8th - 10th Standards
"The Gettysburg Address" is the basis of a series of activities that not only model for learners how to conduct a close reading of a text, but also how a close reading can help them comprehend a difficult text. The detailed, step-by-step...
+
Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Close Reading: Excerpt 2 of “The Digital Revolution and the Adolescent Brain Evolution”

For Teachers 7th Standards
Help scholars comprehend a challenging text. Using the resource, pupils read excerpts from an article about the digital revolution and adolescent brain development. As they read, they answer text-dependent questions and complete a close...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Sippin' on Smoothies

For Teachers 1st - 5th
Why is calcium good for the body? Where is it stored? Young chefs discover the importance of calcium and review a list of foods that are rich in the material. They then make delicious smoothies high in calcium! Teaching kids how to make...
+
Organizer
Scholasic

The Magic School Bus and the Missing Tooth

For Students 2nd - 4th Standards
We chew with our teeth every day, but how much do we really know about them? Allow Ms. Frizzle to teach your kids a thing or two about teeth. Kids complete a prereading exercise, read the book, and respond to several prompts about the...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Summarization Superstars

For Teachers 3rd - 6th
How do you read when you know you're going to be summarizing a text? Summarize a nonfiction text with your upper elementary schoolers. Your pupils independently read a nonfiction article and write a summary paragraph using the six-step...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Mexico Field Trip

For Teachers 5th - 10th
Explore how the library or Internet resources function as textual information. Young writers research a chosen topic then read and comprehend the collected information. They structure the information with texts and graphics for a...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

I Can Answer That!

For Teachers 2nd - 4th
Enhance reader comprehension! Examine different comprehension strategies with your second, third, and fourth graders. They discuss the strategy of questioning by developing their own comprehension questions to help improve their memory...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Introduction To Literary Analysis

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Explore the fascinating ways in which authors use specific literary devices to create interesting and realistic texts. Using non-fiction articles with the subject of rogue waves, an excerpt from The Perfect Storm, by Sebastian Junger,...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Question What You Read

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Readers test their reading comprehension after reading a nonfiction text about Paleo Indians. (This text is in Alabama: It's History and Geography, but other texts can be used.) After reading the nonfiction article as a class, they...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Anticipation Guides Improve Reading Comprehension

For Teachers 2nd - 8th
Beginning with anticipation guide strategies is a powerful method for improving reading comprehension. First, list initial ideas for a topic the class will be reading about. These ideas are formulated into statements, some of which are...
+
Interactive
American Museum of Natural History

The Milky Way Galaxy

For Students 6th - 12th
Just how big is the galaxy? Learners read information about the size of the Milky Way galaxy to better comprehend its size. Pupils develop an understanding of the number of stars in the galaxy by finding just how big a billion is and...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Short and Sweet

For Teachers 2nd - 6th
Students examine how to summarize information from expository text. They read an expository text and identify the important information from the reading. Students identify the topic sentence and write their own topic sentences.
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Lesson Six: Nonfiction Text Elements (Part One)

For Teachers 4th - 5th
Students examine nonfiction text elements in preparation for writing a nonfiction book about Lewis and Clark. In this social studies/language arts instructional activity, students discuss the term research and complete a cluster map....
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

To Sum it all Up...

For Teachers 4th - 5th
Students observe and demonstrate the process of summarizing text. They read and discuss the steps to summarize text, then in small groups read and summarize an article about frogs from "National Geographic" online. Independently they...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Outline It!

For Teachers 4th
Fourth graders investigate how outlining can aid in comprehending text. In this reading comprehension lesson, 4th graders outline an article they read in groups of two. Students take turns reading the article, identifying the main idea,...
+
Unit Plan
Curated OER

Tuck Everlasting Unit

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Natalie Babbitt's award winning fantasy, Tuck Everlasting, is the anchor text in a unit plan that focuses on identifying similes, metaphors, imagery, and personification in the text and analyzing how these elements effect the development...
+
Activity
Curated OER

Express Yourself Lesson Seed 9: Climax

For Teachers 6th Standards
Conduct a close reading of chapter 9 of The Cay. Read the chapter again and ask pupils to respond to a list of included text-dependent questions. Finish the class with the provided writing assignment, which asks learners to use textual...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Guided Reading: Desert Life

For Teachers 1st
First graders read a book with the teacher while encountering unfamiliar words and learning how to use context clues and visual clues to understand the material.  For this reading comprehension lesson, 1st graders make predictions and...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Words in the News

For Teachers 9th - Higher Ed
Students observe and demonstrate how read and comprehend a short news report. They read an article about AIDS and HIV testing, define key vocabulary terms, and complete a skimming activity. Students then take a quiz and complete a...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Nelson Mandela's Birthday

For Teachers 9th - Higher Ed
Students complete a variety of vocabulary-related activities with a focus on a news article about Nelson Mandela's 89th birthday. They read the article, define key vocabulary terms, identify the famous people mentioned in the text,...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Using Non-Text Features

For Teachers 2nd
Second graders examine graphs and charts from their local newspaper. As a class, they discuss what the data means and how it relates to the article. In groups, they are shown two sets of graphs or charts and they practice explaining...
+
Lesson Plan
Maine Content Literacy Project

Exploring Text with the iMovie Application

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Get your class going on one of the final assessments for a unit on short stories by introducing iMovie and its main features. In this tenth instructional activity in a series of fourteen, pupils take some time to explore iMovie before...