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Lesson Plan
Penguin Books

Addressing Text Complexity - Making Independent Reading Meaningful

For Teachers 5th - 8th Standards
Many English teachers dream of a classroom full of readers silently enjoying their books. A useful guide helps make that dream become a reality by providing book recommendations for a range of readers. Each suggestion includes the...
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Lesson Plan
1
1
Curated OER

Advertising in the Contemporary World: An Introduction to Persuasive Texts

For Teachers 7th - 8th Standards
Beginning a persuasive writing unit with your middle schoolers? Approach it through something that persuades us all: advertising! Through studying video and print advertisement, your class will practice Common Core skills for reading...
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Lesson Plan
Ontario

Reading Informational Text

For Teachers 7th - 8th Standards
Learning to recognize the importance of the features of information text (i.e., titles, subtitles, endnotes, sidebars, etc.) is the focus of a reading activity designed for middle schoolers. Learners examine how these text features help...
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Lesson Plan
Ontario

Reading Graphic Text

For Teachers 7th - 10th Standards
Do learners really need to be taught how to read cartoons, comic books, and comic strips? Yes. Just as they need to learn how to read other forms of graphic text such as diagrams, photos, timetables, maps, charts, and tables. Young...
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Lesson Plan
5
5
National Math + Science Initative

Reading an Informational Text: "It All Started with Sputnik"

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
Sputnik was one of the greatest scientific advancements of the 1950s, and this reading lesson does it justice. Pupils start off with pre-reading questions and a video. They then read an excerpt from an article, which is accompanied by...
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Lesson Plan
National Council of Teachers of English

Writing Acrostic Poems with Thematically Related Texts in the Content Areas

For Teachers 2nd - 5th Standards
Scholars scour thematically aligned texts to gather a bank of words they can use in an original acrostic poem. 
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Lesson Plan
Bantam Books

The Tempest: Linked Text Set (Pre-Reading)

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
Before you begin your unit on William Shakespeare's The Tempest, introduce the themes of the play with a lesson based on the biblical story of Joseph. Taking your high schoolers through selected text from Genesis 17-44, the lesson...
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Lesson Plan
1
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EngageNY

Summarizing Complex Ideas: Comparing the Original UDHR and the "Plain Language" Version

For Teachers 5th Standards
The eighth lesson plan in this series continues the focus on vocabulary and increasing young readers' awareness of academic language. Pairs of learners participate in a short vocabulary review activity called Interactive Words in which...
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Lesson Plan
K20 LEARN

Sentence Structure in Siddhartha: Simple, Compound, Complex, and Compound-Complex Sentences

For Teachers 9th Standards
While wisdom may not be communicated, knowledge of sentence structures certainly can. Teach young grammarians the power of syntax with a lesson plan that uses Herman Hesse's Siddhartha as a mentor text. Learners first rewrite captions...
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Lesson Plan
2
2
Student Achievement Partners

"The Glorious Whitewasher" from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain with Mini-Assessment

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
It's the classic scene: Tom Sawyer is whitewashing a fence. Expose your learners to Mark Twain's humor while reinforcing reading comprehension. Eighth graders are encouraged to read and reread, achieving as much exposure to the text as...
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Lesson Plan
Shmoop

ELA.CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.9-10.10

For Teachers 9th - 10th Standards
Make sure that your pupils have mastered complex literary nonfiction by the end of the year and use this resource to help get them to that point. After a brief description of the Common Core standard, a list of age-appropriate...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Know Before You Go: Anticipating and Previewing Difficult Texts such as The Bluest Eye

For Teachers 11th - 12th
Support your scholars with these anticipatory questions to go along with The Bluest Eye by Toni Morrison. The objective, rationale, and teacher instructions are clearly explained, followed by an anticipation guide for pages 81-93 and the...
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Unit Plan
Gwinnett County Public Schools

Analysis of the Tuck Everlasting and The Birchbark House Text Exemplars

For Teachers 4th - 6th Standards
Looking to introduce some text-based questions into your ELA lessons? Practice the kinds of skills the Common Core demands with the seven text-based questions and the essay prompt provided here. Designed to be a three-day lesson, day one...
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Lesson Plan
Ontario

Critical Literacy—Media Texts

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Media texts convey both overt and implied messages. As part of their study of media, class members analyze the language, form, techniques, and aesthetics in a variety of media texts.
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Lesson Plan
Code.org

Encoding and Sending Formatted Text

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Introduce your class to encoding text. Pairs work together to create a protocol to send text prior to learning ASCII encoding. Groups then collaborate to send and translate ASCII codes creating a formatted text message. 
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Lesson Plan
Hawaiʻi State Department of Education

Illustrating Text

For Teachers 5th
Ideas like this are highly effective for helping build better reading comprehension. The class listens to an excerpt from a grade-appropriate text, and they discuss what clues or words helped them visualize the scene. They then read a...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Teaching Grammar in Context: Using Sentence Combining to Teach Subordination

For Teachers 3rd - 11th
Reinforce sentence styles with this lesson, which prompts young grammarians to build complex and compound-complex sentence structures. They respond to non-print text and identify subordinators as parts of speech procedure. They spell...
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Lesson Plan
1
1
What So Proudly We Hail

Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness: A Lesson on the Declaration of Independence

For Teachers 10th - 12th Standards
What does it mean to say that a right is unalienable? How did the founding fathers convey this revolutionary concept in the Declaration of Independence? Engage in a close reading and analysis of the Declaration of Independence, and...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Gospel of Wealth by Andrew Carnegie: A Close Reading

For Teachers 11th - 12th Standards
Andrew Carnegie's "The Gospel of Wealth" provides high schoolers an opportunity to engage more complex text. After a close reading of the essay and an analysis of Carnegie's argument that the rich are superior because they earn money,...
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Lesson Plan
1
1
Curated OER

Man's Search for Meaning: Vocabulary Strategy

For Teachers 11th - 12th
Readers of Man's Search for Meaning use context clues, create stories using words from the text, and retype these stories as part of their vocabulary study of Viktor Frankl's book.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Comparing Themes Across Texts

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Read various texts to compare the themes across each text. Learners write a journal entry describing the most beautiful scenery they've seen and use a map of the United States to locate the Sequoia National Park and Muir Woods. They then...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Lesson Plan for Scaffolding Complex Texts

For Teachers Pre-K - 2nd Standards
Enhance a class read-aloud of the children's story Hi! Fly Guy with this reading comprehension lesson. Children first listen as the teacher reads the story, stopping along the way to discuss any unfamiliar vocabulary. The book is then...
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Lesson Plan
Penguin Books

A Guide to the Works of Jacqueline Woodson

For Teachers 6th - 10th Standards
The works of Jacqueline Woodson introduce readers to diverse characters and themes. A guide covers many of the author's best-known books such as Brown Girl Dreaming and Locomotion. Dive & Discuss and Explore & Extend activities...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Secrets of the Mummies

For Teachers 3rd - 6th
How did the ancient people of Egypt preserve their dead so well that their bodies are still recognizable today? Learn the painstakingly complex process they used for preservation. Young scholars read and summarize a narrative detailing...