Curated OER
Frame Story "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County"
Mark Twain's frame story, "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" provides an opportunity for a study of this story-within-a-story pattern. Using an illustrated template, class members record a plot summary of the frame story...
Curated OER
Monster Plants Storia Teaching Guide
Who wouldn't want to read a book about monster plants? Get those kids into informational texts with an engaging topic, like meat eating plants! You'll use the teaching guide to provide structured practice as your class reads to...
Curated OER
Story Map Book Report
This is an example of what a story map book report can look like using mind wing teaching concepts. Consider this idea as a way to provide special needs or those with learning disabilities a way to communicate what they know or learned...
Curated OER
Retelling Information
This scripted lesson plan suggests using the journalist’s five W’s (who, what, when, where, why) to teach readers how to summarize a story and to how to distinguish between significant and supporting details. A template and rubric are...
Curated OER
Daniel's Story Study Guide
Students explore the plight of Jews during the Holocaust. For this World War II lesson, students read Daniel's Story by Carol Matas and complete the provided comprehension, characterization, and vocabulary activities.
Curated OER
Five Step Summary
Students review the five steps to summarization. They then read the article "Whoooo-o Are You?" silently. As a class they summarize a small section of the article using the five steps included. Finally, the students summarize...
Harper Collins
The World of Ramona
Bring the fun and whimsy of Beverly Cleary into your classroom with a teaching guide created to accompany the Ramona series. The guide offers several ideas for classroom use, including independent reading, reading aloud, and literature...
Curated OER
Fun with Summarizing
Students practice summarization by creating a story map. After reading Freckle Juice, students working in groups, create a story map of the main events of the story. Groups use their story maps to summarize a chapter of the story and...
Curated OER
Chunks, Chunks, And More Chunks!
Students summarize a selected piece of text nonfiction text. After reviewing the process for summarizing, students read a nonfiction article, highlighting important information as they read. They write a summary paragraph using the five...
Curated OER
Keep It Short!
Students examine the process of summarizing text. They participate in a class discussion, and read an assigned passage from their textbook, highlighting the main points of the text. Students then write a short summary of their...
Curated OER
The Tell Tale Students
Students practice summarizing text by retelling what they have read. They read selected, leveled passages and use enthusiastic and createive ways to members of their group. Students complete a journal entry documenting their experience...
Curated OER
Read This Book
Students practice summarizing a story that they have read. They write a persuasive essay encouraging others to read the story they have finished. They are to create a movie trailer or advertisement to promote the book.
Curated OER
Magical Creatures
Students investigate entertaining characters within stories. For this writing lesson, students review nouns and adjectives and discuss magical characters. Students ask themselves questions about their selected characters and write a...
Curated OER
Question What You Read
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...
Curated OER
Searching for Cinderella
Students take a closer look at Cinderella stories. In this literature instructional activity, students discuss the attributes of Cinderella stories from around the world and conduct research to find where the "Aschenputtel" story...
Curated OER
Reliving History through Slave Narratives
Helpful for an American literature or history unit, this lesson prompts middle schoolers to examine slavery in the United States. They read slave narratives that were part of the Federal Writers' Project and then conduct their own...
Curated OER
Transition Words in Writing
Transition words in writing are the focus of the language arts lesson presented here. In it, learners cut out the word-sort cards (embedded in the plan), and put them into four categories: time, examples, space, and summary. They find a...
Penguin Books
Folklore and Fairytales: A Guide to Using Traditional Tales and Reimagined Classics
Every culture has its own stories to tell. An interesting educator's guide shares a large collection of fairytales and folktales, some from different cultures and some re-creations of classics. A summary and brief teaching ideas...
Curated OER
Picture This - Stars Over Hoke
The classroom becomes a safe and inclusive place for your ELLs as they create documents about their lives. Learners create, read, and present story books based on their own personal experiences. They use digital cameras to take...
Hawaiʻi State Department of Education
Dance Critic
What do writing and dance have in common? They both have a six-trait rubric for assessment. Just like a good story, a good dance must have a hook, beginning, middle, end, logical sequence, and a climax. Learners use a structured...
Curated OER
Let's Get Ready to Summarize
Students practice a summarizing strategy in this lesson. They are given a copy of a "National Geographic Kids" article and are encouraged to read it silently. They then use the steps provided to write an individual summary of the article.
Curated OER
Transitioning Between Scenes
Students create a chart to reference when writing new scenes in fiction stories. In this fiction writing lesson, students are exposed to various ways to transition between scenes in their writing. There is a Word document to download...
Curated OER
Holes Comprehension Companion
Here is a one-stop planning resource for Louis Sachar's Newbery Award-winning book Holes. You'll find 21 links to worksheets and various activities designed to span the entire book. Learners draw to help analyze settings and make...
Curated OER
Whodunit?
Students bring in a variety of books to be approved for reading outside of class and then complete a book review on each one approved. They remember to include a description of the setting and characters, plot summary and a conclusion in...