Read Works
Signal Words in Expository Text
Signal words are one way that authors make the relationships between their ideas clear. Allow your learners the chance to investigate cause and effect in texts by identifying signal words. They locate and analyze cause-and-effect...
EngageNY
Using Peer Feedback and Summarizing Our Research In Informational Text Boxes
Insert text box here. Learners use index cards to create their own informational text boxes. The text box includes information about an insect in the rainforest. Scholars also complete the draft of their research science journal entries.
Fluence Learning
Writing Informative Text: School Days
A three-part writing assessment challenges scholars to think critically about schools of the past and present. Learners read informative texts, answer questions to prepare for a discussion, research in small groups, complete a Venn...
Curated OER
Dr. Seuss and Read Across America
What important facts about Dr. Seuss influenced the Read Across America movement...? This is the driving question of a research project that requires scholars to find information about Dr. Seuss' life and work. Class members write a...
Curated OER
Writer's Toolbox
Present the class with a slide show that will give them a great head start in writing expository and narrative texts. The information is highlighted for easy note taking, well organized, and presented in a kid-friendly manner. It...
Curated OER
Using Details From The Text
Begin this expository writing activity by reading a non-fiction book of your choice and modeling expository writing. The plan suggests The Trip of a Drip by Vicki Cobb but notes that other texts will work. Learners then choose a...
Curated OER
Using Details from Text to Identify Author's Purpose
Explore writing techniques by analyzing newspapers and magazines with middle schoolers. They will collaborate in small groups to read local news stories and identify the main ideas and author's intent. They also utilize an information...
Pennsylvania Department of Education
Informational Writing
Emerging writers identify an informational piece of writing. They are provided with examples of informational writing and view a PowerPoint on narrative writing. Then, they design their own informational writing with a brochure,...
Lakeshorelearning
Read and Write about It
Reading informational text is a skill that transcends subjects and grade levels. Practice reading about different topics in various formats with a language arts lesson that includes opportunities for writing and research as well.
Tech Know Teaching
6th Grade Constructed Response Question
Graphs, charts, maps, diagrams. Reading and comprehending informational text is far more than just decoding the words on a page. Here's a packet that provides young readers with practice answering constructed response questions using...
Curated OER
Information from Posters
Budding journalists examine and evaluate an informative poster advertising a public meeting to discuss city park issues. They write a paragraph explaining what they found to be effective and ineffective about the poster, then imagine...
DePaul University
Settlement
Early settlers in the American Midwest experienced constant struggle. This reading passage describes for young learners the hardships of homesteaders as they journeyed west and sought to start a new life. When finished, students identify...
DePaul University
Egypt
The country of Egypt is more than just big pyramids and ancient pharaohs. After reading a brief overview of this African nation, young learners will demonstrate their understanding of the text by identifying the main idea and supporting...
EngageNY
End of Unit Assessment, Part 1: Text-Dependent Questions and Storyboard Draft: “You Can Do a Graphic Novel” Excerpt
Eyes on the finish line. Serving as the first part of the end of unit assessment, learners answer questions based on a text about how to write a graphic novel. Using what they've learned, they then create a storyboard about the invention...
Literacy Design Collaborative
A Pale Blue Dot: That's Here. That's Home. That's Us.
21st-century learners live in such a visual world that many are unused to letting their minds imagine the picture that words create. An excerpt from Carl Sagan's lecture, "The Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space,"...
Nancy N. Boyles
Summary Frame for Story Text and Informational Text
Provide these templates as aids for pupils as they work to compose summaries of both stories and informational texts. The first two frames provide sentence starters to help learners structure their summaries and include all the necessary...
Have Fun Teaching
Making Inferences (1)
Provide readers with an opportunity to practice drawing inferences by giving them this worksheet. Kids identify the text and author, record a sentence they believe infers rather than directly says, and then write the deeper meaning the...
McGraw Hill
Study Guide for Island of the Blue Dolphins
Dive your class into a reading of Island of the Blue Dolphins with this in-depth study guide. Breaking the novel into three parts, the resource begins each section with a focus activity that identifies a specific theme or question to be...
Curated OER
Is That a Fact?
Investigate popular scientific claims and gather evidence to defend or argue against an author's stance. Writers synthesize information and compose their own "Really?" columns modeled after those found in the weekly "Science Times"...
Syracuse City School District
Summary of Fiction and Non-Fiction Text
Somebody Wanted But So Then (SWBST)? Yes! Here's a great strategy for teaching young readers how to summarize narrative text. In addition, the packet includes exercises that show kids how to summarize nonfiction text using the classic...
EngageNY
Inferring About Characters Based on How They Respond to Challenges (Chapter 3: "Las Papayas/Papayas")
Start off your day with a quick reading comprehension quiz about chapter three of Esperanza Rising by Pam Muñoz Ryan. After they complete the quiz, pupils participate in a discussion and look closely at the text. A strong Common Core...
McGraw Hill
Study Guide for A Wrinkle in Time
Mrs. Who, Mrs. Whatsit, and Mrs. Which would not be so confused if they had a study guide as great as this. Scholars increase their comprehension of A Wrinkle In Time through many supports such as guided questions, background...
McGraw Hill
Study Guide for Tuck Everlasting
Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt is a classic novel that readers have enjoyed for years. Resources within the study guide such as discussion and guided reading questions, extension activities, and graphic organizers aid comprehension...
Curated OER
Build a Connection
Learners discuss their personal connections with stories they've read in the past and identify techniques to connect with more stories. They create illustrations, construct task cards, and complete sentence stems based on books they read...