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Organizer
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Mark Twain Media

Understanding Informational Text Features

For Students 6th - 8th Standards
Everything you need to know about informational text features can be found in this resource. Recognizing these types of text features and how they are used in text allows readers to better understand information. Teachers can use this as...
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Worksheet
E Reading Worksheets

Valentine's Day Main Idea and Text Structure Review

For Students 4th - 8th
To demonstrate their understanding of a main idea and of text structures, learners read six paragraphs, draft a sentence explaining the main idea of the passage, create a title for the passage, and form a graphic organizer that...
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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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Printables
Nancy N. Boyles

Summary Frame for Story Text and Informational Text

For Teachers 4th - 8th
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...
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Lesson Plan
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Curated OER

Strong Convictions

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
How can the rhetorical structure of an editorial help to develop its argument? Use this New York Times editorial to emphasize the importance of structure in a piece of informational text. Adolescent writers then use the editorial as a...
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Lesson Plan
For the Teachers

Sequence Plot Chart

For Teachers 3rd - 8th Standards
Your kids can identify the plot sequence of a short story, but what about an informational article? Have them examine the chronological order of events in informational texts with a lesson on the sequence of events. 
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Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Analyzing Text Structure: “Water Is Life” Paragraphs

For Teachers 7th Standards
Water, water everywhere. Readers revisit paragraphs six through nine in the article "Water is Life" to answer text-dependent questions. They then pair up to reread the article focusing on its structure and record their thoughts on...
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Lesson Plan
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Curated OER

Who Could Have Been Who

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Can word choice affect a candidate's likeability? Use a New York Times lesson to explore how a presidential candidate's likeability factor can fluctuate in public opinion polls. Young readers choose a presidential election from their...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Outstanding Women

For Teachers 3rd - 8th
Research the lives of famous women in this social studies lesson. Middle schoolers use various sources to research a famous woman and create a presentation about the accomplishments of the woman. They can find the central idea throughout...
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Lesson Plan
Ontario

Reading Graphic Text

For Teachers 7th - 10th Standards
Do students 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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Writing
ESL Holiday Lessons

Mardi Gras

For Students 4th - 8th Standards
Take a trip to Mardi Gras with a festive reading packet! After class members read an informational article about the history and celebration of Mardi Gras, they think about the structure of the passage by unscrambling words, filling in...
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Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Analyzing Main Ideas and Supporting Details: “Growing Up Digital”

For Teachers 7th Standards
Young scholars continue their exploration of adolescent brain development by reading an informational text, "Growing Up Digital," by Matt Richtel. Then, with partners, they complete note-catcher worksheets to capture the article's main...
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Worksheet
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Mr. Roughton

Late Middle Ages Dossiers

For Students 6th - 10th Standards
Young detectives are given the "clues" to investigate whether King John should be remembered as a poor ruler of England, particularly in comparison in King Richard. They analyze historical informational texts and work in groups to...
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Lesson Plan
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Channel Islands Film

Santa Cruz Island - Writing for Information

For Students 6th - 12th Standards
After re-viewing a documentary segment on the restoration of Santa Cruz Island,, individuals craft an essay in which they compare the views of the various stake holders featured in the video and identify the point of view they find the...
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Unit Plan
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Savvas Learning

"The Digestive Process Begins" and "Final Digestion and Absorption"

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
Want your class to digest text more thoroughly? Middle schoolers learn about the digestive system in the lesson and reinforce informational text reading skills through a variety of strategies. They engage in a close reading approach,...
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Printables
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Curriculum Corner

7th Grade ELA Common Core Checklists

For Teachers 7th Standards
Track your class's progress on all of the ELA Common Core standards with these handy charts. Along the left side, each seventh grade identifier is listed along with the full text of the standard. As you teach, reteach, assess, and...
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Lesson Plan
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Scholastic

Prescription Pain Medication: What You Need to Know

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
The national epidemic of opioid addiction is making its way into high school populations. Educate the students in your class about the ways prescription opioids can both block pain and deliver large amounts of dopamine that make it very...
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Unit Plan
Newspaper Association of America

A Good Read

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
Teach your readers strategies for breaking down informational texts. Pupils develop and implement the tools they'll need to decode texts for the rest of their lives with an informational resource that focuses on the structure and...
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Lesson Plan
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Curated OER

Persuasion as Text: Organizational, Grammatical, and Lexical Moves in Barbara Jordan’s "All Together Now"

For Teachers 7th - 8th Standards
A thorough lesson on persuasive writing takes middle schoolers through several activities, including group discussion, collaborative posters, and independent writing. They compare historical speeches and analyze the persuasive techniques...
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Unit Plan
American Press Institute

High Five: Media Literacy and Newspapers

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Teach the five different types of media with the first of three in a media literacy unit. Learners create and propose a final newspaper project, which must address information covered throughout the unit. 
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Lesson Plan
For the Teachers

Story Strips Sequencing

For Teachers 3rd - 8th Standards
What happens next? Work on story sequence with a lesson plan that prompts kids to put a story back in order. Additionally, they discuss what would happen if one event was missing from the sequence.
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Printables
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Curriculum Corner

7th Grade ELA "I Can" Statement Posters

For Teachers 7th Standards
Help your seventh graders relate the ELA Common Core standards to their own learning with these "I Can" statement posters. Each standard has been translated into a statement that pupils can understand and placed on its own page for easy...
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Lesson Plan
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Channel Islands Film

Natural Resources, and Human Uses of Plants and Animals

For Teachers 4th - 8th Standards
As part of their study of the restoration projects on Santa Cruz Island, class members demonstrate their understanding of the connections among plant life, animals, and the actions of humans by crafting a model that reveals these...
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Lesson Plan
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Channel Islands Film

Cache: Lesson Plan 4 - Grades 4-5

For Teachers 7th - 10th Standards
After viewing the West of the West's documentary Cache, individuals craft either a newspaper article chronicling the discovery of the cache on San Nicolas Island, a historical narrative of the placement of the cache in the cliff side, or...