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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Analyzing Two or More Nonfiction Texts

For Teachers 4th - 8th Standards
How does recognizing the author's purpose help you draw conclusions about a topic? Using two articles (both are attached), learners brainstorm why each author wrote each article. Are their purposes similar or different? Learners use a...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Using a Magazine/Non-Fiction Texts

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Working with magazine articles and other informational texts, students identify the parts of a non-fiction work. The learners use SMART board files to guide instruction, as well as a transition to writing their own non-fiction article in...
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Printables
Polk Bros Foundation

Comprehensive Nonfiction Reading Questions

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Analyze any nonfiction text with the set of questions on this sheet. Class members practice inferring by noting the main idea and purpose of a passage. They also analyze an opinion in the passage and write a brief summary. See the...
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Organizer
Polk Bros Foundation

How to Summarize a Non-Fiction Passage

For Teachers 3rd - 8th Standards
After reading a text, one way to find out how much your class comprehended is to ask your pupils to summarize. This worksheet helps class members prepare for writing a summary of a nonfiction text. They note down the topic, up to eight...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Compare and Contrast Nonfiction Texts

For Teachers 5th - 9th
Explore nonfiction writing by comparing and contrasting two different texts. After reading two nonfiction books, articles, or magazines, young scholars utilize a graphic organizer to record their similarities and differences. They answer...
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Lesson Plan
2
2
Curated OER

Search Warranted?

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Young readers work on evaluating claims in a piece of informational text with the article "In New York, It's Open Bag or Find Exits" from the New York Times. They analyze current search procedures implemented to fight terrorism and...
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Unit Plan
3
3
Curated OER

Farewell to Manzanar

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
Examine human resilience across two texts with a detailed unit. Over the course of a week, learners will conduct a close reading of excerpts from Unbroken and Farewell to Manzanar. The resource includes clear procedures for reading and...
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Organizer
3
3
Polk Bros Foundation

I Can Identify a Nonfiction Writer's Main Idea and Supporting Examples

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Use this page to quickly identify the central idea of a text and organize ideas for writing an informational or explanatory text. The activity is split into two parts. In the first part, pupils note down the main idea and supporting...
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Worksheet
Curated OER

Nonfiction Text: Comprehension Practice

For Students 7th - 10th
A New York Times article about a 15-year-old style maven who in 2011 launched the fashion magazine "Rookie," based on her blog, makes high-interest nonfiction reading for secondary learners. This page asks 9 comprehension questions...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Short and Sweet Science

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Readers learn how to summarize scientific text and evaluate the advantages, disadvantages, and challenges in writing summaries. They select science-related articles you've pulled and collected from the New York Times and, with a partner,...
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Organizer
1
1
Polk Bros Foundation

Meet the Nonfiction Main Idea Challenge

For Students 3rd - 8th Standards
Help your class develop the ability to determine a main idea with a packet of materials that you can introduce and use over a period of time. The packet includes some information for the teacher and rationale for the exercises. There are...
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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
Curated OER

Build a Connection

For Teachers 2nd - 8th
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...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Effects of Slavery

For Teachers 7th - 12th
The emotional and spiritual oppression of slavery in the African-American experience is the focus of this lesson. Middle schoolers analyze various texts by Frederick Douglass and Maya Angelou related to freedom and oppression. They use...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Analyzing Nonfiction Text Elements - Editorials

For Teachers 8th - 12th
Learners examine the text features of non-fiction. In this literacy lesson plan, students read editorial samples provided by their instructor and analyze the texts for word choice, details, and organization.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Learning Network: Poetry Pairing July, 21, 2011

For Teachers 7th - 12th
Although not a complete lesson plan, this set of emotionally powerful texts could be used in a variety of lessons. From The New York Times' Learning Network site, the resource includes a poem, an excerpt from a New York Times article and...
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Organizer
Curated OER

Reading Study Guide: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings

For Students 8th - 11th
Meant for use with Maya Angelou's first autobiographical volume I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, the materials here are designed for a homeschool setting, but they'd suit any classroom or text. Graphic organizers, chapter summary guides,...
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Lesson Plan
Media Smarts

The Newspaper Front Page

For Teachers 7th - 10th
Hot off the presses! A perfect instructional activity idea for a journalism class or even a language arts class looking to incorporate some informational texts. Young writers analyze the front pages of various newspapers to determine the...
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Writing
Curated OER

Student Opinion: What Are You Afraid Of?

For Students 7th - 12th
A great resource for informational texts as well as writing topics, the New York Times website provides writing prompts about various news articles through The Learning Network. This particular activity provides a very short reading...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Purpose and Power of Persuasion

For Teachers 6th - 9th
Examine the power of persuasion and have learners consider how it influences events in their own lives. After reading and analyzing informational texts to understand the author's purpose, class members take a written test and craft a...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Imagine That! Analyzing Imagery

For Teachers 7th - 9th
Poems by O. Henry, Marion Dane Bauer, Monty Roberts, and Langston Hughes provide the text for a study of symbolism, hyperbole, and imagery. Employing the “think-pair-share” strategy learners generate definitions of these terms and locate...
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Writing
Curated OER

The Learning Network: The First Middle School Chess Champs

For Students 7th - 8th
Introduce some nonfiction reading into your classroom! This resource contains seven comprehension questions pertaining to an article from The New York Times website about the first middle schoolers to ever win the United States Chess...
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Lesson Plan
1
1
Curated OER

Basil Heatter, "The Long Night of the Little Boats"

For Teachers 7th - 9th Standards
“It was a miracle.” Basil Heatter’s “The Long Night of the Little Boats,” which details the miraculous rescue of the British army from the shores of Dunkirk in 1940, is featured in a series of exercises that ask class members to read,...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Analyzing Irony in Nonfiction

For Teachers 8th - 12th
Students examine the use of irony in non-fiction works. In this literature lesson, students read non-fiction war texts and explore the use of irony in the piece as they respond to discussion questions.

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