ReadWriteThink
"Three Stones Back": Using Informational Text to Enhance Understanding of Ball Don't Lie
"Three Stones Back," a passage from Matt de la Pena's best-seller, Ball Don't Lie, allows readers to practice their close reading skills as they compare the passage to an information text about wealth inequality.
Curated OER
Short But Sweet
After analyzing and evaluating news summaries found in the New York Times "Week in Review" section, middle schoolers study the steps for summarizing a news article briefly and accurately. They write two news summaries: one on a newspaper...
Ontario
Reading Graphic Text
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...
University of California
Student Workbook: Reading Comprehension
Teach your class five reading strategies to help them with reading informational texts and literary texts. This packet, designed to help learners prepare for the CAHSEE, provides specific strategies that could be used to help prepare for...
Fluence Learning
Writing About Informational Text The Berlin Wall
On June 26, 1963 President John F. Kennedy delivered his famous "Ich bin ein Berliner" speech close to the Berlin Wall at the Rudolph Wilde Platz. On June 12, 1987 President Ronald Reagan Delivered his famous "Mr. Gorbachev, tear down...
For the Teachers
Fact vs. Opinion
Many informational texts are written as factual, but can your learners determine when an opinion is presented as fact? Have your kids read several articles on the same topic and record the statements that contain either facts or...
Curated OER
Medical Explorer: The Big Idea
Read informational text which relays how medical care differs around the globe and throughout history. There are three separate lessons, each focused on a particular case study, regional medical availability, and cultural norms. Learners...
For the Teachers
Main Idea Outline
Find the main idea in an informational text with a versatile lesson. Three levels of differentiation help you implement the strategy in any age or class level, based on the ability and objectives of your learners.
Baruch College Writing Center
Summarizing, Paraphrasing, and Quoting Workshop
What's the difference between summarizing and paraphrasing? Show class members how to find the main ideas from informational text and condense it, restate it, or quote it directly with a series of educational activities based on two...
Curated OER
Identifying Text Structure
Work on identifying text structure with this thorough worksheet. After studying a diagram depicting six different text structures (compare/contrast, spatial, chronological, problem and solution, cause and effect, and order of...
Polk Bros Foundation
Comprehensive Nonfiction Reading Questions
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...
EngageNY
Grade 9 ELA Module 3, Unit 1, Lesson 5
Ninth graders study the study of animals in an informational text lesson plan that focuses on analyzing text structure. As learners continue reading the first chapter of Temple Grandin's Animals in Translation, they form inquiries and...
Scholastic
Citing Text Evidence
Could you go without your cell phone for 48 hours? Pose this question to your class and then read the article provided here. Pupils mark the text and and complete a graphic organizer that requires the use of textual evidence.
US Department of Education
A Close Reading of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address
Abraham Lincoln's Gettysburg Address provides the text for a series of close reading exercises that model for instructors how carefully crafted guiding questions can help readers think critically about what they read, thus developing...
The New York Times
New York Times Reading Log
Inspire your pupils to read the news and make connections between articles and another text, event, or experience with a straightforward reading log. Learners note down the article information at the top of the worksheet and then respond...
Polk Bros Foundation
I Can Locate and Classify Information About a Topic
After reading a text, ask your pupils to recall and organize what they've just learned into a blank three-column chart. Class members write the topic and fill in the columns with information. The sheet also prompts students to write a...
Curated OER
How Often Do You Interact with People of Another Race or Ethnicity?
Is interacting with people from different backgrounds part of a well-rounded education? A big question awaits young readers as they explore two New York Times articles that discuss modern-day segregation, population statistics, and...
College Board
Reading—Central Idea and Evidence
Young readers become experts at finding the central idea in informational text with an educational resource. The resource includes helpful tips to annotating close passages to succeed on the actual SAT exam, as well as strategies to make...
Curated OER
Taboo Table Talk
Create memories for your family that are enjoyable, as well as helping to enhance their ability to read and understand information.
Curated OER
Strong Convictions
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...
Curated OER
Reading Comprehension: Obesity and Food Deserts
Read this selection about "food deserts," places where high poverty rates limit access to healthy foods with your class. Six multiple choice questions on comprehension, inferences, vocabulary, and citing the text follow the selection and...
Curated OER
The Internet of Things: IoT
How has the Internet of Things affected our lives? Scholars examine the massive influence of mobile devices in this analysis lesson plan, which begins with a seven-minute documentary clip. They also read a New York Times article (linked)...
Curated OER
Who Could Have Been Who
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...
Curated OER
Writing Summaries
Practice summary writing with informational texts. Young readers create summaries after reading magazine articles, newspaper articles, or other forms of informational texts. Readers use the GRASP strategy (read text, write what you...