This short reading comprehension worksheet encourages readers to make self-to text, text-to-text, and text-to-world connections as a way of remembering what they have read.

Make a splash with an interactive storybook that emphasizes water safety. Directed at preschoolers and primaries, the ducky tale and games reinforce the rules of wearing a life vest whenever near water, making sure to have a supervising...

Photos can capture a complete story in a single image. Class members closely examine a photo of a homeless camp and attempt to read the story told by the picture. They then read the caption for the photograph and compare their notes with...

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...

What does it mean to mourn something? Scholars continue reading paragraph four from "Refugee and Immigrant Children: A Comparison" to better understand the mourning process for refugee children. Working with a partner, pupils then read...

How can you tell if someone is happy? The lesson works with elementary and middle school scholars to activate their schema and pay attention to details to make inferences in their daily lives, poetry, and other literature. Cleverly...

Readers draw connections between Bud, Not Buddy and Steve Jobs' 2005 Stanford University commencement address and cite evidence from the two texts to support their analysis.

Fifth graders explore early American civilizations in a four-week ELA unit. Every lesson offers an opportunity to read and discuss a selected passage followed by word work that covers vocabulary, grammar, and morphology. Learners write...

Before diving into the engaging tale of Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan, conduct this directed reading and thinking activity. Assess your pupils' knowledge of Greek gods and mythology through a knowledge web,...

As part of a Directed Reading Thinking Activity (DRTA) class members are asked to predict events in Patricia Polacco's Pink and Say based on illustrations in the story, on their knowledge of Steven Crane's The Red Badge of Courage,...

A Reading Adventure Pack invites scholars to start gardening. Following a reading of two books—fiction and nonfiction—young green thumbs repurpose food containers to grow an herb garden in their kitchen, plant seeds in starter pots out...

Prior to reading Victor Martinez's Parrot in the Oven: Mi Vida, class members are presented with a problematic situation and to rate their responses as well as predict the responses of a character from the novel.

For the end-of-unit assessment, scholars engage in small group Socratic seminars to connect the lyrics of two songs to texts they read and studied. They discuss how the songs "Ain't Gonna Let Nobody Turn Me Around" and "Lift Every Voice...

Scholars listen to a read-aloud of fiction and nonfiction books, The Snowy Day, written and illustrated by Ezra Jack Keats, and Snow Is Falling, written by Franklyn Branley and illustrated by Holly Keller, then take part in four creative...

A reading adventure pack, featuring a fiction and nonfiction book focuses on the weather. Scholars read Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett and Seymour Simon and then complete three creative activities. Participants craft...

A Reading Adventure Pack explores the night sky. Reading Her Seven Brothers by Paul Goble and Find the Constellations by H.A. Rey begin the learning experience. Scholars craft a night sky mobile, go stargazing, and write a mythical story...

Scholars explore the animal kingdom with help from two texts, Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey and A Bed for the Winter by Karen Wallace. The literature and informational text set the learning stage for thoughtful discussion and...

Readers of Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner select 100 words from chapters five and six of the novel, use these words to create a found poem, and then attach their poem to a kite that they construct.

Take a journey to India with a read aloud of The Drum: A Folktale from India by Rob Cleveland. Make connections to the story's theme by building and practicing drums, role playing story characters, and practicing skills in phonics, math,...

Learning how to deliver good literacy instruction is key to becoming a successful teacher. This resource isn't so much a instructional activity as it is a guide to leading children in an interactive read-aloud session to increase...

"What are Henry's options?" "What do you think Henry will do?" To better understand the central conflict for the main character in Robert Cormier's Tunes for Bears to Dance to, class members engage in a compare-and-contrast activity that...

The stories of Anne Frank, Ruby Bridges, and Ryan White illustrate the power of children to make a difference. The three lesson in this must-have resource are designed to inspire young people to make a difference in their world....

To generate interest in and enable readers to connect to The Things They Carried, class members write about what they carry—both tangible and intangible things. The class then makes a list of these things and compares the list to...

The Namuhs have a lot to teach humans how idealized images presented in advertising can impact self-perception and self-worth. After brainstorming 10 traits the media sets as the perfect body, class members read a short story about the...