Curated OER
Learning the Roles in Literature Circles
I love literature circles! Get your pupils together and have them discuss the book they are reading. They determine and practice their role in the literature circle then discuss the book they are reading. This is a great introduction to...
Curated OER
Liberty for All: Voices from the Revolution
Did the Declaration of Independence really intend to grant liberty for all? Get your class thinking about historical perspective with documents relaying the experiences of women, white men, and African-Americans during the Revolutionary...
Curated OER
The Bill of Rights is for US Today
The first ten Amendments of the U.S. Constitution are vital for young people to understand. Provide the foundation of the laws that govern our country with this junior high school lesson. Groups use the newspaper to identify rights...
Curated OER
The Story of the Three Little Pigs
Review the story of The Three Little Pigs using this resource. Learners answer questions about the story, summarizing key elements. This is a terrific way to have them practice both reading and comprehension skills. It would be a great...
Education Center
Safety Sequence
Follow up a class reading of the children's book Officer Buckle and Gloria with this simple sequence-of-events activity. Including pictures of six key moments from the story, young learners must first number them in the correct order and...
Orange County Schools
Piggybook
Summarizing text is a balancing act between being brief but thorough. You need to be short and to the point, but also cover all the important details, a task that presents a challenge for many young learners. In this lesson based on the...
Curated OER
Space Food
What do astronauts eat in outer space? Kids can read an informational passage to learn about space food. The passage includes prompts that have learners identify the main idea and key details, then write a paragraph summarizing the text....
Curated OER
Meaty Words
Headlines from newspapers launch a discussion of image-rich, meaty words. Just as headline writers choose vivid vocabulary to attract readers, young writers develop headlines that capture the essence of a passage from a book they are...
Curated OER
Retelling the Tiny Seed
Here is a very age appropriate idea that can be stretched, modified, or used as is. Learners review plant parts, discuss pollination, read the story The Tiny Seed, and write a retell sentence. Their sentences describe to way a seed...
Curated OER
News Quiz: July 28, 2011
What does your class know about the news today? They scan several articles found in the July 28, 2011 version of the New York Times, then answer five comprehension questions.
Curated OER
Writing a Summary
Skim, reread, and then take notes. The step-by-step procedure outlined in this resource can be used to help pupils write a summary of a reading passage. Using their notes, class members then draft a summary focusing on the main idea and...
Curated OER
Writing a Literary Analysis
What makes writing literary? What comprises analysis? A 15-slide PowerPoint presentation, created by the Purdue University Writing Lab, tackles these questions. The explanations of what makes writing literary and what comprises analysis...
Curated OER
What's the Big Deal?
Learners listen to a passage (suggested reading: "Do a Cat's Eyes Glow?") and create a map of what they hear. They use the map to write a summary. Then, they read their own passages and independently map and summarize it the same way....
Curated OER
Summarizing: James and the Giant Peach
Text marking and a T-chart format to distinguish important information from trivia help elementary readers summarize effectively. Encouraging readers to construct a chapter summary from paragraph-level topic sentences is another sound...
Curated OER
Esperanza Rising: Lesson 2
Sixth graders explore adversity. In this summarizing lesson plan students compare their culture to the Hispanic culture. Students reflect on a time they were met with adversity. Students summarize Chapter 1 of Esperanza Rising.
Curated OER
Moving West With Pioneers
Fifth graders read a book written by Laura Ingalls Wilder to examine the hardships that were endured by pioneers traveling during the Westward Expansion of the US. They predict, summarize and participate in literature circles. They visit...
Curated OER
Shakespeare Play Summaries in Four Words
This online interactive quiz on 10 Shakespeare plays is unlikely to be useful for your class; however, you could use it as a basis for your own assignment that asks class members to come up with four words to describe an entire work. An...
Curated OER
Read and Get Smart
Use the class textbook to read a full story about Martin Luther King, Jr. The class writes facts about him and outlines his life, then they read the author and illustrator summaries at the end of the story. They compare and contrast the...
Curated OER
Recounts: Writing a Summary
Have your class review how to summarize a story. Learners discuss the way to write a summary and talk about the use of sequence words. The presentation uses a graphic organizer. This helps to make it a visually appealing presentation.
Curated OER
Sense of Hearing
Create a graphic organizer to review parts and systems of the body, then present a new topic. Special education young scholars grades 3-5 learn about the sense of hearing. They draw parts of the ear, sign a song, read Perk Up Your Ears,...
Curated OER
Practice Paraphrasing
Help your high schoolers identify the main idea of a passage with this lesson on paraphrasing. First rewriting a paragraph in their own words, they then underline the most important words in their paraphrase and use them in a summary....
Curated OER
Rather Cut a Little
Young scholars create podcasts of Measure for Measure. In this Measure for Measure lesson, students decide which lines are the most important and edit scenes to create a shorter version of the play that includes the important concepts. ...
Curated OER
Animal Diaries
Students read Diary of a Worm by Foreen Cronin. In this journal writing instructional activity, students research an animal and write a diary by their animal. Students apply the research they've completed in their writings. Students...
Curated OER
Learning to Summarize an Article
In this summary skill worksheet, students research various online websites to educate themselves on what a summary is, when to write one, and how. Students are then required to find an article, read, and summarize with options for...