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Don't Despise, Summarize!
Students are introduced to strategies that they can use to summarize text. After reading an article, they use five steps to accurately summarize the material to share with the class. They also review what it means to comprehend what...
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Someone is Summarizing
Students practice summarizing text using James E. Knight's, "Boston Tea Party, Rebellion in the Colonies." They read the story silently before summarizing it using main ideas and supporting details and deciding what type of information...
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Skimming
Young scholars examine how to skim textual material. They read an article, and identify the main ideas by reading first and last paragraphs, topic sentences, and other organizational clues.
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Clouds, Rain, and Fog: A Closer Look
Second graders practice comprehension strategies to successfully process informational text for content knowledge, and describe what clouds, rain, and fog are and how they are made.
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Can You See It?
Students explore the concept of visualization and how it works to help them comprehend what they read. They read 'Tuck Everlasting' and visualize what has happened in the story. They draw a picture of what they visualized and then watch...
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Comprehension! The Key That Opens our Minds
Learners examine the comprehension strategy of story-grammar. They discuss the strategy and read a variety of texts. Students practice using the story-grammar strategy while reading passages from the texts. They answer questions about...
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In a Nutshell....
Students examine how to summarize the most important details in a reading passage in order to increase their comprehension. They design a story web using the summarization skills. Before class, they complete a reading assignment prior to...
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Super Duper Summarizer!!!
Third graders review the technique of silent reading and study how to summarize what they read. Next, they examine the five steps to summarize a passage and apply it to a reading of Patricia Nikolina Clark's, "Mr. Pilling's Pond." Using...
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Super Summarizers
Students practice summarizing passages which they read silently in order to remember what they read. They follow steps for summarizing by highlighting the important details, removing the less important ones, and retelling they highlights...
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Close Your Eyes and Imagine...
Students practice the techniques and strategies to become more fluent readers through visualization. They read and construct mental images from the reading of a text. The book, "Charlotte's Web," by E.B. White is read in class and then...
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The Gray Wolf Story Pyramid
Students explore comprehension and understanding of what they read. They practice using the correct spelling for frequently used sight words and uncommon words. Students apply the correct principles of grammar. They read the article Gray...
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Scanning
Students examine how to scan textual material. They identify and circle key words, phrases, and synonyms in the table of contents and the index of a classroom text.
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Cassie's Timeline
Fourth graders read Cassie's Journey: Going West in the 1860's. In this pioneer literature instructional activity, 4th graders develop a timeline of the major happenings in the story by creating a timeline. Students discuss new...
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Fact vs. Opinion (Part II)
How can you tell the difference between fact and opinion? Using newspapers, learners determine which articles contain statements of fact, and which articles reflect the writer's opinion. The lesson plan includes a discussion format and a...
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Who Was That Man?
Develop historical analysis and interpretation with your older students. They will study and analyze three given interpretations of Christopher Columbus' life, which includes significant events, his character, and the impact he made on...
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Creating Compassionate Communities
Have you ever lost someone? Middle and high school learners journal about a time they experienced the loss of someone through death, divorce, moving, or another type of change. They share their responses and discuss an article relating...
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Food, Glorious Food?
How are the reactions between American and European consumers different when it comes to genetically modified foods? Use the New York Times article "Consumers in Europe Resist Gene-Altered Foods" to inform your middle schoolers...
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Technical Merits
What is technical knowledge? The class explores what technical knowledge might mean to an Olympic athlete. They catalog the different types of information that athletes would need to compete in various Winter Olympic sports and develop...
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Science Vocabulary game
Play a memory game with science vocabulary words to prepare for an upcoming test! Build both understanding and retention of new vocabulary words by setting up a matching game for your learners to play in small groups of three to...
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Playing Vocabulary Basketball
Learners view a slide show featuring famous athletes and educational institutions that have played a part in the history of basketball. They participate in a game in which a basketball is tossed from person to person as facts and...
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Super Summarizer!!!
Emerging readers summarize a nonfiction text using a five step process. After a brief demonstration of the five-step method for summarizing text, they read a nonfiction article and write their own summary. A checklist of each summary is...
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What's the Big Idea
Discuss the concept of main idea in a story or other reading material. Middle schoolers identify the main idea in a passage using a technique that eliminates unnecessary words not relevant to the main idea.
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Vowel Sounds
This plan aims to increase the reading proficiency of your fourth grade class. While no materials are provided, a list of activities to practice are included. Various activities include creating songs for short vowel sounds, using cue...
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Different People/Different Times
Learners read and compare two selections by two different authors with the theme man vs. nature. They complete a literary analysis paper comparing and contrasting the author's treatment of the topic with emphasis on setting, historical...