Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
How Much Water Do You Use?
Incorporate reading strategies, math, research, and the scientific method into one lesson about water conservation. After reading a story about a landlady trying to determine how many people are living in an apartment, learners develop a...
Curated OER
Visual Thinking Strategies
Young scholars explore Visual Thinking Strategy as a way to examine art and photography. They discuss the strategies, and analyze and discuss photographs using the Visual Thinking Strategies techniques.
Curated OER
Question - Answer
Learners use the comprehension strategy question-answer to improve reading comprehension. They read a passage out of their textbook, and the teacher models the question/answer strategy by asking about key points mentioned in the reading.
Curated OER
Guided Reading: " A River Ran Wild"
Students answer "essential questions" to establish background and prior knowledge of the book, "A River Ran Wild." In this language arts lesson, 3rd graders complete a graphic organizer of vocabulary words and read and take notes at...
Curated OER
The Language of Our World
High schoolers make inferences about characters in poetry. In this literature instructional activity, students read poetry and prose to determine how characters handle conflict in each of the genres.
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Making and Using a Graphic Organizer for Solving a Mystery
Students create tables in a word processing program which helps them organize their text clues when reading a mystery story. They develop reading comprehension strategies while using a computer based graphic organizer in order to solve...
Curated OER
Applying SQ3R to Texts
After a review of the SQ3R strategy, readers use the provided prompts to respond to a text. The value of this worksheet is in the additional questions that move the learner into higher levels of reasoning.
Curated OER
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
In this story structure activity, students read the book A Tree Grows in Brooklyn and identify the characters, setting and main themes of the book. They answer a list of study questions about the book.
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Shizuko’s Daughter: List-Group-Label Strategy
Help your learners navigate the vocabulary of Shizuko's Daughter by Kyoko Mori with a lesson on categorizing words. After coming up with a list of things that grow from the earth, learners decide which categories each words belong in.
Curated OER
The Things They Carried: KWHL
Before beginning The Things They Carried, class members are asked to use a KWHL chart to record what they know about war, what they want to know, and where they might find answers to their questions. Groups then research...
Curated OER
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: Problematic Situation
Individuals read a series of passages from The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, rank the statements from the least to the most racist or stereotypical, and share their rankings and rationales in small groups before a whole class...
Novelinks
The Joy Luck Club: Writing Strategy
Readers of The Joy Luck Club, use a double-0entry journal to record and reflect on passages from Amy Tan's novel.
Curated OER
The Boy in the Striped Pajamas: Vocabulary Strategy
In order to truly understand The Boy in the Striped Pajamas, you'll need to provide middle schoolers with background information about the Holocaust. After contributing as many words as they can associate with the Holocaust, such as...
Weebly
Author Study: Eric Carle
Dive into an author study of one of the most beloved children’s book authors, Eric Carle. After reading some of his stories, including Papa Get me the Moon, A House for Hermit Crab, The Grouchy Ladybug, and The Very Busy...
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.
Curated OER
3R Activity (Reading-Relating-Responding)
Young scholars read for detail. In this reading comprehension lesson, students read a passage and share their thoughts with a small group. Young scholars reflect upon the passage and develop an oral summary of the text.
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Ready, Set, Read
Student increase their reading fluency through the use of various strategies. After reviewing good reader strategies , students complete an initial read of a novel text. With the instructor, they read complete a timed assessment of their...
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Directed Reading Thinking Activity: "A Raisin in the Sun"
Students predict outcomes of a text. In this comprehension strategy lesson, students read a poem and compare it to the play A Raisin in the Sun. Students discuss their similarities and the power of dreams.
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Zooming into Fluency
Students read and reread decodable words in connected text. In this language arts instructional activity, students focus on improving their fluency to help them gain more meaning from the text. The story focused on is Arthur's Loose...
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Fly Away Into Reading
Students complete repeated readings of the same passage in order to increase their reading fluency and comprehension. They listen as the teacher reads both with and without fluency to hear the difference. Working in small groups, they...
Curated OER
Lets Read Faster with Junie
Students practice a variety of techniques and strategies to assist them in becoming fluent readers. They practice reading with expressiveness and fluency with Junie B. Jones and some "Sneaky Peeky Spying," by Barbara Park. A checklist is...
Curated OER
Reading About the Journey: The Odyssey
Students practice their reading skills. In this reading fluency and comprehension instructional activity, students read instructor-selected passages from The Odyssey following the provided steps for the reading class activity that...
Novelinks
The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy: Herber Readiness Activity
What does it mean to be alone and isolated? What would you do if you were all alone in a strange place? Kids ponder these questions as they prepare to read Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
Curated OER
I Can Answer That!
Enhance reader comprehension! Examine different comprehension strategies with your second, third, and fourth graders. They discuss the strategy of questioning by developing their own comprehension questions to help improve their memory...