Curated OER
Successful Reading Strategies for ELL Students
Young scholars improve their reading comprehension through predicting, connecting with text and summarizing. Students should have already read the book Seedfolks and made predictions based upon what they had seen from the cover and...
Curated OER
Guided Imagery: Canyons, Chapter 8
Individuals use words or illustrate what they experience during a reading of a passage from chapter eight of Gary Paulsen's Canyons. Complete directions for the guided imagery exercise, and a suggested passage, are included with the...
Curated OER
Anticipation Guides Improve Reading Comprehension
Beginning with anticipation guide strategies is a powerful method for improving reading comprehension. First, list initial ideas for a topic the class will be reading about. These ideas are formulated into statements, some of which are...
Curated OER
Ordinary People: Guided Imagery
After reading chapter six of Ordinary People with your class, conduct this activity with your class. Turn the lights down, put on your softest voice, and have them try to imagine that they lost a close friend. Then, encourage them to...
Curated OER
A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
In this story structure lesson, learners 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.
Achieve The Core
Linda R. Monk, Words We Live By: Your Annotated Guide to the Constitution - Grade 8
“We the people . . .” Thus begins the Preamble to the Constitution. Using a close reading approach, class members examine an excerpt from Linda Monk’s article that traces how the interpretation of these words has evolved. Some of your...
Aspen Institute
The Voice That Challenged a Nation
Included here are step-by-step instructions for conducting a close reading of The Voice That Challenged a Nation by Russell Freedman. After an individual and class reading, class members read carefully through the text excerpt,...
Curated OER
1984 by George Orwell
Readers of Nineteen Eighty-Four engage in a close reading exercise that directs their focus to the key details Orwell provides in the opening paragraphs to introduce his dystopian society. The included worksheeet is divided into three...
Prestwick House
Vocabulary in Context: Inside the World of Wizards
Enter the world of Harry Potter and learn new vocabulary at the same time. A high-interest reading passage provides insight into the history of Harry Potter. Follow-up activities incorporate key vocabulary strategies, such as using...
Curated OER
People of the Arctic
Read to learn all about the religion and belief systems of the Arctic-dwelling Inuits. This resource includes an easy-to-follow reading passage that is seven paragraphs in length, and five great critical thinking questions.
K20 LEARN
Totally Different Stories: Perspective
Two stories by Kate Chopin provide high school freshmen with an opportunity to reflect on the importance of the perspective from which a story is told. Class members read "The Story of an Hour" and a passage from The Awakening, then...
Curated OER
A Cloe Reading of Shakespeare On Your Feet
Students act outeach word in a Shakespearean speech. In this reading technique lesson plan, students learn passages from Romeo and Juliet and The Taming of the Shrew reading using their bodies to act out each word. Students watch an...
Curated OER
Tangerine: Cubing Strategy
Here's an activity that uses a reading comprehension strategy based on Bloom's taxonomy to focus readers' attention on key passages from Edward Bloor's Tangerine. Worthy of a place in your curriculum library.
National Endowment for the Humanities
“Read All About It”: Primary Source Reading in “Chronicling America”
Can investigative journalism become too sensationalistic and accusatory, or is it vital for the survival of a democracy? Middle schoolers analyze primary source documents from early 20th-century newspapers as well as Theodore Roosevelt's...
EngageNY
Building Background Knowledge: Learning About the Historical and Geographical Setting of Esperanza Rising (Chapter 1: “Aguascalientes, Mexico, 1924”)
Set up your class to read Esperanza Rising, by Pam Muñoz Ryan, through a class read-aloud and exploration of the setting. The detailed instructional activity outlines each step. First, class members read over the first few pages and...
Curated OER
Why Do Authors Write?
Sixth graders use short reading passages to identify, explain, and discuss the author's purpose for writing. After a lecture/demo, they utilize a graphic organizer embedded in this plan to organize their writing ideas.
Curated OER
Monster: Guided Imagery
How would you feel if you were on trial for murder—and you were only 16 years old? Put yourself in Steve Harmon's shoes before reading Monster by Walter Dean Myers. Kids listen to music that fits the theme of the book before listening to...
Curated OER
Tuesdays with Morrie: Question-Answer Relationships
As part of their study of Mitch Albom's Tuesdays with Morrie, class groups examine passages from the story and respond to a series of QAR questions.
Curated OER
Picture This!
Students practice the strategy of visualization to aid in their reading comprehension of text. They paint mental pictures from readings from their history books, "The World and Its People: the US and It's Neighbors," and short stories...
Curated OER
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...
EngageNY
Main Ideas in Informational Text: Analyzing a Firsthand Human Rights Account for Connections to Specific Articles of the UDHR
Lesson 10 in a series of human rights lessons focuses on the skills of finding evidence and summarizing. Your young readers work to compare the two texts they have read in this unit: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights...
Curated OER
Epic Improvisation
Really? Rapping The Odyssey? Really. A discussion of the oral tradition of story telling and its links to Epic poetry sets the stage for a series of activities that encourage improvisation to integrate music into other classrooms....
Brigham Young University
Out of the Dust: Guided Imagery
A guided imagery exercise is a great way to get readers thinking about writing. As part of their study of Out of the Dust, Karen Hesse’s 1998 Newbery Medal winning verse novel, class members listen to a reading of one of the poems from...
Curated OER
The Rich Ruler
Fourth graders explore religion by reading passages in class. In this Christianity lesson, 4th graders identify the Feudal System and discuss the opinion Jesus had about the system and how he instructed people to live. Students cite...