Explore the text, Cold and Hot, with comprehension strategies for young readers. First, give them a purpose for reading: find out what the boy wore outside in the snow! Then have them use one-to-one matching and picture clues to...

Do figures of speech enhance a play or story? In small groups, learners locate and describe figures of speech they find while reading a reader's theater play. After making predictions, they describe how the figures of speech make the...

Have your class participate in an interview activity using an informational text about the Amazon. After reading a Cultural Connections story about a person from the Amazon, middle schoolers write interview questions based on the text....

Identify the author's organizational pattern for expressing ideas. After reading an article on the California Gold Rush, middle schoolers determine the author's purpose for writing a passage of informational text. A full list of...

Bring some informational text into your high school classroom with this worksheet. As your pupils read Gender in the Classroom by Deborah Tannen, provide them with this analysis sheet. They study specific quotations and sections of the...

The Holocaust is unbelievable! Examine this piece of history with your class. Using the Internet, research groups determine the relevance of information presented, compare how different sites present the same information, synthesize...

Middle schoolers read two articles about the same event: "Plane from J.F.K Crashes off Canada" from the New York Times and "No Survivors from Crash of Swissair Jetliner Off Nova Scotia" from the Associated Press. They then compare the...

Learners solve six word problems where they draw pictures in order to identify fractions as parts of a group or to compare fractions. Great practice for your third and fourth graders.

Investigate herbal medicine in the science or health classroom with this lesson from the New York Times. After a discussion about class members beliefs about and experiences with herbal medicines, pupils read an article that might...

Investigate current local elections across the United States with this New York Times reading lesson. Using informational text, middle and high schoolers research local elections and create their own news reports about what they...

Study historical events by combining the study of historical fiction and non-fiction. Learners read about true past events in historical fiction novels and then research non-fiction accounts of the same events. What are some differences...

Research the interrelationship between math and science. Search the Internet to discover the history of several branches of mathematics and make text-to-world connections between the concepts covered in each branch with related...

Bananas are an important part of a healthy diet - but where do they come from? Third graders write an explanatory text about the origins of bananas. The bottom part of the paper includes necessary information about bananas, as well as a...

Partner up! Scholars continue their fishbowl activity with one partner sitting inside the circle and one sitting outside the circle. Participants add to sentence starters to analyze the perspective of the Pearl Harbor Attack seen in the...

Known as one of the most iconic advertisements of the 20th century, Macintosh's "1984" commercial has become more of a social statement. Present the ad to a new audience of viewers with a lesson focused on identifying dystopian...

In our increasingly visual society, it is often difficult for some readers to create a mental picture of a picture created only with words. An image-rich text like F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby can therefore, present a real...

Wouldn't it be great to live an a community without pain, without danger? Such a society is the goal of the community in The Giver. Using Lois Lowry's dystopian novel as the core text, class members read primary source materials...

Newspapers aren't only for reading—they're for learning skills, too! A journalism unit provides three lessons each for primary, intermediate, and secondary grades. Lessons include objectives, materials, vocabulary, and procedure, and...

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...

Entitled American Studies, this small unit covers various topics related to the study of the United States. Learners warm up by creating a dictionary of democracy, then dive into three different lessons focused on government, famous...

The concluding skills unit offers learning opportunities and reviews in preparation for assessments. Scholars participate in lessons that examine spelling patterns, prefixes, suffixes, pronouns, and adjectives, draft a letter, and listen...

Young detectives are given the "clues" to investigate whether King John should be remembered as a poor ruler of England, particularly in comparison in King Richard. They analyze historical informational texts and work in...

Over three weeks, third graders participate in lessons designed to boost spelling and grammar skills—adjectives, adverbs, and pronouns—and prefixes. Readings are themed to share stories about Colonial America.