Curated OER
Introduce Vocabulary: A Picture Book of Helen Keller (Adler)
The story of Helen Keller is a fascinating one for young scholars; use it to practice reading comprehension and new vocabulary as learners listen to you read David Adler's picture book (hint: this strategy can be applied to any book)....
EngageNY
Talking with My Peers: Carousel of Reading Superheroes Around the World
In many places in the world, people go to great lengths to get books to read. This beginning-of-the-year activity uses pictures of people reading in extraordinary situations to stimulate effective listening and speaking using the...
E Reading Worksheets
Making Predictions #1
How can you tell what is going to happen next in a story? Learn to make predictions with five sections of stories. Kids read the beginning, and then write what they believe will happen next. Additionally, they provide evidence for their...
E Reading Worksheets
Making Predictions #4
Show young readers how to use evidence from the text in an activity about making predictions. After reading five short passages, kids note what they think will happen next based on what they have read, and include the evidence that...
K20 LEARN
Things Are Lit at Thornfield: Jane Eyre
Jane Eyre offers scholars an opportunity to practice reading comprehension skills. Pairs are assigned a word from the text, use their prior knowledge, and consider the context, connotation, and denotation of the word to posit a...
Facing History and Ourselves
Citizen Power Makes Democracy Work
Eric Liu's formula "power plus character equals citizenship" and his three strategies to making change happen model for high schoolers how to develop citizen power, how to get involved and participate to make democracy work. Class...
Curated OER
Lesson Plans That Boost Reading Comprehension
Reading comprehension is a cyclical process that can be supported with lesson plans that build students' knowledge and cognition.
Curated OER
Endangered Ecosystems
Reading comprehension and note-taking skills are practiced as young ecologists embark on this journey. Explorers visit a website where they will read about three ecosystems that are in danger. They use interactive programs to build a...
EngageNY
Establishing Structures for Reading: Getting the Gist (Chapter 1)
Class members review expectations for successful discussions before reading chapter one of A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park. They engage in a think-pair-share to discuss the gist of the text and add their thoughts to their Readers'...
Learning for Justice
The Color of Law: Developing the White Middle Class
The final lesson in the "Color of Law" series explores the government's discriminatory economic policies. Young scholars watch videos, read primary source materials, and examine images to gather information. They discuss how what they...
EngageNY
Analyzing, Comparing, Sharing: Modern Voices
What do modern voices sound like? Scholars explore the topic, reading two concrete poems from John Grandit's Blue Lipstick and analyzing them using a graphic organizer. Next, they read a third poem and work with partners to look for...
Nemours KidsHealth
Smoking: Grades 6-8
Light up middle schoolers' understanding of the monetary and health costs of smoking with two activities. First, class members calculate how much a smoker would spend in a year if they smoke a pack a week or a day. They then explore...
Nemours KidsHealth
Feeling Sad: Grades 3-5
Everyone feels sad sometimes—aide in the coping process with two activities. In the first activity, scholars discuss sadness then complete a worksheet detailing ways four peers can identify their feelings and ways to feel better. The...
K20 LEARN
Examining The Boston Massacre Through Primary Sources
The Boston Massacre is the focus of a lesson that explores primary sources. Scholars examine two primary source images and discuss the different perspectives on the historical event. After groups read a researched account, they perform a...
American Battle Monuments Commission
The Great War: U.S. Division Under Allied Command
The victory of Allied forces in World War I is due in large part to the continued collaboration and support of the Allied divisions themselves. Learn more about the ways Australia, Britain, France, and the United States worked together...
Nemours KidsHealth
Cyberbullying: Grades 9-12
A bully, a victim, and a bystander—far from the beginning of a joke, cyberbullying is no laughing matter. Bystander or upstander? As part of the study of cyberbullying, high schoolers first read a series of articles about cyberbullying...
EngageNY
End of Unit Assessment, Part 1: Text-Dependent Questions and Storyboard Draft: “You Can Do a Graphic Novel” Excerpt
Eyes on the finish line. Serving as the first part of the end of unit assessment, learners answer questions based on a text about how to write a graphic novel. Using what they've learned, they then create a storyboard about the invention...
Curated OER
Poverty and Natural Disasters: Exploring the Connections
Students explore the connections between natural disasters and poverty. In this economic lesson students examine worksheets and activities for each level.
Curated OER
Rain
First graders practice oral and silent reading using beginning comprehension and decoding strategies. For this guided reading lesson, 1st graders take a picture walk and make plot predictions prior to reading the book Rain by...
Pennsylvania Department of Education
Drawing Conclusions Based on Literary Elements
Learners compare versions of Cinderella and draw conclusions based on the story elements identified. In this literacy comprehension and story elements instructional activity, students read several versions of Cinderella, complete a...
Curated OER
James Brown: Life and Times
High schoolers trace James Brown's rise from "Little Junior" in Depression-era Augusta, Georgia, to the "Minister of the New Super Heavy Funk" and create a collage that captures his impact on American music.
National Behaviour Support Service
Academic Vocabulary Building Activities
Suggestions for using Roberto Marzano's six-step approach to academic vocabulary instruction are detailed in a packet that includes graphic organizers, worksheets, and activities.
Curated OER
Franklin D. Roosevelt
Discuss the life of Franklin D. Roosevelt. This story, called "Franklin D. Roosevelt" by Laura Hamilton Waxman, is used to explore comprehension skills. Some of these skills include identifying prefixes and suffixes, making comparisons,...
ReadWriteThink
Living the Dream: 100 Acts of Kindness
Inspire kindness in and out of school with a lesson that challenges scholars to perform 100 acts of kindness during the time between Martin Luther King Jr. Day to Valentine's day. Leading up to a celebration of friendship, learners...