Students explore how one uses examples from history to inform themselves of past and present events. After reading an article, they examine the significance of renaming a base in Germany after a soldier who survived the Holocaust. They...

Learners share opinions about the typical images that represent life in New York City. They create their own scavenger hunts to find images that represent the intrinsic character of their respective communities.

Students write a context paper.  In this teaching the novel in context lesson, students view a primary sources to recreate the cultural and historical context of the novel.  Students make the connection between the literary...

In this Language Arts worksheet, students complete a post-reading activity from the novel Home Child. Students record their positive and negative comments as well as answer three reflective questions about the book.

Young scholars read articles related to local, state, national, and world events using word maps.

With the Common Core State Standards' growing focus on informational text, it's the perfect time to showcase this PowerPoint to your team of teachers. It's 59 slides focus on seven best practice structures: reading-as-thinking,...

Introduce your learners to the concept of a double-entry journal. Talk about how to connect with the text and model an example for them. Using whatever literature you are working with, have scholars choose a quote and make their own...

Show your scholars that they make inferences every day and might not even know it. Through scaffolded instruction, they break down the process of drawing information from context. Using example sentences and didactic questioning,...

Which of these objects are the same? Get your pre-readers comfortable with identifying objects that are identical, focusing on the term same. They examine eight pictures, drawing a line between those that are the same. The objects should...

Young scholars use Internet links to plan a 3-day tour of France. They role-play a typical encounter that may be experienced during their trip.

Even if your kids aren't reading yet, they can become familiar with words by identifying two that are the same. Youngsters focus on the word same as they examine eight words and match them to their identical spellings....

The story of Abe Lincoln serves as the backdrop to this vocabulary-in-context activity as you read David Adler's A Picture Book of Abraham Lincoln. Scholars learn these politically themed words before listening to you read the story...

This vocabulary-in-context strategy can be applied to any book that learners read with you; however the activity here is designed around Byron Byrton's fiction book, Airplane. First, introduce the new words you will learn: attendant,...

What do you see? Young reader tap into the visualization process as they listen to or read a fiction story and fill out a graphic organizer. Model this first with a think-aloud, showing scholars how you visualize a familiar story. For...

What kind of animal made those tracks? Explore some wild vocabulary in context as learners listen to Arthur Dorros' book, Animal Tracks. Before your read this, introduce the new words like bother, dam, reed,...

Connect events of the past to events of today. Budding historians read an eight paragraph passage describing the Watergate scandal. They then connect the Nixon scandal to sex scandals of recent times. There are six critical thinking...

And now for the star witness! Scholars take a look at a model newspaper article and discuss the importance of eyewitness accounts. In groups of three, they take turns underlining text from eyewitnesses. They then regroup to talk about...

What rhymes with the word fox? Actually there are quite a few words that contain the short o vowel sound and rhyme with fox. Pre-readers find, color, and circle the objects in the picture that rhyme with the sly looking fox. They also...

Which of these objects rhymes? There are four starter pictures here, each heading rows of three objects. Learners determine and circle the row object that rhymes with the first one. Then, they connect two of the CVC words with printing...

Which word doesn't rhyme? As they practice vowel-sound recognition, scholars examine rows of familiar objects to determine which object doesn't rhyme. There are four rows here, each with a beginning image and three subsequent images....

Every class enjoys reading new books at the beginning of a unit. Use this resource to identify a variety of books for kindergarten to third grade that can be used to complement social studies standards. The books can kindle learners'...

These questions ask learners to think about the text "Monsters Are Due on Maple Street" in a variety of ways. In addition to practicing reading comprehension, class members work on interpreting, making inferences and connections,...

Find the rhyming word. All of these rhyming, single-syllable words have the short i sound, but learners have to determine which ones they are. There are four starting objects each heading a row of three objects. They examine the...

Make connections with past history and current events with this critical thinking exercise. Kids read background information relating to Alaska's statehood as well as information on oil drilling and Alaska's economy. They put it all...