K20 LEARN
Slay the Slang! Summarizing Informational Texts
Middle schoolers get hip to the jive with a lesson plan about slang. They closely examine examples of slang and use context clues to infer the meaning of the terms. Groups read and summarize an article about a teacher who created a Gen Z...
Curated OER
Lesson 5: Red Herrings
A red herring isn't just a fish! Identify the clues that an author makes in a book to mislead the reader and make predictions accordingly. Have your class discuss how it feels to be tricked as a reader and about making wrong predictions....
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
The Progressive Era: Muckrakers
Using Upton Sinclair's The Jungle, guide your class in the process of identifying unknown terms using context clues and formulating text-based answers. The lesson plan includes a useful worksheet incorporating scaffolding questions on an...
Curated OER
The Power of Words in Charlotte's Web
"How can a few good words save a pig's life?" Posed with this question, your ELD students explore E.B. White's Charlotte's Web in a meaningful, valuable way. By analyzing specific word choice from the book, especially the excerpts...
E Reading Worksheets
Summarizing Text
Help learners find the most important information in a text with a lesson on summarizing. As kids read through a passage about Johannes Gutenberg, they summarize small excerpts, put events in sequential order, and respond to two longer...
EngageNY
Vocabulary: Human Rights
Your class continues to explore the history of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. In addition to learning about the background of this text, learners work on the skill of identifying and understanding key academic vocabulary....
EngageNY
Close Reading: The Introduction to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
As part of a group of lessons, your class will return to the primary text for this unit, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Key vocabulary as well as close reading strategies continue to be the focus skills; however, this lesson...
EngageNY
Close Reading: Unpacking Specific Articles of the UDHR
Lesson 6 of this extensive unit finally has your class begin to work their way through specific articles from the text of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Before examining the rights actually detailed in the...
EngageNY
Close Reading: Becoming Experts on Specific Articles of the UDHR
A continuation of the previous lesson plan, which is part of a larger group of lessons on human rights (see additional materials). Here, in Lesson 7, your class will explore more articles from the Universal Declaration of Human Rights....
EngageNY
Inferring About Characters Based on How They Respond to Challenges (Chapter 4: "Los Higos/Figs")
How do you know what a character's personality is like if an author doesn't tell you? With a focus on character development in Esperanza Rising, pupils complete a jigsaw activity to analyze the actions of Mama, Abuelita, and Miguel. Once...
K12 Reader
Identifying Adverbs IV
What a mess! Read about Lilly-Ann's birthday cupcake surprise and work on grammar skills at the same time. Four lengthy paragraphs provide kids with many opportunities to find and circle adverbs. They note the ways that adverbs come in...
Gourmet Curriculum Press
James and the Giant Peach
Here is a 19-page sample lesson that uses an interesting format. It starts with an appetizer or activity to make reading the book James and the Giant Peach fun. Then it dives into the main course or core content instruction which...
LearnEnglishFeelGood.com
Gerund or Infinitive?
Decide which form of the verb to use in ten sentences. Young grammarians watch for context clues when determining if they should use gerunds or infinitives in the blank spaces of each sentence.
San Francisco Public Utilities Commission
What is Drought? No Rain, No Water
How can climate change affect our water supply? Have kids read a passage about the water cycle and water conservation, which includes six questions that challenge them to use context clues.
Curated OER
Reading and Responding -- Lesson 10
Fourth graders work individually or in a small group to (1) read a fictional passage, (2) practice test-taking strategies, and (3) practice using context clues to increase their vocabulary. Reading passage and comprehension questions...
Curated OER
Reinvigorate Your Vocabulary
Eighth graders participate in a variety of activities to examine the meanings and roots of word derivatives and the meanings of words. Using context clues, they determine the meanings of words omitted from a passage and complete a prefix...
Curated OER
James and The Giant Peach Vocabulary Building Activities
Reading literature is one of the best ways for kids to build a strong vocabulary while honing in on their comprehension skills. These vocabulary activities go along with the wonderful book, James and the Giant Peach. The children will...
EngageNY
Paragraph Writing: The Role of Religion in Colonial America
Informative writing is emphasized in the standards. Help your learners reach that goal with the plan for paragraph writing outlined here. After reviewing the work from the day before and adding to their vocabulary notebooks, class...
EngageNY
End of Unit 1 Assessment: Close Reading and Powerful Note-Taking on My Own
As the final lesson plan in a larger beginning-of-the-year unit to establish routines and teach close reading skills, this plan is designed as an assessment piece. Using the story, The Librarian of Basra, learners independently...
Curated OER
Which Story Matches the Given Theme?
Model for young learners how to determine the theme of a story. Read aloud Aesop’s The Fox and the Stork. Chart the plot and the main idea of the fable, showing class members how these elements support the theme. Fable titles for...
EngageNY
Main Ideas in Informational Text: Analyzing a Firsthand Human Rights Account
Although this is part of a series, lesson plan nine has your class take a break from their close study of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR) text to read the firsthand account “Teaching Nepalis to Read, Plant, and...
K12 Reader
Sum Difference
If you need a way to address math and reading in one lesson, look no further than a passage about inverse operations, complete with reading comprehension questions. Kids focus on context clues to determine the meanings of unfamiliar words.
EngageNY
Grade 10 ELA Module 1: Unit 3, Lesson 6
Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club brings together the central ideas of identity, ambition, expectations, and relationships. As high schoolers read an excerpt from the chapter "Two Kinds," they note how Jing-Mei's connection to music relates to...
EngageNY
Grade 9 ELA Module 2, Unit 2, Lesson 14
The devil—and the truth—is in the details. As ninth graders approach the ending of Sophocles' Oedipus the King, they analyze the words of the Messenger and apply these details to the central ideas of fate and prophecy.