Curated OER
Bats
Use Stellaluna by Janell Canon to discuss bats and other types of animals. Learners identify the differences between bats and birds, list the traits of mammals, create a Bat Facts game, and go on a written scavenger hunt. Fun, clever ideas!
Curated OER
Base Words and Prefixes
Once your second graders grasp base words and prefixes, challenge them with this visual word meaning activity. They watch you model it before engaging in guided practice. Use these word cards focused on the prefix re to help your...
Curated OER
Build Mastery: Visualization
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...
Curated OER
Introduce Vocabulary: "I Can't," Said the Ant (Cameron)
With both rhyme and a fun storyline, Polly Cameron's story "I Can't," Said the Ant is a useful resource for vocabulary in context. Emerging readers focus on five key words: cooperate, mend, nimble, sling, and trickle. After a brief...
Utah Education Network (UEN)
Boxing and Analysis
Model for your high schoolers how to prepare for the essay portion of the AP Literature exam. For guided practice, pairs analyze metaphor, simile, tone or syntax in Norman Mailer’s “The Death of Benny Paret,” and then work independently...
August House
Why Koala Has a Stumpy Tail
Learn about the animals of Australia with a language arts lesson about an Australian folktale called, Why Koala Has a Stumpy Tail. After reading the story as a class, kids discuss events and characters from the book, retell the story to...
Bantam Books
The Tempest: Chalk Talk
Discussion doesn't always need to be spoken. Before you begin The Tempest by William Shakespeare, have kids connect their ideas and experiences to central questions of the play with a silent discussion activity. Once they have...
Curated OER
Parrot in the Oven: Problematic Situation
Prior to reading Victor Martinez's Parrot in the Oven: Mi Vida, class members are presented with a problematic situation and to rate their responses as well as predict the responses of a character from the novel.
CPALMS
Point of View: A Close Reading of Two Bad Ants
Chris Van Allsburg's Two Bad Ants provides third graders with an opportunity to examine point of view and how the point of view of others may differ from their own.
ReadWriteThink
Teaching Point of View With Two Bad Ants
What better way to explain the concept of point of view than from an ant's perspective! After reading Two Bad Ants, pupils identify the point of view of the ants by studying the text and pictures. Then, they fill out a chart that...
Florida Center for Reading Research
Multiple Meaning Words in Context
Multiple meaning words is the focus of a lesson designed to reinforce the use of context clues. Scholars listen carefully to a variety of sentences using the words pool and cast to decide which definition best fits the context. Then,...
Prestwick House
New (March 2016) SAT Reading Test Practice
The SAT. The ACT. AP exams. The very mention of these exams can cause the college bound to feel anxious. One way to combat Test Anxiety is to provide high schoolers with models of these tests and give them opportunities to analyze the...
ELA Common Core Lesson Plans
American Romanticism
Nathaniel Hawthorne's "Rappaccini's Daughter" provides the text for an activity that asks readers to select specific passages from the story, identify the aspect of American Romanticism the passage exemplifies, and then provide an...
Common Sense Media
The Masque of the Red Death
Poe goes high tech with a lesson that asks high schoolers to use the internet and various apps as they read and analyze "The Masque of the Red Death." In addition to responding to comprehension questions in Quizlet, they use Minecraft to...
EngageNY
Summarizing Notes: Planning a Graphic Novelette, Part III: The Invention of Television
How did the television change people's lives? Learners consider the question as they complete their storyboards about the invention of the TV, adding visual elements along the way. Then, they participate in a peer review to offer and...
Curated OER
Letters from Emily Dickinson: Letters and Poems
Students analyze how Emily Dickinson perceived herself as a poet. Students read correspondence between Dickinson and her preceptor, Mr. Higginson to determine the depths of their relationship. Students interpret several of her poems.
Curated OER
Listen to Me Tell You the Story
Read a familiar story with repetitive lines that the class can remember. Afterward, make puppets and retell the story in small groups with an adult volunteer or an older child.
Curated OER
The Fifty States
Students design a multimedia report on one or more of the fifty states.
Curated OER
Storytellers Past and Present
Students read and discuss an article about Olga Loya, a modern storyteller. They watch a videotaped performance of a story and then create a storytelling experience for a story of their choice to share with the class.
Curated OER
Information Problem Solving
Students present information about an author of young adult literature using a HyperStudio stack.
Curated OER
"The Drum"
Second graders read and discuss the folktale "The Drum" from India. They also answer story comprehension questions, complete an adjectives and verb worksheet, and label a map of India. Students sequence events from the story and make...
Curated OER
The Drum
Students complete a variety of activities related to the folktale from India, "The Drum." They listen to the story and answer comprehension questions, construct a coffee can drum, and complete a phonics and matching worksheet.
Curated OER
Beginning Consonant Sounds
Young readers practice their beginning consonant sounds. Solid worksheets prompt students to practice their consonant in fun ways. These worksheets use Clifford the Big Red Dog as a theme, and give the kids excellent and colorful practice.
Curated OER
Forming Open-Ended Questions
Help readers learn to create their own open-ended questions for any text you are working with. Using Bloom's Taxonomy, learners begin on the lower levels and work their way up to form questions that focus on synthesis instead of simple...