Third graders summarize a piece of nonfiction text. After reviewing the correct way to read for important information and summarize that information, students independently read a nonfiction article. They write a summary paragraph using...

Students summarize a piece of text. After reviewing the correct way to read and summarize, students work in groups to summarize a piece of text assigned by the instructor. They write a summary paragraph by creating a story map and the...

Young scholars are introduced to the concepts of comprehension and summarizing information. They review a summerization poster which shows the information they are looking for and read a book silently. They watch the teacher model...

Primary learners explore elements of wonder in The Nursery "Alice" by Lewis Carroll. They analyze the plot point after listening to the text. Next, they describe the imagery in various works of children's literature using the given links...

Junior high learners discuss Lewis Carroll's classic story, Alice in Wonderland. They observe the image of childhood in his photographs and compare them to present-day images. There is a plethora of ideas and links for discussions...

Fourth graders present research on war. In this debate lesson, 4th graders create a power point presentation debating for or against the American Revolution. Students share their presentations with the class.

Working with magazine articles and other informational texts, young scholars identify the parts of a non-fiction work. The learners use SMART board files to guide instruction, as well as a transition to writing their own non-fiction...

This lesson plan starts out with a guided discussion about the statement "Birds fly in the sky; airplanes fly in the sky; therefore, airplanes are birds" and goes on to cover logical fallacies and reliable sources, relating these to the...

Five quick questions ask about quotes and characters from Shakespeare's Henry V. Give this quiz to your students as a warm-up or diagnostic test.

Skim, reread, and then take notes. The step-by-step procedure outlined in this resource can be used to help pupils write a summary of a reading passage. Using their notes, class members then draft a summary focusing on the main idea and...

A simple activity for young readers, this introduces the idea of author purpose. Learners analyze various types of texts (newspaper articles, magazines, books, advertisements, etc.) and determine if the author's purpose for writing was...

High schoolers use their Life Map to write a strong introduction for an autobiography. They apply the Life Map to a written sequence, use guided imagery to visualize the writing process and experience peer editing.

Seventh graders choose a poet to research and find a poem by that author to explicate/analyze using a variety of sources for their research that will include their textbooks, the school library, and the internet. After conducting...

Text marking and a T-chart format to distinguish important information from trivia help elementary readers summarize effectively. Encouraging readers to construct a chapter summary from paragraph-level topic sentences is another sound...

Learners read and discuss The Black Cat and The Tell-Tale Heart. In this poetry lesson, students construct a Venn diagram to compare and contrast two pieces of literature.

What is philanthropy? To find out learners explore the concept through class discussion. They survey, make decisions, implement, and reflect on a service project intended to benefit their community.

Bring the Internet and the Renaissance together in this presentation assignment. Middle schoolers give a presentation on the Renaissance, using computers to both research and create the slides. The lesson includes a short assessment as...

This task is best utilized after a rough draft revision is completed. Writers pair-up and identify when the author uses the passive voice, clichés, and wordiness.  Basic examples for the revision points are provided for the...

First graders look at slides on the SMART Board of different facts about Dr. Seuss and then create a class bar graph of their favorite Dr. Seuss books. In this Dr. Seuss lesson plan, 1st graders review and list facts that they learned...

Students investigate real world examples of media law issues. In this media law instructional activity, students read Janet Cooke’s feature and respond to the writing. Students read articles by Stephen Glass to highlight facts...

Sixth graders explore World History by completing worksheets in class. In this Middle Ages instructional activity, 6th graders identify the importance of shields during the era and design their own shields. Students complete a Knight...

Students read a passage from a magazine. They highlight the main ideas and facts they feel are important and black out the unimportant details. They review the concept of summarizing and use the highlighted text to write a summary with...

Fifth graders write a website based school newspaper using a variety of literary forms to present the news of the school.