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...

That is ground shaking news! Scholars read Earthquake in multiple reads to determine the gist, identify cause and effect relationships, and understand vocabulary. Learners complete graphic organizers to describe what happens before and...

A storm is brewing in the sea. Scholars complete multiple reads of How Does a Hurricane Form to determine gist, cause-and-effect relationships, and deepen vocabulary understanding.  To finish, they complete graphic organizers...

What's the gist? Learners determine the gist of an informational article about sports in America. They also participate in a jigsaw activity, rereading the article and discussing the author's opinion and supporting evidence. 

What's the best thing on the menu? Scholars enter the room, complete a gallery walk of menus to choose a food to pretend to order, and then discuss how they made the decision. Next, they read The Omnivore's Dilemma and relate their...

Middle schoolers use a reader's dictionary to locate words they do not know in chapter 6 of A Long Walk to Water. They then turn attention to gist and work on a Salva/Nya anchor chart to record what happens to the characters....

Lights, camera, action! Viewers discuss a video about the Great Bear Rainforest Remote Camera Project. As they watch, they find the gist, determine the meaning of unknown words, and analyze the features of a documentary as an...

Television or radio? Scholars read pages 18-28 of The Boy Who Invented TV: The Story of Philo Farnsworth to discover why Farnsworth thought TV was better than radio. They determine the gist of the section and then look closer...

Solve the world's problems. Class members move on to section two of Investigating the Scientific Methods with Max Axiom Super Scientist and complete a similar activity as in the previous lesson. Next, they carry out a first read to...

Help your pupils discover the power of context clues by teaching the this vocabulary strategy. Designed to go with words from Willa Cather's My Antonia, this exercise focuses on having individuals use their own words to define new...

How easy is it to live off the land? Scholars read Minerals and Metals in Your Life and discuss how Canada's natural resources meet the needs of the people. Pupils watch a brief video and discuss the gist of the text and video. They...

Read it and read it again. Scholars do multiple reads of the text The Electric Motor. During the first pass, they read to discover the gist of the text. In the second, pupils use quotes from the article to explain the use of the electric...

Students investigate the practice of digging for fossils. They participate in a mock dig of fossils using real bones and other artifacts. Then students dig through sand in order to go through the simulation. Students make observations...

Designed for third graders but appropriate for older learners as well, this packet of materials underscores the necessity of teaching kids how to summarize, how to identify main ideas and supporting details, and how to ask questions...

Young scholars improve their reading comprehension through predicting, connecting with text and summarizing. Students should have already read the book Seedfolks and made predictions based upon what they had seen from the cover and...