Scholars discover who Saint Patrick was with help from a brief informational text followed by a series of challenge worksheets designed to boost reading comprehension and vocabulary. Class members complete a graphic organizer, take...

Scholars explore an expository text to answer questions about its structure.

Graphs, charts, maps, diagrams. Reading and comprehending informational text is far more than just decoding the words on a page. Here's a packet that provides young readers with practice answering constructed response questions using...

Outlines are a great asset to essay planning. Scholars read and analyze a model essay about the importance of daily reading and consider how it would look in an outline format. Next, they outline their own informative essays about rules...

For every action there is a consequence. Scholars continue their work on creating a cascading consequence chart about DDT using Welcome Back, The Exterminator, Rachel Carson: Sounding the Alarm on Pollution along...

Explore the life inside trees as scholars learn vocabulary through Debbie Miller's informational text Are Trees Alive? Familiarize pupils with the new words they will hear like anchor, disease, awaken,...

Boost reading comprehension skills with a lesson all about freaky frogs. A poem hooks scholars and takes them into a reading of an informational text followed by peer discussions. A three-page worksheet focuses on text features and...

Dig into some prehistoric vocabulary in Bob Barner's informative book Dinosaur Bones. This works best if you introduce the primitive words before reading the story. These are the focus terms in the text: ancient, climate, extinct,...

Travel out to sea as scholars learn vocabulary in context through Kathleen Zoehfeld's informational book Dolphin's First Day. Go over the new words scholars will hear before reading: approach, coast, expert, feeble,...

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,...

Teach literary lovers how to form opinions about form. Scholars read informational text about the form used in villanelles. After analyzing the structure used in the poetry with graphic organizers and gallery walks, writers create...

Fourth graders practice using a graphic organizer to record their notes and answer text-dependent questions while supplying evidence of how they found their answer. They focus on a machine called the wheelright, which was commonly...

How can something be true even if it didn't happen? Invite your classes to investigate the truths found in the world of magical realism as they analyze short stories, poems, informational texts, video, and art from this genre.

Identify literary elements in fiction. In this reading comprehension instructional activity, learners read the book Pigsty and record literary elements onto a graphic organizer. They specifically discuss the main characters and events in...

Engage your scholars in a discussion about pigs! Scholars analyze information about keeping pigs as pets and write a persuasive paragraph. An informational text and video are included for research. While examining these materials, class...

Are we alone in the universe? This brief informational text on extraterrestrial theory has been split into seven sections to help scholars practice note taking. They read the statements, underlining key words. Then, using the graphic...

When you come across an unfamiliar word in a text, do you skip it and move on? Practice using context clues to identify words you don't know with a thorough set of language arts lessons. The resource reinforces close reading and critical...

There's no such thing as over-planning. In preparation for their informative consumer guides, scholars complete a Quote Sandwich graphic organizer to compile their information about sustainable fishing methods. Next, volunteers share...

Do learners really need to be taught how to read cartoons, comic books, and comic strips? Yes. Just as they need to learn how to read other forms of graphic text such as diagrams, photos, timetables, maps, charts, and tables. Young...

Compare and contrast two pieces of literature with this lesson. With the use of a Venn diagram, pupils make connections between literature and real-life situations. They practice skills of surveying a text looking for important details,...

How is that relevant? Scholars gain an understanding of the words relevant and compelling. They then go back to the End of Unit 1 Assessment Prompt: Adversity in the Middle Ages and look at the second bullet that pertains to relevant and...

Analyze a fictional text with a four-page packet that explores a story's main character and moral, challenges scholars to ask and answer questions about the text, and to create a story map. 

Find guidance to introduce math vocabulary in context using Henry Pluckrose's book Sorting. This text is an excellent cross-curricular resource for budding readers. Before starting, review some new vocabulary words: collect, common,...

Bully, bullied, or bystander? Paul Langan's The Bully is the anchor text in a unit that examines bullying and violence. After a close reading of the text, readers imagine themselves as the characters and consider how they would react in...