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Biography Tea
Students. through a variety of library books on biographies, explore and assess the contributions of individuals to society. They choose one person to write a short biography on after reading their biography checked out from the library.
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Summarization Mapping
Students observe and demonstrate the strategy of summarizing the main idea. They discuss six rules of summarizing, and observe the teacher summarizing the first chapter of the novel "The Incredible Journey." Students then read chapter...
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Summarizing Puts the Pieces Together
Students summarize a piece of fiction. 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...
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Sheila Rae the Brave
First graders practice summarizing with the book Sheila Rae the Brave by Kevin Henkes. In this summarizing lesson, 1st graders read the story over 3 days and answer comprehension questions. They write a summary about what they book was...
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Folktale Unit: The Emperor and the Kite
Learners read the story of The Emperor and the Kite examining new vocabulary and working on comprehension skills. They examine how to summarize the story after reading it.
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What Did I Just Read?
Students summarize a chapter from the book, "Sarah Plain and Tall. After reviewing the the formation of a topic sentence, they independently read a chapter from the book. Students write a summary paragraph using the checklist outlined by...
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Online Words
Students define spelling/vocabulary words using an online dictionary. In this Internet resources instructional activity, students learn how to use an online dictionary to look up the definitions of their spelling or vocabulary words.
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Loving Literature
First graders, after having "Are You My Mother?" by P.D. Eastman read to them, participate in group discussions or independentally work to analyze a spreadsheet to identify essential elements in the story and graph their data. In...
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Annotated Bibliographies
What is an annotated bibliography? While not usually required until college, introducing your juniors and seniors to this type of document will prepare them for their collegiate careers. The term is defined, and the three elements of an...
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Learning About Writers
Learners explore how authors write stories. In this careers lesson, students invite an author into the classroom and ask him/her questions about writing as a career.
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Summer of My German Soldier
Pupils participate in a layered curriculum unit for a novel study. The teaching method allows for a student centered classroom that includes different methods of instruction and assessment.
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Successful Summarizers
Students review the concept of silent reading. Through modeling and guided practice, they explore six steps/rules of summarizing. In groups, they read a short book and then, using the summarization rules and skills, write an effective...
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Warriors Don't Cry
Students write a journal depicting a day in the life of a character and a newspaper article. In this Warriors Don't Cry activity, students summarize the main events of integration and find out about the life of Melba...
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The Chicago River's Journey through Time
Students create a book, which shows the changes in the Chicago River throughout time. They demonstrate their comprehension of the major historical changes in the Chicago River. Students create their own book titled: The Chicago River's...
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Totally Us
Students create unique biographies. For this Totally Joe lesson, students read the James Howe book and then collaborate to write name biographies in small groups.
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The Giving Tree
Students investigate the virtue of kindness and giving by conducting a children's literature study of "The Giving Tree". They make a list of words to describe emotions in the story and write a journal daily while looking at the virtues...
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Painting with Words
Fifth graders discuss words that are over used in their writing such as good, nice, happy, glad sad, etc. they complete a survey about word choice then hear a story and discuss descriptive phrases used in the story and how they help to...
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The Magic Box
Young scholars use their visual-spatial intelligence to describe imagined boxes. A complete sequence of opening the imagined box and visualizing its contents is performed. Students write a summary of what they "saw" in their imagination.
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Summing it all Up...In Your Own Words
Students observe and demonstrate the steps to identifying the main ideas of a text. They listen to the teacher read a paragraph and model the steps of summarizing the main idea. Students then independently read a different paragraph...
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The Chocolate War
Pupils participate in a variety of activities in order to take part in a layered curriculum unit that focuses on a novel study. This allows for a student centered classroom and instructional practices.
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Christmas at Mud Flat Lesson Plan
Students analyze the characters in the book Christmas at Mud Flat. In this early childhood lesson plan, students analyze characters in the book, then choose which character they personally identify with the most. Students then use...
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Measurement Mania
Second graders observe and demonstrate how to measure different objects. They listen to the book "Corduroy," and measure different aspects of a teddy bear, discuss how to measure using a variety of units of measurement, and complete a...
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Summarizing
Third graders examine how to summarize the most important details in a reading passage in order to increase their comprehension. They design a story web using the summarization skills. Before class, they complete a reading assignment...
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Can you Summarize?
Students write summaries of non-fiction articles in this instructional activity. They read the article silently and then pick out the main points. Students list the main events as a whole class activity, and then they individually...