EngageNY
Research: Identifying Categories for Our Research About the Wheelwright
Here is a fine lesson on reading and understanding expository text designed for 4th graders. With a partner, learners read a passage of text about a machine called a wheelright. This machine was commonly used in the colonial...
Curated OER
Paraphrasing-Timbuktu in Your Own Words
How do you paraphrase information? Part of plagiarizing is taking information word for word and using it in your writing. Teach your writers how to paragraphs correctly to avoid this! They watch a QuickTime video on Timbuktu and...
Curated OER
End-of-Year Practice Test (Grade 9 ELA/Literacy)
What better way to prepare your class for Common Core testing than with a practice test? The practice test includes several reading passages, both literary and informational, and learners respond to multiple choice questions...
Curated OER
Performance-Based Assessment Practice Test (Grade 4 ELA/Literacy)
Track the progress of your fourth graders' reading and writing skills with this practice Common Core assessment. Based on a collection of six reading passages that include narrative stories, poetry, and a series of...
Curated OER
Performance-Based Assessment Practice Test (Grade 5 ELA/Literacy)
Check in on the development of your fifth graders' reading and writing skills with this Common Core-designed assessment. Given a series of six reading passages ranging from narrative stories to informational texts, young...
T. Smith Publishing
Earth
Young astronomers read an informational text passage and then answer questions based on what they read.
TLS Books
Neptune
Did you know that Neptune is named after the Roman god of the sea? Young astronomers read about this and other facts about the eighth planet from the sun in a short informational text passage.
TLS Books
Uranus
After reading an informational text passage, learners answer four multiple choice questions about the third largest planet in our solar system.
Curated OER
Using Compare and Contrast Key Words
Compare and contrast while challenging your class with this higher-level thinking and reading comprehension lesson. After observing the teacher model comparing and contrasting bats and birds, learners read passages about two towns. They...
Curated OER
Comprehension: Compare and Contrast Topics in Two Texts
A scripted instructional activity can be a big help for new teachers. This fully scripted three-day learning activity provides teachers with the means to demonstrate how to compare and contrast two topics in two texts. Learners will work...
Curated OER
Performance-Based Assessment Practice Test (Grade 9 ELA/Literacy)
Ready your pupils for Common Core testing by providing them with practice. For this assessment, learners read and respond to a variety of different passages in both multiple-choice and essay format. An online version is also included.
Curated OER
End-Of-Year Practice Test (Grade 3, ELA/Literacy)
The end of the year has arrived, which means it's time to find out what your third graders have learned with this practice Common Core assessment. Presented with one narrative and one expository reading passage, young learners...
Curated OER
End-of-Year Practice Test (Grade 4 ELA/Literacy)
The time has come to find out what your fourth grade readers have learned after another year of hard work. This Common Core-designed practice assessment provides two reading passages, one narrative and one expository, that children must...
Curated OER
End-of-Year Practice Test (Grade 6 ELA/Literacy)
With the end of the year quickly approaching it's time to find out exactly how much your sixth graders have learned. Specifically designed for the Common Core ELA standards, this practice test gives students five reading passages,...
Curated OER
The Birth of the Ancient Games: The Olympics
This exercise includes a lengthy article on the history of the Olympics as well as a map of Ancient Greece. The last page includes 15 reading comprehension questions about the passage. A fairly thorough look at this topic - geared toward...
Read Works
Signal Words in Expository Text
Signal words are one way that authors make the relationships between their ideas clear. Allow your learners the chance to investigate cause and effect in texts by identifying signal words. They locate and analyze cause-and-effect...
Curated OER
Winning "The Voice": Cloze Exercise
This New York Times Learning Network exercise provides a cloze exercise along with a word bank that readers can use to complete the passage about the television show, "The Voice" and Jermaine Paul, a recent winner. Another option is...
Curated OER
Nov. 17, 1973 | Nixon Declares 'I Am Not a Crook'
Connect events of the past to events of today. Budding historians read an eight paragraph passage describing the Watergate scandal. They then connect the Nixon scandal to sex scandals of recent times. There are six critical thinking...
Curated OER
Classifying Defending Information about Main Idea
Students read and highlight important information gathered from text. In this reading strategies lesson, students define classify and then classify the important information they find. Students share and reflect on their answers.
Curated OER
The Diary of Anne Frank: Selected Passages
Students read the novel, "The Diary of Anne Frank". Using the internet, they gather information on the effect of the Versailles Treaty, formation of the Weimer Republic and the Nazi Party on the Holocaust. They view propaganda...
Constitutional Rights Foundation
Issues of Asylum in the U.S.
Who gets to come to the United States? Examine cases of individuals seeking asylum with an informative reading passage that includes examples, statistics, and representations of public opinion regarding asylum. Groups then go on to...
National Humanities Center
Teaching The Great Gatsby: A Common Core Close Reading Seminar
The 41 slides in a professional development seminar model how to use close reading techniques to examine the many layers of F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby. In addition to passages from the novel, slides provide biographical...
Constitutional Rights Foundation
Refugees From Vietnam and Cambodia
The United States may have pulled its troops from the Vietnam War in 1973, but the conflict was far from over for the citizens living in Asia at the time. An informative resource lets learners know about the wave of over 220,000...
C3 Teachers
Democracy in Danger: Should the Right to Vote Be Protected in the Constitution?
High school seniors investigate what national, state and local rules say about voting. After examining the Constitution's articles, clauses, and amendments, researchers look at videos, listen to podcasts, and read articles to gather...