Curated OER
Simplifying sentences
Students read through several articles as a class and identify key words in sentences. Students work as a class to reduce the length of the article by shortening the sentences but ensuring that they still make sense.
Curated OER
The Main Man
Students explore visualizing stories by completing a graphic organizer. In this reading strategy lesson, students read the story Pecos Bill by Steven Kellog and identify the setting, main characters and their interpretations. Students...
Curated OER
Anticipatory Set Picture Walk
The teacher models a Picture Walk by using a "think aloud" method while reading a picture book to the class. On the second day, 3rd graders use a worksheet as a guide for a second picture walk. This time, students complete the "think...
Curated OER
Act it Out: Dramatizing Asian American Stories
Read and act out folktales, fairy tales, or myths from various Asian American cultures with your class. Each group reads a story aloud and then works together to create a short play or skit about the story. Suggestions for stories are...
Curated OER
Build Masters: Identifying Details
Find key details in books using this note card strategy. Each reader gets six cards with the classic who, what, where, when, why, and how detail prompts. After they read the book, they choose a card and locate a key detail answering the...
Shmoop
ELA.CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.2
Identifying the theme or central idea of a text is a skill many young readers struggle with. It is also the second standard for reading literature in the Common Core. This resource, one from a series of Common Core lessons, can provide...
Curated OER
Charlotte's Web
Fourth graders focus on fluency by reading the book Charlotte's Web. In this reading strategies lesson, 4th graders partner read, do guided reading, and independent reading to increase fluency. Students use Venn Diagrams, discuss cause...
Student Achievement Partners
Eleven
Turning 11 comes with a range of emotions. Explore those emotions by reading the short story "Eleven" by Sandra Cisneros. Readers analyze the main character's reactions to the events of her day. Then, they write an essay describing what...
Arts Ed Washington
Art Lessons in the Classroom: Our Family
Blend art and family into one lesson with an activity involving oil pastels and watercolors. After viewing a few famous portraits of families, learners create masterpieces that represent their own families.
Curated OER
The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
Young scholars, after reading and discussing, "The Metamorphosis," by Franz Kafka, explain the symbolism of Gregor's metamorphosis moving beyond a literal view of "he turned into a bug" into the idea that...
Curated OER
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...
Curated OER
Summarizing
Fourth graders listen to the teacher discuss the definition of "Summary." They read a story aloud with their classmates. After finishing the story, 4th graders are asked to choose the best summary statement.
Curated OER
Cloze Instruction And Herringbone Technique
Students sort out important information and create a visual framework for reviewing in the future. They organize a large quantity of information thus helping with learning and remembering details, cause and effect, comparison and...
Curated OER
Integrating Language Arts and Math
Here are simple ideas to integrate math and language arts skills.
Curated OER
Listen to the Pin Drop
Students practice reading silently. The class discusses the benefits of reading silently and several methods for reading silently, including cross checking and chunking. Working in groups, they silently read a leveled text and discuss...
Curated OER
Can We Switch Genders of Story Characters?
Students read and review the main elements of a story. In this language arts lesson, students predict what the story read to them would have been like if the genders of the characters had been different. Students write a new story in...
Curated OER
Science Fiction Literature
Students identify the elements of science fiction literature. They write and illustrate a science fiction story using real and exaggerated science. In addition, they read their stories aloud in small groups.
Curated OER
Picture This: Visualization
Sixth graders practice visualizing and understanding that visualization is an important comprehension strategy. They share their visualization of the story through original artwork and determine that ideas, and cultural settings can...
Curated OER
Sorting and Classifying Concrete Objects by Varying Attributes
First graders examine how to sort concrete objects by their attributes. In this sorting instructional activity, 1st graders listen to Gray Rabbit's Odd One Out by Alan Baker, and discuss the actions of the main character. They practice...
Curated OER
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead: DR-TA Strategy
Making predictions is an excellent reading strategy. Work on building this into your pupils' toolkit of strategies by trying out the process outlined here for reading the very beginning of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. The...
Channel Islands Film
Arlington Springs Man: Lesson Plan 1
Learning to craft quality questions is a skill that can be taught. Class members use the Question Formulation Technique to learn how to create and refine both closed-ended and open-ended questions. They then view West of the West's...
Curated OER
Jason's Gold: Chapter 9
Students collect details from chapter 9 of the book Jason's Gold and connect them back to the author's purpose of the book. In this details lesson plan, students listen to a read aloud where they discuss the details with the teacher as...
Curated OER
Following the Wright Path
Students explore the architecture of Frank Lloyd Wright through literature and analyze photographs. In this photography analysis lesson, students read aloud Frank Lloyd Wright and answer questions for the text. Students visit a website...
Curated OER
What Goes Around, Comes Around!: Art from the Heart
Students identify the relationship between an artist and their community. In this serial reciprocity lesson, students listen to a story called Camille and the Sunflowers by Laurence Anholt and discuss how the community helped Vincent van...