Curated OER
Reading Strategies: Main Idea
Identify the main idea and the supporting details of a story in a literacy resource from Discovery Education. Complete with procedures, vocabulary, and assessment activities, this is a great way for pupils to practice their outlining...
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A Better Class of Journal-ists
Young academics create a current events journal by skimming newspapers for articles that fit defined guidelines for informational texts. After cutting out two articles each week to add to their journals, they write a brief description of...
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Political Cartoons
Students examine a variety of historical cartoons. They recognize a political cartoon and identify the main idea, symbolism, exaggeration and caricature in political cartoons. Students analyze a political cartoon by Benjamin Franklin.
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What's The Idea
Students discuss the importance of identifying the main idea in reading selections. After reading newspaper articles related to nutrition, students identify the main idea of the selection and three supporting details. A reading log...
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Come Fly with Me . . . Open a Book: Travels through Literature
This detailed overview of a curriculum unit suggests using travel literature to engage and stimulate your third graders’ interest in reading. The suggested reading list includes fiction and non-fiction materials and offers urban children...
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Paragraph Building
Build the skills your budding authors need to develop to compose well-structured paragraphs. Give them the topic sheet (included here), and have them write a cohesive paragraph using the ideas listed. Consider having them include two...
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Animals in the Media
Sure to activate young minds, this resource asks learners to consider how media influences their personal points of view. Pupils examine how animals are portrayed in the media to understand why they feel the way they do about those...
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Plot the Oysters' Peril!
Use comic strips to teach sequencing in narrative poetry. As homework, each class member selects a comic strip with 4-8 frames, cuts the frames apart, places the pieces in an envelope, and brings the envelope to class. Class members swap...
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A Newspaper?
Sixth graders use newspapers to investigate fractions. They work in small groups to categorize articles, measure them with the grid transparency, and calculate the values represented. Afterward, they write a reflective essay on the role...
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Cruise the News
Students utilize newspapers as a resource to complete various tasks. They read articles, write summaries, investigate the classified section, write commercials, and circle spelling words.
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Using Details from Text to Identify Author's Purpose
Explore writing techniques by analyzing newspapers and magazines with middle schoolers. They will collaborate in small groups to read local news stories and identify the main ideas and author's intent. They also utilize an information...
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News View
Students read and analyze three different news sources that describe the same event. They compare/contrast the similarities and differences of the news sources, and write an essay describing the main event.
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Propaganda Techniques
Sixth graders locate examples of persuasive writing. In this persuasive writing lesson students work in a groups to identify and analyze the use of propaganda techniques. Students use newspapers to find editorials, or advertisements,...
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Identifying a Message's Purpose
Learners examine the character trait of perseverance and identify a message's purpose. They read a biography of Jackie Joyner Kersee, discuss the main message, and develop an action plan with goals and a message.
Pearson Longman
Back Talk: A Summarizing Activity
Here's resource that presents step-by-step directions for three different activities that ask kids to read a short passage, listen for the main points, and then to summarize the passage in their own words.
Equality and Human Rights Commission
Influencing Attitudes
Does propaganda—like that used during the first World War—exist today? The 11th lesson in a series of 12 highlights the role of media when it comes to influencing attitudes. Scholars learn about sensational headlines, misrepresentation...
Dream of a Nation
Read, Watch, Write for Pathos, Logos and Ethos
Encourage your young citizens to make a difference. Using Tyson Miller's Dream of a Nation: Inspiring Ideas for a Better America as a starting point, class members watch documentaries, investigate issues, and then write letters to...
National First Ladies' Library
All the News That's Fit to Draw: Political Cartooning and the Presidency
Students research, analyze and study the history of political cartooning in the United States. They recognize a political cartoon, be able to identify the main idea, the symbols and the exaggeration and caricature in political cartoons....
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Local and National News
Students work together in small groups, negotiate, plan, summarize, analyze, read and understand, speak so others can understand, cooperate with others, and listen critically. Students use local newspapers to draw their conclusions and...
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What Did You Say?
Twelfth graders identify main ideas in reading selections. They read newspaper letters to the editor, identify the main ideas, list the supporting details, and present each side of the issue to the class.
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Nonviolent Conflict Resolutions with Cesar Chavez
Third graders investigate nonviolent conflict resolution strategies. In this interpersonal communication lesson, 3rd graders explore conflict resolution. Students construct a newspaper/magazine article detailing nonviolent conflict...
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From the Beginning of Time, Online: Using the Internet to Explore History
Learners use the Internet to research historical events. They compare and contrast different websites to find the best information. They write summaries based on the information they found and give presentations.
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Sounding Off About Impeachment
Help your middle and high schoolers reflect on the responsibility of newspapers to act as a vehicle for 'everyday citizens' to voice their opinions. Then, using an article about the first day of the Senate impeachment trial of President...
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New York City Delights: The Taxi Cab
You set the rate! Step into the shoes of a taxi driver in New York City, and also pretend to be a person who uses taxis to get around town. The class will conduct collaborative research to learn about the history of taxis. Then, they...