Should companies be able to build wherever they want? Are animals worth protecting? Explore the literary themes from Carl Hiaasen's Hoot with an anticipation guide. Kids read ten statements and decide if they agree or disagree, then...

Students employ different strategies in order to increase reading comprehension. The Story is used to captivate the learners and provide a link to long term memory. By studying the one text in depth the skills will be embedded in the...

Students explore stories, games and coloring pages on an interactive website. In this pre-reading activity, students have free access to stories, coloring pages and simple games at the Lil' Fingers website.

Students practice reading for the gist of a text, improving reading speed, and fostering interest in reading authentic texts. They explore the use of figurative language.

Learners, while reading a novel together in class, jot in their journals any connections to their own lives they can make between the text and self, text to text or text to the world. Various themes are connected to open more doors to...

Students explore ways to provide enjoyable phonemic awareness and conversation experiences for their children while reading and discussing children's book, A Tree For Me. Students extend their expertise in reading by fluently reading...

Students read a text on a severe storm in Oman. They review vocabulary, practice reading strategies and complete a vocabulary matching exercise. Afterward, they design and write a poster to tell people what to do before, during and after...

Learners walk through exposure to material on Great Inventions and Transportation using scaffolding techniques such as: language simplification, pre-reading, graphic organizers, note taking and more.

Set the stage for Nightjohn, Gary Paulsen's young adult novel about slavery set shortly before the Civil War, by asking readers to indicate whether they agree or disagree with several statements that are connected to issues...

Young scholars read and view information sent from seven high school students who travel to China. The daily reports that they send back to the weblog section of the site should be of high interest to young scholars in Minnesota.

Fifth graders interview each other in the role of civil war personalities. In this Civil War lesson plan, 5th graders create a script and video of an interview with classmates who are portraying characters from the Civil War. Students...

“Poor people are poor because they are lazy and don’t work enough.” “If you are desperate, the means justify the ends.” Prior to reading Cry, The Beloved Country, class members complete an anticipation guide that focuses on issues raised...

Read an article about the migration of our ancestors and write a paragraph. Pupils paraphrase and summarize to restate the information found in a nonfiction text. They write a shortened version of the reading to demonstrate the...

 “Everything will end up okay if you believe hard enough.” “People create their own luck, good or bad.” Prior to reading Candide, class members respond to an anticipation guide that focuses on the issues of optimism, prejudice, and...

Get your class ready to read with this anticipatory set for Running Out of Time. Small groups each consider one thought-provoking statement. After each group comes to a consensus, the whole class participates in sharing ideas and voting...

Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs provides the lens class members use to analyze and evaluate the motivations of the characters in Sylvia Plath's "Initiation" and scenes from Mean Girls. Readers then select a character from A...

Explore children's literature by researching a book and it's author. Youngsters read the story The Mitten by Jan Brett and discuss the animals and characters mentioned in the story. Then, they practice retelling their favorite portion of...

Why is it important to use precise language? Participants explore this question in the fourth activity in a series of 15 on effective instruction. Perfect for all content areas, the activity promotes appropriate language choice through...

Here is a fabulous lesson on problem solving in the mathematical world. In it, third and fourth graders get lots of great coaching on how to approach word problems, and how to best find a solution. They watch an episode of Reading...

Model  for your class how to make text-to-text connections by following the script presented by this resource. No specific texts are offered as examples.

How should pupils read short stories? Set them up for this unit with an introductory lesson that goes over the main characteristics of a short story and starts learners off reading their first short story of the unit. In order to get a...

Is it possible to escape fate? Are all types of pride evil? Are family secrets best kept secret? Before reading Oedipus the King, class members respond to a series of statements on an anticipation guide that introduces some of the basic...

Fourth graders practice making inferences and forming opinions. In this reading strategy lesson, 4th graders listen to the book Woodsong by Gary Pauisen. They make predictions about the story before beginning and discuss the story...

Students apply reading strategies to improve understanding and fluency. They use their imagination and create their own short stories. They identify words as various parts of the story - including setting, character, problem, solution...