Curated OER
Introduce: Prediction
What will happen next? Leave readers at a cliffhanger as they practice prediction strategies while listening to a story. Pupils start by making guesses based on the book's cover and title, discussing the techniques they use to make these...
Curated OER
Introduce: Comparison and Contrast
Class discussions can really make concepts come to life. The class discusses the differences between compare and contrast, read a book, then talk about ways they can compare events or characters in the story. Good leading question are...
Curated OER
Lesson Plan for Scaffolding Complex Texts
Enhance a class read-aloud of the children's story Hi! Fly Guy with this reading comprehension lesson. Children first listen as the teacher reads the story, stopping along the way to discuss any unfamiliar vocabulary. The book is then...
Curated OER
Building a Case for Clues
Here's a strategy that can be used with any narrative, whether read by the instructor or as independent reading. At the end of each chapter, learners predict, using prior knowledge as clues, what will happen in the next chapter. Readers...
Curated OER
Introduce: Main Idea
Begin exploring main idea in a text by telling the class an interesting story. Can they recall the main idea after you finish? What clues told them this was it? Explain that you will apply this concept as you read a nonfiction book....
Curated OER
Out of the Dust: DR-TA
Encourage good reading habits with an activity that asks class members to examine the title and cover of Out of the Dust, and then make predictions about the setting of and events in the tale.
Institute for Teaching through Technology and Innovative Practices
The Right Number of Elephants
How can you tell if a number of items is reasonable? Combine math and language arts with a fun lesson based on Jeff Shepard's The Right Number of Elephants. After reading the book, kids discuss amounts of other items and create minibooks...
Pennsylvania Department of Education
What Comes Next?
Students listen to various books that contain a sidebar of illustrations and practice making predictions about events in each story. For this what comes next lesson, students differentiate fact from opinion across various texts. Students...
Curated OER
Running the Road to ABC
Second graders, while reading and discussing the book, "The Best Older Sister," by Sook Nyul Choi, practices predicting the meaning of a passage based on its title and illustrations. They experience determining the main idea from text...
Curated OER
Reintroduce: Main Idea
What would a main idea be without important details? Readers use a graphic organizer to record key details from an informational text (a fiction text would also work). Review main idea as a concept before beginning, asking scholars to...
Curated OER
Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day
Students investigate storytelling by analyzing images in a book. In this reading analysis lesson plan, students read and analyze the book Alexander and the Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. Students observe the illustrations in the book...
Curated OER
Do You Want to Be My Friend?
Learners participate in a variety of emergent and early-literacy activities based on a "friendship" theme. Learners listen to the book Do You Want to Be My Friend by Eric Carle, then echo read, choral read, and independently read...
Curated OER
Mouse Mess
Scholars practice rhyming and phonemic awareness using trade books and poetry. They will listen to the book Mouse Mess several times throughout the week, identifying rhyming words, and matching words that begin with the same sound. Then...
PBS
Button, Button
Youngsters count, classify, and estimate quantities using buttons after a read aloud of The Button Box by Margarette S. Reid. They discuss the difference between guessing and estimating. Based on an experiment, they predict the number of...
Curated OER
Density
Learners predict when an object will float or sink based on comparison of density of the object to the density of the substance in which it is placed. The access a website and sketch the object in the first column of their table and then...
Curated OER
Effects of Oil Spills on Environment and Marine Life
Students explore oceanography by conducting an environmental experiment in class. For this oil spill lesson, students discuss the human need for oil and what is at stake when we drill for oil in our oceans. Students read a book in class...
Curated OER
The Patchwork Quilt and Something From Nothing
Students listen to the teacher read the first 26 pages of the story, Something From Nothing, and discuss what predicting means, Students predict how Joesph might remember what his grandfather made him, now that the button is gone. They...
Curated OER
The Mixed Up Chameleon
Young scholars read the story The Mixed Up Chameleon and complete discussions questions as they read the story. In this comprehension lesson plan, students also draw animals, list animals, and create a class book.
Curated OER
Journey to Topaz: Directed Reading Thinking Activity
Have you used the directed reading thinking activity in your classroom? Doubling as either a prereading strategy, or a during reading strategy, it helps readers connect the historical background of the text to the text itself. As the...
Curated OER
Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
The classic book, Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs lesson, is used to help readers compare and contrast the weather in Chewandswallow to their own town. Students write their own fantasy weather story. This lesson is intended to be an...
Curated OER
Freedom and You
Students research the American Revolution. In this Revolutionary War lesson, students research facts about the American Revolution, write an expository essay, and peer edit for good content. The paper is suggested to be written after...
Curated OER
Introduction to "The Secret School"
Fourth graders read The Secret School and define vocabulary in the text. For this Secret School lesson, 4th graders recognize difficult text and are able to comprehend its meaning and answer questions.
Curated OER
The Chocolate Touch
Students read a book. In this story elements lesson, students share their favorite food, predict what the story will be about and discuss how they would feel if they got to eat their favorite food everyday. Students read the book The...
Curated OER
Miss Nelson is Missing
Young scholars examine the story elements in the book, Miss Nelson is Missing. In this literary elements lesson, students listen to the story and identify the sequence of events in the test. Young scholars also use an online dictionary...