Curated OER
The Night Before Thanksgiving
Natasha Wing's story The Night Before Thanksgiving is a great way to incorporate rhyme and literature into the Thanksgiving season. Learners make text-to-self connections, recall main events, and choose post-reading activities...
Curated OER
Anticipation Guide: Life of Pi
Create an anticipation guide with your class for Life of Pi. They will have likely heard of the novel and maybe even seen the movie, but provide them with this guide to get them thinking. Eight statements are given, and your class...
Film English
Father and Son
Explore word relationships and the relationships between people with an interesting lesson. Learners practice pairing words that typically go together and write brief narratives using these words. They then go through a similar process,...
Novelinks
Touching Spirit Bear: Directed Thinking Activity
Can you guess what is going to happen in a story just by looking at the cover? Readers engage in a directed-reading activity in which...
Walt Disney Company
Elizabeth Started All the Trouble
Elizabeth Cady Stanton was a famous suffragette that paved the way for equal rights for women. Readers respond to before, during, and after reading questions based on her story. The resource is a great addition to a lesson during...
Reed Novel Studies
The One and Only Ivan: Novel Study
A new friend, a new perspective, and a new light are all found in Katherine Applegate's The One and Only Ivan. Ivan, a gorilla, was content with his life until a baby elephant befriended him. Readers find synonyms, answer...
Curated OER
Academic Achievement
Academic goals can lead high schoolers toward bright futures. Get your class to think about where they want to be in 20 years and what they'll need to do to get there with this lesson plan. Learners fill out a brief questionnaire about...
Curated OER
"Guermo's Surprise"
Have you ever thrown a surprise party? Use this question to engage your intermediate English language learners. After a brief discussion, read the passage "Guermo's Surprise," and have learners answer the 10 multiple-choice questions...
EngageNY
Analyzing a Thematic Concept: Becoming Visible after Captivity
Have some dignity. Readers describe the word dignity using a word web and then sort Louie's actions into categories of reconnecting or dignity with a Visibility Double Arrow graphic organizer. They then use all of their ideas and...
Simon & Schuster
Classroom Activities for The Call of the Wild by Jack London
Three activities are designed for readers of Jack London's The Call of the Wild. First, class members research and create posters that reflect the setting of the novel. Next, groups create posters with images that represent each chapter...
Curated OER
What You See Is What You Read
Using the popular text Franklin Goes to the Hospital, youngsters make predictions by looking at the cover of the book. They draw their predictions, listen to the story, and compare their predictions to what actually happened in the...
Curated OER
Storytime
By reading two books aloud, Ben and Becky in the Haunted House and The Ghost in the Classroom, youngsters learn new words and understand story events. They workin small groups to review the vocabulary in a game-like setting.
Curated OER
Literary Elements: Storytelling Techniques
Learners think about what makes a story interesting to read or hear. What kinds of details make a story come to life? How can a storyteller create a feeling of excitement or suspense? What kinds of characters do students like? If anyone...
Curated OER
A Plump and Perky Turkey
Help readers recognize elements in a story. They will use pictures and text to gain meaning from written material. Have learners listen to the story A Plump and Perky Turkey and participate in a discussion. They recognize the...
Curated OER
What If?
Second graders read WHAT IF? up to the page that ends "Suddenly, across the field they saw..." and discuss how the animals are feeling. They then discuss their feelings and in pairs discuss a possible ending to the story.
Curated OER
Moving West With Pioneers
Fifth graders read a book written by Laura Ingalls Wilder to examine the hardships that were endured by pioneers traveling during the Westward Expansion of the US. They predict, summarize and participate in literature circles. They visit...
Curated OER
Time Capsule Survey
Here's a fun way to incorporate technology into your curriculum. E-mail each of your class members a picture and 10 questions about the photo. Individuals then imagine the story behind the image and e-mail back their responses. Although...
Curated OER
Pressure Effects
Students, in groups, create experiments to predict and prove what a change in pressure can do to objects exposed to the change. They use AppleWorks to write their hypotheses and the steps they need to conduct the experiment.
Curated OER
Porter's Pig Problem
In this tall tale worksheet, students read the tall tale, then make up their own ending for the story. The worksheet also provides students with a definition of a tall tale.
Curated OER
Reading Short Stories
In this story comprehension worksheet, students fill out an organizer, making a prediction about a story before reading, and writing about what led them to this prediction. Students then complete another organizer, writing about setting,...
Curated OER
Repeated Text
Students examine repeated text to predict the outcome of a story. In this language arts lesson, students read a story and use the repeated language to make predictions about what will happen next in the story.
Curated OER
My Antonia: Anticipation Guide
Making predictions is an important skill that experienced readers tap into when tackling a difficult text. Prepare your pupils to read My Antonia by Willa Cather with an initial prediction activity and this anticipation guide, which...
Curated OER
The Outsiders: Directed Reading Thinking Activity
It can be difficult to begin a novel when you don't know what it's about. Take the opportunity to begin S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders slowly, making predictions and answering questions about the book's first nine pages.
PBS
Stories of Painkiller Addiction: Contemplating Nature vs. Nurture
Does having an addict in your family make it more likely to become one yourself? Explore the genetic risk factors, as well as the prominent environmental influences, for substance addiction in a lesson that encourages awareness and open...