How can you tell if someone is happy? The lesson works with elementary and middle school scholars to activate their schema and pay attention to details to make inferences in their daily lives, poetry, and other literature. Cleverly...

To generate interest in and enable readers to connect to The Things They Carried, class members write about what they carry—both tangible and intangible things. The class then makes a list of these things and compares the list to...

Always check your assumptions when interpreting data and data visualizations. That's the take away from this exercise. Class members examine a failed project that looks at search trends to predict flu outbreaks and consider the...

With the emphasis on incorporating more nonfiction in language arts classes the question arises about how to design activities that motivate kids to engage with informational text. How about an assignment that asks class members to...

Teenagers get the real information about marijuana use based on the history of tobacco legislation and research. As they read an educational passage about marijuana laws, science, and changing attitudes, they address their preconceptions...

Get the facts straight with a reading quiz on the first three chapters of Beverly Cleary's The Mouse and the Motorcycle. The questions address details from the plot and provides a writing prompt to predict what will happen next in the book.

Fifth graders make and revise predictions based on the chapters they have read in The Witch of Blackbird Pond. For this predictions lesson plan, 5th graders predict and then revise their predictions based on their background knowledge...

Fourth graders discuss making predictions about the resolution. For this language arts lesson, 4th graders read a story and identify the falling actions in order to help them make predictions about the resolution.

Sixth graders explore the genre of mystery. In this language arts lesson, 6th graders predict the solution to a mystery based on the text. Students read a text and predict the solution.

Fourth graders read the passage titled Hide and Seek and predict what will happen in the climax of the story by using the rising action. In this climax lesson plan, 4th graders use a worksheet provided to them.

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...

Students are introduced to various types of folk tales. During a read-aloud, they predict what they believe is going to happen next and practice following the story line. To end the lesson, they answer comprehension questions and...

The class uses Chain Reaction, a magazine, to build a better understanding of Latin and Greek roots found in scientific vocabulary. They use two attached worksheets to help them read a scientific article, using visual clues and their...

Provided here are activities and questions for Part I of To Kill a Mockingbird (although one activity is also included for Part II). Readers study the novel's plot, characters, and setting. I wouldn't recommend using this as the sole...

When studying pollution and the environment, you can use this activity as an enrichment. Safety-conscious learners read a 2005 article about an ammonia leak from a Kentucky fast-food product plant. They work in small groups to discuss...

Learners talk or read about the way the moon travels across the sky. They then look at the picture of where the moon is and draw where it will be in the picture, later in the evening. Note: The worksheet is intended for third or fourth...

Lots of questions arise when reading Cold Sassy Tree. As your class encounters the twentieth chapter, encourage a rich discussion with some of the questions provided here. Then, either independently, or for homework, ask your readers to...

Get your class ready to read Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead by Tom Stoppard with an anticipation guide. This document describes exactly how to create and implement an anticipation guide.

Clarify, connect, evaluate, predict, question. Laminate and display these colorful posers about the classroom to remind readers of the five basic strategies for comprehending all sorts of text. 

Inferencing is a necessary reading skill to uncover non-explicit messages in text. Use the set of resources as a way to guide learners toward becoming expert inferrers through reading prompts and literature with text and without text.

Would you, could you? Scholars read World without Fish and focus carefully on the use of the words could and would. They chunk the text into smaller sections and write annotations on sticky notes to help with comprehension. To...

The scientific method is the focus of a reading comprehension exercise that provides readers with a short description of the steps, and then asks them to respond to a series of questions based on the article.

Fix your mistakes. Scholars look over their end-of-unit assessments while the teacher focuses on common mistakes made among the class. Learners then make predictions about their next text, Frederick Douglass: The Last Day of Slavery, by...

As an exploration of the Knights of the Round Table, this activity helps students organize their information and check for understanding by using the comprehension questions. This packet would be a terrific supplement to a unit on this...