Curated OER
Get ready, get set? READ!!!
Students participate in reading exercises to improve speed, fluency, and comprehension. As a class, students practice reading skills to increase their speed and comprehension. Partners take turns competing in a reading race while reading...
Curated OER
Ready, Get Dressed, Read!
Student increase their reading fluency through the use of various strategies. After reviewing good reader strategies, students complete an initial read of a novel text. Working with a partner and with the instructor, they complete a...
Curated OER
A Reading Rockabye
Learners practice developing skills to read independently and fluently. They focus on fluency in order to read faster, smoother and with more expression. The practice of reading and rereading decodable words in connected text is stressed...
Curated OER
Speed Reading
Young scholars increase their reading fluency through the use of various strategies. After reviewing good reader strategies, students complete an initial read of a novel text. Working with a partner, they read complete a timed assessment...
Curated OER
Read as Smooth as the Breeze
Student increase their reading fluency through the use of various strategies. After reviewing decoding strategies, students complete an initial read of a novel text. Working with the instructor, they complete a timed assessment of their...
Curated OER
I'm Nuts About Reading
Student increase their reading fluency through the use of various strategies. After reviewing good reader strategies, 2nd graders read a novel text. Working with the instructor, they complete a timed assessment of their words read per...
Curated OER
Read like the Wind!
Students practice the strategy of rereading books to become fluent readers. They utilize pseudo words to recognize words effortlessly as well. Each student is given a copy of "Kite Day at Pine Lake," from Phonics Readers to read several...
Curated OER
Speedy Reading
Students observe and demonstrate a variety of strategies to improve their reading speed. They observe the teacher model a book talk for the book "Just My Luck," and observe the teacher modeling how not to read. In pairs they time each...
Curated OER
Growing Independence and Fluency Design: Express Yourself!
Second graders practice reading with expression. After discussing how reading with feeling and excitement can enhance the text, 2nd graders listen as the teacher reads a story with and without emotion. Individual students practice...
Curated OER
I Can Read Fast, Smooth, and Expressively!
Students listen to the explanation of the words expressively, smoothly, and quickly as being keys to fluent reading. They review some of the vowel sounds and identify them in different words and listen to some passages from The Rainbow...
Curated OER
Reading With Speed
Students practice passages to increase their fluency. They work in pairs and time their peers for how long it takes to read sentences. They repeat the process three times and move to short text to continue practicing becoming a fluent...
Curated OER
Express Yourself Lesson Seed 13: Character Development 2
Building upon prior lessons in the series, this reading and writing exercise requires pupils to look back at their own writing, track character development in the novel The Cay, and analyze how Phillip has changed. The reading focus is...
Maine Content Literacy Project
Introduction to Ernest Hemingway
What is a white elephant, and what does it have to do with Ernest Hemingway? Study "Hills Like White Elephants" in-depth by following the procedures outlined in this lesson, the fifth in a series of fourteen. Learners start the day with...
Curated OER
Express Yourself Lesson Seed 11: Setting
Encourage your learners to examine the setting in Theodore Taylor's The Cay. Pupils work in small groups to put together a description of the setting before reading two more chapters of the book. They use their double-entry journals to...
Facing History and Ourselves
Socratic Seminar
New to the socratic seminar format? Check out a resource that not only provides the rationale for the procedure and step-by-step directions, but also provides a list of suggested topics, rules and model statements.
Curated OER
Express Yourself Lesson Seed 2
Use Langston Hughes's poem, "Words Like Freedom," to explore the concepts of freedom and liberty. Learners read the poem, determine the theme, and use the provided graphic organizer to examine the connotative and denotative meanings of...
Curated OER
“THE LORAX” by Dr. Seuss
Few children's books convey the message of conservation as well as Dr. Seuss' The Lorax. Read the story aloud, emphasizing the interconnectedness of plants and animals in an ecosystem and discussing different ways people can help...
Prestwick House
Author’s Purpose in Reagan’s “Tear Down This Wall” Speech
President Ronald Reagan's "Tear Down This Wall" speech, delivered on June 12, 1987 before the Berlin Wall, provides class members with an opportunity to examine three key aspects of informational text: author bias, the use of facts and...
Curated OER
Synonyms and Antonyms
Mix up your writing lessons by having kids look at recent newspaper articles instead of their own work. They work in pairs and rewrite sports news articles using synonyms and antonyms for a set number of words. Then they share their work...
Curated OER
James and the Giant Peach Character Study
Every book has a few great characters, but James and the Giant Peach is the only one whose characters travel in a piece of fruit. The class creates T-charts for the main characters of the novel, while reading the book. They write actions...
Pulitzer Center
The Crisis in the Ivory Coast
Through reading a variety of news articles and other informational texts, learners discover the political turmoil and intense ethnic and religious tensions that envelop the Ivory Coast today. Class members research the historical...
Civil War Trust
Civil War Animal Mascots
A pet can offer comfort, friendship, and loyalty in the most stressful of situations. Here is a lesson plan that explores the important role animals played during the Civil War. Class members read informative texts, complete a...
Curated OER
Summarization Superstars
How do you read when you know you're going to be summarizing a text? Summarize a nonfiction text with your upper elementary schoolers. Your pupils independently read a nonfiction article and write a summary paragraph using the six-step...
Curated OER
Author's Purpose
A simple activity for young readers, this introduces the idea of author purpose. Learners analyze various types of texts (newspaper articles, magazines, books, advertisements, etc.) and determine if the author's purpose for writing was...