Curated OER
"Clean Water Act"
Read the short reading passage entitled "Clean Water Act" to help your class build reading fluency and comprehension. While most questions focus on recall, learners are asked to use the context to define select vocabulary words. This...
K12 Reader
Community Connections
Who helps our community run smoothly? Read a short passage about community members and helpers. After kids finish the passage, they answer five short questions on the other side of the page.
Curated OER
Fill-In l Remembering Dick Clark
Your scholars may have an idea of who Dick Clark is, but do they understand the role he has played in American history for over 50 years? Give learners some practice with media literacy as they read an article about Clark's life and fill...
Curated OER
¿Por qué es importante el Servicio Comunitario?
Why is it important to do community service? Read these paragraphs to discover Barack Obama and Joe Biden's stance on community service. After reading the difficult text, high schoolers must identify the principal idea and decide their...
Curated OER
Writing and Autobiography
Are you working on an autobiographical or narrative writing unit? Bring this lesson to your class, as it takes young writers through the process of drafting and sequencing an autobiography. After observing and demonstrating steps of the...
Curated OER
Cross-Cultural Dialogue Lesson
Use the Peace Corps to explore a different place and different perspectives. Your class reads the personal narrative "Cross-Cultural Dialogue" by Roz Wollmering, completing an attached story frame sheet in preparation for a class...
Curated OER
Hip-Hop History and the Beastie Boys
So what about those Beastie Boys? Kids read a New York Times article relating the history of hip-hop and rap icons the Beastie Boys. They then answer eleven who, what, when, where, and why questions about the text they read.
Curated OER
Sentence Completion 6: Low-Advanced SAT Level
Consider using this worksheet, another in a series of sentence completion exercises, as the basis of a lesson on test taking or comprehension strategies, as a critical thinking exercise, or as extra practice for up-coming standardized...
Curated OER
Sentence Completion 2: Low-Advanced SAT Level
Contemplating a test-prep unit? A reading comprehension strategies session? Check out this sentence completion worksheet. After test takers try their hand at a sentence completion exercise, they can use the detailed answers and...
Curated OER
Public Land
Students examine the needs of their community for public space and determine the solutions to math problems related to planning landscape designs. They read and discuss an article from the New York Times, create their own designs for a...
Deliberating in a Democracy
Cyberbullying—Alternate Lesson Plan
Should schools be permitted to punish young scholars for off-campus cyberbullying? After reading a passage that details statistics about cyberbullying and Supreme Court rulings about schools' ability to limit student speech, class...
Dream of a Nation
Creating Awareness through Action Oriented Writing and Research
Middle schoolers aren't too young to feel strongly about politics, social issues, consumer rights, or environmental problems. Demonstrate the first steps toward social change with a project about action-oriented writing. Eighth graders...
EngageNY
Close Reading: Paragraphs 1–5 of “Water Is Life”
Be more specific. Scholars take a look at domain-specific vocabulary by discussing an anchor chart. They then look at vocabulary words recorded from paragraphs one through five in Water of Life. After analyzing the vocabulary used in the...
EngageNY
Reading for Gist: “Middle Ages” Excerpt 2
Read and repeat. Scholars repeat the strategies for digging deeper into text from lesson two. This time they focus on Middle Ages Excerpt 2. Learners write unfamiliar words in the word catcher and use details from the text to add to the...
EngageNY
Close Reading and Gathering Evidence from Frightful’s Mountain and “Welcome Back”
Where did the falcons go? Scholars read the article Welcome Back which describes the disappearance of falcons due to the use of pesticides. During a second read, learners annotate the text by marking unfamiliar words and facts about...
EngageNY
Launching Frightful’s Mountain: Building Background Knowledge and Establishing Reading Routines
Welcome to Frightful's Mountain. The teacher introduces scholars to the text Frightful’s Mountain by reading the first chapter aloud. Learners then talk with a partner about the text. The instructor models answering focus questions as...
Jefferson County Schools
Teaching Persuasive Reading and Writing
With the increasing emphasis on persuasive and argumentative writing, the lessons and strategies in the sample unit are sure to prove valuable—whether you are new to or an experienced pro at teaching persuasive reading and writing.
Curated OER
Developing Presentation Skills by Using Authentic Literature
Advanced level ESL young scholars engage in an increasing verbal communication skills through children's literature. The focus of these activities is for children to develope presentation skills. Each activity would compliment any class...
ReadWriteThink
Biography Project: Research and Class Presentation
I Have A Dream ... that after the lesson, all individuals master the reading, writing, researching, listening, and speaking skills the biography project helps them develop. Martin Luther King, Jr. serves as a topic example for a model...
EngageNY
Getting the Gist and Tracing an Argument: “Public Fear” Excerpt from “The Exterminator”
Only fear fear itself. Scholars read Public Fear from The Exterminator. Triads work together to annotate and determine the gist of the text. They then complete a Tracing an Argument graphic organizer to identify arguments, claims, and...
National Endowment for the Humanities
The Monroe Doctrine: A Close Reading
Students identify specific passages in the Monroe Doctrine to events in early U.S. diplomacy.
Curated OER
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2003 - Information for the Public
An information-packed eight-page article detailing the history of understanding active transport across cell membranes makes up the bulk of this handout. Two pages of reading comprehension and critical-thinking questions follow. The...
EngageNY
Researching Part 1: Reading for Gist and Gathering Evidence Using the Research Guide
If only life came with an owner's manual. Pupils assemble with their research teams to discuss which of Steve Jobs' rules to live by most resonates with them. Scholars also read informational texts in pursuit of finding the gist and...
Curated OER
Pre-Reading Strategy Instructional Routine: Maus I and II
Vladek's attitudes are difficult for many young learners to understand. Prepare your class for the events represented in Art Speigelman's graphic novel with a pre-reading activity that has them read articles about and interviews with...