Curated OER
Rock Stories
Youngsters pretend they are rocks sitting on a hill. They listen to the provided guided imagery script to conceptualize the process of how rocks change over time. They draw a diagram of what happened to them as rocks during the story. An...
Digital Writing and Research Lab's – Lesson Plans
Teaching Close Reading through Short Composition/Revision
This activity may have writers evaluate short compositions, but their subjects are quite tall: great Americans. Pupils read one another's compositions and closely examine how specific phrases and diction contribute to shaping American...
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...
Have Fun Teaching
Who Am I? (14)
What's the difference between a clown and a cashier? Use context clues to infer what each character does for a living in five different reading passages. Kids mark their choices on the space provided.
Curated OER
How the Chipmunk Got Its Stripes: a Legend of the Iroquois
Have you ever wondered about a chipmunk's stripes? Read a short passage featuring the Iroquois legend about the chipmunk and his stripes, and answer five comprehension questions about the plot, the theme, and the unfamiliar...
K12 Reader
Making Predictions
Read efficiently and effectively with a passage about making predictions and using headlines and visual aids as clues. After kids read a few paragraphs in the passage, they answer five comprehension questions on the side of the page.
Curated OER
Identify Main Idea in a Story
Help your kindergarteners identify the main idea in a story. Small groups work with the teacher to make predictions and draw conclusions. They are able to determine cause and effect relationships. The lesson is divided into several days,...
Curated OER
Paper Dragon Fairy Tale
Imagine a beautiful rainbow-colored dragon flying free in the air. With powerful imagery and sensory language, a reading passage prompts learners to follow the plot of a short story and answer five comprehension questions.
Curated OER
Dive into Reading During National Book Month!
Cultivate a passion for literature with fun, easy to incorporate reading activities.
Mobile Education Store
StoryBuilder for iPad
Invite your kids to tell all sorts of stories with this interactive app. Learners view images and record their own voices as as they create short narratives to go along with the images. The app provides plenty of...
Curated OER
Dr. Seuss - Make Time for Rhymes
Read the story Green Eggs and Ham to practice phonemic awareness, rhyming, and writing skills with emerging readers. They will match oral words to printed words, create a graphic organizer, and the use rhyming words in an...
PreKinders
Duck in the Truck Flannel Board Set
If you're reading Jez Alborough's Duck in the Truck, use these cute felt pieces to act out the story. The set features a duck, several animals, a truck, a rock, and a boat.
CPALMS
Point of View: A Close Reading of Two Bad Ants
Chris Van Allsburg's Two Bad Ants provides third graders with an opportunity to examine point of view and how the point of view of others may differ from their own.
Great Books Foundation
The Glass of Milk
It's not easy to ask for help. Learn why a boy on a ship struggles with accepting help in "The Glass of Milk," a short story by Manuel Rojas. Six discussion questions prompt class members to make inferences from the text about character...
Curated OER
Activity Guide for Snow
Create a cross-curricular learning experience around a shared reading of Cynthia Rylant's book Snow. From writing poetry and a singing a song about snow, to creating paper snowflakes and solving math story problems, this resource...
Facing History and Ourselves
First Chapter Fridays
Fridays can be a challenge with learners already dreaming about their weekends. Here's a routine that will bring their minds back to the classroom. Read aloud the beginning of a story, sure to engage your listeners.
Curated OER
The Outsiders Study Guide
Provide this packet for your pupils as they pour over The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton. The study guide includes graphic organziers and comprehension as well as higher-level questions. Class members briefly summarize each chapter, compare...
Twisty Noodle
Stone Soup Book
A great companion assignment to your class lesson about Stone Soup, this set of storybook pages help your class to recall the tale in their own book. Each page provides a line of the story and a picture for kids to color.
EngageNY
Grade 10 ELA Module 1: Unit 2, Lesson 8
Now what? Class members continue their close reading of Ethan Canin’s short story “The Palace Thief,” focusing on Hundert's feelings about his retirement, and consider what these feelings reveal about his character.
Curated OER
Text Clues and Prior Knowledge
Explore making predictions as a reading strategy. As a class, read "Blue Light, Green Light," stopping to make a prediction. After recording a prediction on the graphic organizer, discuss the thoughts behind your idea. Then, continue...
Southern Nevada Regional Professional Development Program
Reading Literature - The Ruin
Cross-comparison, the technique of focusing on two different texts with the same themes, motifs, events, etc., is employed in an exercise that asks groups to examine two different translations of “The Ruin,” a poem, written in Old...
August House
Go to Sleep, Gecko!
A cute folktale from Bali tells the story of Gecko, Elephant, and Buffalo, and Gecko's struggle to sleep. After reading Go to Sleep, Gecko, learners focus on comprehension questions, singing and learning about geckos, building...
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
A World of Animals: Challenge Activities (Theme 10)
Animals are the theme of this series of challenge activities. Extend scholars' learning opportunities by writing personal narratives and book reports, creating picture and alphabet books, and drawing scenes from stories read aloud.
Great Books Foundation
The Fox and the Stork
Young readers take part in a meaningful discussion following a reading of Aesop's fable "The Fox and the Stork." Five questions focus on the characters' actions and offering apologies.