Before diving into the engaging tale of Percy Jackson and the Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan, conduct this directed reading and thinking activity. Assess your pupils' knowledge of Greek gods and mythology through a knowledge web,...

Learners practice remaining on topic during a conversation using printouts of chains as visual models for their work. Chains are placed in sequence while students stay on a shared topic of conversation, and a broken chain is used as...

Readers identify main ideas and supporting details using informational texts. In this literacy lesson plan, they make predictions and read the text to find the main ideas. They use a table diagram to define the main idea and supporting...

Students are given the United States Constitution, students generate a list on the board of Grandpa's constitutional rights that might help him keep his home and property. Students become "experts," by reading and group discussion, on...

Engage conversation and explore the journey as you challenge young readers to interpret the german folktale, "The Fisherman and His Wife" written by literary brothers Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm.

In order to make evidence-based claims, one must be able to draw explicit information from text. From here, learners take that information, analyze the text to develop a deeper understanding, and connect with the information in order to...

The American Revolution is the theme of a five-week unit that focuses on reading, grammar, morphology, and writing. Scholars read and respond to texts, practice spelling and word work, and write paragraphs. Assessments gauge comprehension.

How did the ancient people of Egypt preserve their dead so well that their bodies are still recognizable today? Learn the painstakingly complex process they used for preservation. Young scholars read and summarize a narrative detailing...

Create meaningful illustrations to accompany stories in a web-based art and literacy lesson focused on "Rikki-Tikki-Tavi" by Rudyard Kipling. The class takes a virtual art safari with the Museum of Modern Art and then discusses how...

Three of Emily Dickinson's poems, "I like to see it," "Because I could not stop for Death," and "We grow accustomed to the Dark," provide instructors with an opportunity to model for class members how to use close reading strategies to...

As part of a Directed Reading Thinking Activity (DRTA) class members are asked to predict events in Patricia Polacco's Pink and Say based on illustrations in the story, on their knowledge of Steven Crane's The Red Badge of Courage,...

This pre-reading activity will certainly make your class ponder. With five questions to reflect upon, get insight to the moral dilemma Percy faced in the novel Percy Jackson and the Olympians, The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. 

Begin your unit on Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and The Sea with an anticipation guide. As kids read 12 statements that relate to the novel's themes, they decide whether each is true or false in their own opinion.

Picture books aren't just for primary learners. Your scholars compare and contrast literary themes between the novel, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe by C.S. Lewis, and the children's book, The Dream Tree by Winfried...

Help language learners understand words and cultural concepts. The second installment in a series of three language development lessons designed to accompany Theme 4: Person to Person helps bridge the gap for language learners by...

Students discover how to read with expression. By reading and rereading decodable words in connected texts, students study the importance of expressions and how it can make a book more enjoyable.

Students improve fluency through drills to increase quickness and smoothness. In pairs, they practice reading sentences out loud, each time increasing their fluency. Finally, students play a game of timed readings using a stop watch to...

Model  for your class how to make text-to-text connections by following the script presented by this resource. No specific texts are offered as examples.

A reading activity boosts scholars' level of fluency while reading connected text. Working collaboratively, pairs read a word list three times and a specific text while their partner gauges their accuracy and speed.

Explore emotions associated with moving to a new home with young learners. First they listen to the books Painted Words/Spoken Memories by Aliki and Going Home by Eve Bunting. Then they are invited to share their experiences as well as...

Primary learners read the text The Relatives Came and make text to self-connections. In this literature discussion, they discuss what the text reminds them of in their own lives. They can also write down their connections and share them.

Show your scholars that they make inferences every day and might not even know it. Through scaffolded instruction, they break down the process of drawing information from context. Using example sentences and didactic questioning,...

Visualize it! Scholars read pages 12–15 of The Inuit Thought of It and create a visual gist of the text. They then do a close read of the text and create a natural environment anchor chart before answering text-dependent questions.