Curated OER
Comprehension Strategy Instruction: Questioning
Providing learners with a solid armory of reading strategies is a good way to help them build better reading comprehension. The teacher will model how to use a questioning checklist to better understand what she is reading. Pupils will...
EngageNY
The Storyteller’s Toolbox and Excerpt 4 First Read
It's story time! Scholars take a look through the eyes of a storyteller as the teacher reads aloud The People Could Fly. They also listen as the story is played on video. Learners then answer questions about the reader's facial...
Curated OER
Elena by Diane Stanley
This story is bound to motivate your class. Learners read a story called Elena by Diane Stanley. The story is about a young woman who marries for love but is soon widowed during the Mexican Revolution. She takes her children to...
Curated OER
The Color of My Words
Explore the story The Color of My Words by Lynn Joseph using this resource. Learners answer comprehension questions, fill in graphic organizers, and write a poem.
Curated OER
The Star Fisher
What a terrific way to discuss racism in the 1920's. Learners read a story called The Star Fisher by Laurence Yep. It is about a Chinese American girl who experiences racism and prejudice after moving from Ohio to West Virginia....
Curated OER
Matthew Henson
Discuss the work of Matthew Henson, an African American who traveled to the North Pole with Robert Peary. After reading the story "Matthew Henson" by Maryann N. Weidt, learners answer questions by drawing inferences and conclusions,...
Curated OER
Reading Comprehension
After listening to a story learners engage in a kinesthetic activity to answer comprehension and critical thinking questions. Finally, the students identify three main facts about the story. Extensions include a fact and opinion...
Curated OER
Lesson Plan for C.S Lewis’ The Magician’s Nephew
Here is a lesson that incorporates music writing, and reading literature. The class reads chapter eight from the C.S. Lewis classic The Magician's Nephew. Then, just like in the story, they use music as inspiration to create (write)...
Scholastic
Test-Taking Strategies for Three Subject Areas
Sometimes a test page loaded with text can make a student's face go blank. Help them decipher what a text question is asking with a series of tips focused on reading comprehension, vocabulary, and language arts mechanics.
Scholastic
Pilgrim and Wampanoag Daily Life for Grades 3-5
Thirteen steps make up a lesson plan that challenges pupils to compare and contrast the daily lives of Pilgrims and the Wampanoag tribe. Learners revisit the Graffiti Wall then break into small groups for an investigative reading...
EngageNY
Continued Close Reading of Waiting for the Biblioburro: Comparing and Contrasting the Children in Colombia, Appalachia, Chad, and Afghanistan
Focus on similarities and differences with a jigsaw activity that requires pupils to compare Waiting for the Biblioburro to other texts they have read. To prepare, class members first respond to text-dependent questions, moving on to...
EngageNY
Close Reading of Waiting for the Biblioburro: Finding the Main Message and Taking Notes
Expose your class to Waiting for the Biblioburro, narrative nonfiction that will act as the bridge between ficiton and informational texts to come. Class members do a close reading of the text, looking at excerpts instead of the whole...
Curated OER
Reading Practice
In this reading comprehension worksheet, students read a passage about an Australian child. Students then answer 8 questions about the story. Spellings of words in this story are not familiar to U.S. students.
Novelinks
The Tempest: QAR
Asking questions about a text is an effective way to improve reading comprehension. Apply the Question Answer Response strategy to your unit on William Shakespeare's The Tempest. As kids read each passage, they decide if the answer...
Urban Ministry
Interactive Read Aloud
Learning how to deliver good literacy instruction is key to becoming a successful teacher. This resource isn't so much a lesson as it is a guide to leading children in an interactive read-aloud session to increase fluency, comprehension,...
Curated OER
Print & Go ESL
Improve reading comprehension with a set of ESL worksheets. Kids read through various passages, note which facts are true or false, mark their opinion on two statements, and write a short reply based on a writing prompt.
Curated OER
Picture This! Building Photo-Based Writing Skills
High schoolers analyze photographs as a development activity for their literacy skills. They will review the 6 Q's feature for analyzing photographs and analyze a variety of photographs and then write comments in the space around the...
Curated OER
Comprehending Through Questioning
Elementary schoolers observe and apply a variety of reading comprehension strategies. They silently read a passage out of their science textbook, and discuss answering the who, what, where, when, and how of the text. In small groups they...
Curated OER
Examining Character Traits through Character Mapping
Some of what we know about a character is directly stated. Some of what we know is inferred by events in the story. Character maps help primary learners recognize the difference. After modeling with a story your class has read, pupils...
Novelinks
The House on Mango Street: Discussion Web
As part of a final discussion of The House on Mango Street, groups examine a concept question about the text, record arguments for and opposed to the question, and then a draw their own conclusions.
Curated OER
Improving Elementary Reading Literacy
Students enhance their literary skills through phonemic awareness. In this reading development lesson plan, students read several storybooks and analyze the phonetics, vocabulary, and overall story. The students then rewrite what they...
EngageNY
Close Reading of Bullfrog at Magnolia Circle: Main Ideas about the Bullfrog
As your class reaches the end of the book Bullfrog at Magnolia Circle, the seventh lesson in this literary unit helps third graders transition from reading narrative to expository writing. Scholars develop their note-taking skills...
EngageNY
Continued Close Reading of Rain School: Text-Dependent Questions and Vocabulary
The engaging story Rain School is further explored in the third lesson of a larger unit that explicitly teaches close reading skills by answering questions whose answers can only be found inside the text. Through teacher...
EngageNY
Continued Close Reading of That Book Woman: Text-Dependent Questions and Vocabulary
Explicitly explained and delightfully detailed are two ways to describe this tenth lesson plan in a larger unit designed for the first few weeks of third grade. Learners continue to use and develop previously learned close reading...