Explore the life inside trees as scholars learn vocabulary through Debbie Miller's informational text Are Trees Alive? Familiarize pupils with the new words they will hear like anchor, disease, awaken,...

Learn new words as you read Marc Brown's story, Arthur's New Puppy. This is focused as a vocabulary-in-context activity (though this strategy could be used with any book and set of words). Introduce the new words you will focus on:...

Take your budding readers on a literary trip to pick blueberries as they learn vocabulary from Robert McClosky's book, Blueberries for Sal. By pre-teaching the words pupils are prepared to raise their hands when they hear...

Clifford the Big Red Dog is here to introduce some new vocabulary terms in context to young readers. Although this activity is designed around Norman Bridwell's picture book, the strategies are applicable for any text. Introduce the new...

Can you find the themes from Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea in other books? What about picture books? Compare the novel to a picture book with a instructional activity about making predictions and finding textual evidence.

A passage about an astronomy lesson may leave readers starstruck. Fifth graders read about a class's exploration into the makeup of the galaxy and its constellations before answering six questions about the terms and vocabulary...

An article about the vascular tissues inside plants provides an opportunity to assess reading comprehension. After reading the passage, kids respond to a series of comprehension questions.

Do your young readers have difficulty visualizing what they read? Although the activity described here is for The Call of the Wild, the strategy could be used with any narrative. At the conclusion of each chapter of Jack London’s novel,...

Whether you need resources for reading comprehension, literary analysis, phonics, vocabulary, or text features, an extensive packet of worksheets is sure to fit your needs. Based on a fifth-grade curriculum but applicable to any level of...

Sound it out, read it, then sound it out, and write it. Little ones work as a class to sound out simple words. After they have sounded out each word they will write that word on the white board. This is a great way to build a connection...

Designed to assess your class's ability to follow directions, this reading activity has learners split into groups, read a series of instructions, read a passage, and answer two lists of questions. Can they remember to raise their hand...

Looking for a resource that helps learners practice identifying fact and opinion? A four-page worksheet includes two informational text reading passages. Pupils read each passage and respond to four multiple choice and one...

Kindergarteners are presented with three types of materials: real straw, sticks, and a real brick and make prior knowledge connections as it relates to the story of The Three Little Pigs. They listen to the story and work together to...

It is so important for learners to become selective and strategic readers. This slide show provides examples and practice exercises that encourage them to read informational text and selectively underline key points or information. Great...

Teach children that just because something is old, doesn't mean you have to throw it away with a reading of Joseph Had a Little Overcoat by Simms Taback. Engaging children with an arts and crafts activity in which they patch the...

To understand their time spent online, class members chart their use of technology during early morning hours, during school, after school, in the evenings, and on weekends. They then read several reports about how social media...

Active listening is all about thinking, asking questions, and making connections. That's the take-away from a instructional activity about active listening. Participants learn techniques for identifying important information, including...

Students connect their lives to a story or nonfiction text. In this reading connections lesson, students make text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world connections as they complete connections stems based on a story.

Visit the Magic Treehouse and take your class on a trip through time with a reading of the children's book Mummies in the Morning. Using the story to spark an investigation into Egyptian culture, this literature unit engages...

Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass provides the text for a study of how writers bring characters to life. Using the provided character mapping worksheets, readers respond to questions and then write a short character sketch.

Fifth graders explore early American civilizations in a four-week ELA unit. Every lesson offers an opportunity to read and discuss a selected passage followed by word work that covers vocabulary, grammar, and morphology. Learners write...

Third graders answer text-dependent questions of the story Nasreen's Secret School both independently and then collaboratively through using the carousel of questions strategy. This plan is the seventh instructional activity in a...

A unit designed for kindergarteners builds letter-sound correspondence in preparation for reading. Over four weeks, young scholars build proficiency in recognizing and matching the sound of 9 letters. They take that knowledge to read a...