Curated OER
Two Sources of Story Ideas for Our Paper
Learners research and identify story ideas for the school newspaper. In this story ideas lesson, students pitch story ideas to their teacher on a weekly basis using a specific format. Learners find the majority of their ideas from print...
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Listen to the Pin Drop
Students practice reading silently. The class discusses the benefits of reading silently and several methods for reading silently, including cross checking and chunking. Working in groups, they silently read a leveled text and discuss...
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Teaching Summarization
Examine the process of summarizing a piece of text using the book So You Want to Be a President? Kids review the definitions for main idea, topic sentences, superordinate terms, and supporting details. Next, they work in small...
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Shizuko’s Daughter: Graphic Organizer
Help young readers align character relationships in an activity for Kyoko Mori's Shizuko's Daughter. After kids discuss the characters and how they relate to each other, they use index cards and a graphic organizer to outline the...
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Maniac Magee: Life Without Problems
Young readers discuss how they would deal with problems faced by the main character in Maniac Magee. They write down their own problems and exchange them with others to analyze and provide possible solutions. They establish a "Dear Abby"...
Channel Islands Film
Lone Woman of San Nicolas Island: Lesson Plan 1
As a practice writing test, fourth graders use the West of the West's documentary Lone Woman of San Nicolas Island and two print resources as source materials for an informative article that identifies information that is...
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To Sum it all Up...
Students observe and demonstrate the process of summarizing text. They read and discuss the steps to summarize text, then in small groups read and summarize an article about frogs from "National Geographic" online. Independently they...
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Lesson Ideas to Enrich Student Inquiry into the Holocaust
Students inquire about the Holocaust. In this Holocaust lesson, students read books and discuss their thoughts. Students also collect current event articles from newspapers. Students investigate ghettos, Pearl Harbor and Navajo Code...
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A memorial for Ground Zero
Young scholars discuss memorials and design a memorial for the 9/11 victims.
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The Whipping Boy Chapters 13-14
In this reading comprehension worksheet, students answer 12 short essay and multiple choice questions about chapters 13-14 of The Whipping Boy by Robert Hayden.
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Frosty the Snowman Meets His Demise: An Analogy to Carbon Dating
High schoolers read and discuss an article about carbon dating, then participate in a hands-on lab to discover how carbon dating works. Students also write a letter to a friend explaining the process, and how archeologists use the...
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An Enemy of the People Quiz
In this online interactive reading comprehension instructional activity, students respond to 15 multiple choice questions about Ibsen's An Enemy of the People. Students may submit their answers to be scored.
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Colonial America and the American Revolution
Students research the Saratoga Campaign and its importance in the overall outcome of the Revolutionary War. They consider French involvement in the war and what the Paris Peace Treaty meant for the new Americans.
C.S. Lewis Foundation
Study Guide to Mere Christianity
Delve into the arguments central to Christianity as C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity creates a rational case for his religion. Although slightly preachy in its format, this resource fully outlines, in two different sets, the essential...
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The Legend of the Blue Bonnet
Students complete pre reading, writing, during reading, and interdisciplinary activities for the book The Legend of the Blue Bonnet. For this reading lesson plan, students complete journal entries, go over vocabulary, answer short answer...
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The Whipping Boy Chapters 7-8
In this reading comprehension worksheet, students answer 7 short essay questions about chapters 7 and 8 of The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleishman.
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The Whipping Boy Chapters 11-12
In this reading comprehension worksheet, students answer 7 short essay questions about chapters 11 and 12 of The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman.
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Finding the Good Stuff in What We Read
Students work to develop comprehension strategies. They focus on three rules for summarizing: getting rid of extra information, organizing, and finding the main idea. Through modeling and then guided practice, they apply these rules ...
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The Spotted Owl
Second graders explore using nonfiction text to gain information. Working in pairs, 2nd graders read an article about the spotted owl. Each group identifies the main idea and supporting details of their text and use this information to...
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A Level Notes: the Symphony Explanation Worksheet
In this music worksheet, students read a short explanation of the symphony as a musical form for a large body of instruments before reading about the four major sections. They use a chart at the bottom of the second page but there are no...
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Nonfiction Genre Mini-Unit: Persuasive Writing
Should primary graders have their own computers? Should animals be kept in captivity? Young writers learn how to develop and support a claim in this short unit on persuasive writing.
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“Self Reliance” by Ralph Waldo Emerson
“Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.” Readers not only identify aphorisms in Emerson's "Self Reliance," but also find evidence of transcendental elements contained in the essay. They also demonstrate consistency...
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Living The Life of a Scribe
Students write a descriptive letter about life in ancient Mesopotamia. Through video streaming, students discover the history of Mesopotamia. They assume the role of a scribe and compose a three paragraph essay using main ideas and...
Curriculum
Expository Writing
The beauty of the way this expository writing resource is structured is that the units can be presented as a complete writing workshop or sequenced throughout a course of study