Curated OER
Fears and Phobias
Take the fear out of reading with this series of three lessons from HotWire Magazine about fears and phobias. Each lesson contains pre-reading and post-reading activities aimed at improving learners' reading comprehension skills with the...
Curated OER
Doors Open for Female Marines
What do your kids think about female Marines? They can explore this idea by reading the related New York Times article and by answering each of the seven comprehension questions. A learner-driven blog is located at the bottom of the...
Scholastic
Marijuana: Breaking Down the Buzz
There are a lot of myths surrounding marijuana. Read a passage that clarifies the dangers of teens smoking marijuana, its harmful effects on the development of the brain, and the possible correlation of cigarette smoking to marijuana...
Curated OER
Fact Or Opinion
Groups of junior highers find newspaper articles which contain both facts and opinions, and present examples of each to the class. The focus is on discerning between fact and opinion. Two excellent worksheets are embedded in the plan...
National Geographic
Rescuing, Relocating, and Rehabilitating Wildlife
Bring up the Deepwater Horizon (BP) oil spill that occurred in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. Display the colorful diagram of the coastal and marine organisms living in the area. Show a video about relocating the eggs of the Gulf's sea...
Shell Education
Althea Gibson
What would it like to be the first person to achieve something? Read about Althea Gibson, the first black tennis player to win a Grand Slam title, to win at Wimbledon, and more. Class members respond to questions to demonstrate...
Curated OER
Author's Purpose Lesson Plans
Why do we practice identifying the author's purpose? Read this article to gain a better understanding of this reading strategy, and then peruse the attached lesson plans!
Southern Nevada Regional Professional Development Program
The Columnist Project
Imagine a list that includes Alan Abelson of Baron's, Bob Woodward of the Washington Post, and Mother Jones. High schoolers select a national columnist, read and annotate five columns by this author, noting the rhetorical...
Curated OER
How to Write a Biography
Looking for a great lesson on how to write a biography? Here, middle schoolers draw from magazine articles, novels, historical figures, and current events to choose a person, or character to write about in a biography. They follow a...
Curated OER
Briefly Noted: Practicing Useful Annotation Strategies
Post-It notes, highlighting, underlining. Sam Anderson’s New York Times Magazine article, “What I Really Want Is Someone Rolling Around in the Text,” launches a study of “marginalia,” or writing thoughts in the margins of a text. After...
Curated OER
Now That's Beautiful!
Your class experiences dozens of messages about beauty every day by reading magazines, watching movies, and listening to the radio. Have them analyze society's view of beauty in groups after discussing several resources, including...
Pearson Longman
Back Talk: A Summarizing Activity
Here's resource that presents step-by-step directions for three different activities that ask kids to read a short passage, listen for the main points, and then to summarize the passage in their own words.
Scholastic
Outlining Main Ideas and Details
Practice outlining and evaluating expository writing in this lesson. After discussing main ideas and seeing examples, young writers go through a sample outline and discuss the way to properly format a piece of writing. They then create...
Nemours KidsHealth
Media Literacy and Health: Grades 9-12
An essential skill for 21st-century learners is to know how to find reliable sources of information. Two activities help high schoolers learn how to determine the reliability of health-related news from websites, TV, magazines, or...
Curated OER
Oxford Compiles Top 10 Irritating Phrases
Explore well-known expressions that are frequently used. Middle schoolers read an article with the author's opinion of the most annoying phrases. Afterward, they complete numerous activities that check their reading comprehension. Some...
Curated OER
Magazine Dollars and Sense
Students analyze magazine advertisements that appeal to them. They explore how tobacco companies continue to target teens in magazine advertisements. They explore how advertisers select magazine ad space.
Curated OER
Travel Magazines in the Classroom
You can use travel magazines as a means to address a variety of standards.
Curated OER
Student Opinion: Do You Spend Too Much Time on Smart Phones Playing 'Stupid Games'?
This versatile resource from The New York Times website provides a short opinion piece on smart phones and the amount of time we spend playing games on them as well as several possible writing prompts pupils could consider in response to...
University of North Carolina
Abstracts
Some of the best information to include when writing a research paper doesn't come from books, magazine articles, or informational websites—it comes from dissertations. However, reading an entire dissertation is often a daunting task....
Curated OER
Picture This!
Students practice the strategy of visualization to aid in their reading comprehension of text. They paint mental pictures from readings from their history books, "The World and Its People: the US and It's Neighbors," and short stories...
Curated OER
Punctuation Day
In this Punctuation Day worksheet, students complete activities such as reading a passage, phrase matching, fill in the blanks, choose the correct word, multiple choice, spelling, sequencing, scrambled sentences, asking questions,...
Curated OER
Make A Difference Day
In this Make A Difference Day worksheet, students complete activities such as reading a passage, matching phrases, fill in the blanks, correct word choosing, multiple choice, sequencing, unscramble the sentences, write questions, take a...
Curated OER
Customer Service Day
In this Customer Service Day lesson plan, students complete activities such as reading a passage, matching phrases, fill in the blanks, choose the correct word, multiple choice, unscramble the words, sequencing, unscramble the...
Curated OER
Editing a Newspaper Article
Learners investigate article editing in today's society by writing their own news articles. For this journalism lesson, students create a word web based on the word "editing." Learners write their own news articles and peer...