Polk Bros Foundation
I Can Comprehend a Paragraph, then a Page/Section in a Text
Help your class tackle chunks of text with a simple graphic organizer. Pupils read three paragraphs and, as they read, draw pictures in the provided boxes that demonstrate what each paragraph says. There are three boxes on the page and...
Curated OER
Text Features of a Story
Bring the enjoyable story of Anansi and the Moss-Covered Rock by Eric A. Kimmel to your young readers. After reading the story as a class, students answer questions about a reading and make a graphic organizer. They make...
Conneticut Department of Education
Instructional Strategies That Facilitate Learning Across Content Areas
Imagine 28 instructional strategies, appropriate for all subject areas and all grade levels. Directed Reading-Thinking Activities (DRTA), Question-Answer Relationship (QAR) activities, KWL charts, comparison matrixes, classification...
ReadWriteThink
A High-Interest Novel Helps Struggling Readers Confront Bullying in Schools
Paul Langan's novel The Bully is the core text in a six-session unit plan that engages high schoolers in an in-depth examination of bullying and its effects on bullies, victims, and bystanders. The richly textured and carefully...
Curated OER
Comprehension: Compare and Contrast Topics in Two Texts
A scripted instructional activity can be a big help for new teachers. This fully scripted three-day learning activity provides teachers with the means to demonstrate how to compare and contrast two topics in two texts. Learners will work...
Curated OER
Identify Purposes of Text
Set a purpose for reading informational texts with this reading lesson. To find the central idea of a text, young readers turn titles and subtitles into questions to help them understand the text. They complete a T-chart for the lesson,...
E Reading Worksheets
Valentine's Day Main Idea and Text Structure Review
To demonstrate their understanding of a main idea and of text structures, learners read six paragraphs, draft a sentence explaining the main idea of the passage, create a title for the passage, and form a graphic organizer that...
Curated OER
Comprehension Instructional Routine: Sequence of Events in Text
If you're looking for a detailed lesson on event sequencing from informational text, you've found it. There is an entire script for you to draw from as you explore order of events and sequence words. Scaffolding is key here; learners...
CPALMS
Point of View: A Close Reading of Two Bad Ants
Chris Van Allsburg's Two Bad Ants provides third graders with an opportunity to examine point of view and how the point of view of others may differ from their own.
Curated OER
Text Clues and Prior Knowledge
Explore making predictions as a reading strategy. As a class, read "Blue Light, Green Light," stopping to make a prediction. After recording a prediction on the graphic organizer, discuss the thoughts behind your idea. Then, continue...
Curated OER
Left-to-Right Reading
Left-to-right, left-to-right, that's the way we read and write! Watch this short video clip and teach your young learners this chant before they start writing!
Curated OER
Reading Study Guide: I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings
Meant for use with Maya Angelou's first autobiographical volume I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings, the materials here are designed for a homeschool setting, but they'd suit any classroom or text. Graphic organizers, chapter summary...
Curated OER
Locate Key Information in Nonfiction Text
Interpret nonfiction text with your class. Readers use key information found in nonfiction text to answer questions and problem solve. They utilize the chapter headings, diagrams, glossary, maps, and captions as well as the table of...
Texas Education Agency (TEA)
Allusion (English III Reading)
An interactive lesson introduces readers to allusions, the literary device writers use to add depth to their work. Users record notes on the provided graphic organizer as they identify the allusions in poems by Walt Whitman, Langston...
Curated OER
Identifying Setting Using Evidence from the Text
Help young readers find the setting in the story. They will review what a setting is with a modeled example by the teacher. After reading The Cow Who Wouldn't Come Down by Paul Brett Johnson and completing a practice sheet,...
Curated OER
Purposes of Reading Fiction and Nonfiction
How does the purpose of a fiction book differ from the purpose on a non-fiction text? Model for your young readers a scenario in which each kind of book might be useful or fun to read and show examples of each genre. A list of suggested...
Curated OER
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...
K12 Reader
Ecosystems
Examine how living and non-living things work together in a reading passage about ecosystems. Class members read the text and then respond to five response questions that relate specifically to the content of the passage.
EngageNY
Researching about the Red Cross, Continued: Who Is the Red Cross and What Does This Multinational Organization Do?
Code red! Learners read an informational article about the Red Cross, discussing the gist of the text in small groups. On a three-column note catcher, pupils take notes to show how the Red Cross functions as a multinational aid...
EngageNY
Mid-Unit Assessment: Answering Text-Dependent Questions About Librarians and Organizations Around the World
This is a skills-based assessment that asks test takers to use textual evidence to determine the main idea of an excerpt from an informational text as well as respond to text-dependent questions. The assessment is the middle point...
DePaul University
Bold Plans, Big Dreams, City Progress
Determining which statements represent fact or the author's opinion in an integral part of reading informational text. Encourage seventh graders to read a passage about Barack Obama and the city of Chicago, as well as a passage focused...
EngageNY
Close Reading of Excerpts from My Librarian Is a Camel: How Do People Access Books Around the World?
Acquaint your class with informational text through a close reading. First, examine a couple of pages together, looking at text features and content. The whole class focuses on marking down a brief summary of each paragraph before...
K12 Reader
Taiga Ecosystems
Introduce your class to another type of ecosystem, the taiga ecosystem, through a reading passage. Class members read the text and then respond to five reading questions about the content of the passage.
For the Teachers
Sequence Plot Chart
Your kids can identify the plot sequence of a short story, but what about an informational article? Have them examine the chronological order of events in informational texts with a lesson on the sequence of events.