Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Surprise!: English Language Development Lessons (Theme 2)
Surprise! is the theme of this series of ESL lessons. Cover an array of topics such as where we live, different times of day, shapes, the city and the country, what we do for fun, jobs, and games, all while practicing how to express...
Federal Reserve Bank
Ten Mile Day
Get your class working on the railroad with this detailed and interactive lesson. After reading and discussing Ten Mile Day, learners explore division of labor, human capital, and productivity with a hands-on group activity in which they...
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
We’re a Family: Extra Support Lessons (Theme 3)
Pay special attention to onsets and rimes and initial consonants with this packet of activities designed to provide additional support to youngsters just learning to read and write.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Look at Us!: Extra Support Lessons (Theme 1)
Support struggling learners and focus on the alphabet with the three weeks of activities and materials provided here. Each day, learners review some letters and practice others in depth. They work on rhyming, practice new words, and...
Curated OER
Flat Stanley, a Literature Lesson Plan Transformed into a Multiculturalized and ESOL Strategy-Infused Lesson Plan
Third graders complete a variety of reading and writing activities related to the book "Flat Stanley." They create an illustration and write a short summary for each chapter, and write a letter and send a "Flat Stanley" to a friend or...
EngageNY
Looking Closely at Stanza 1—Identifying Rules to Live By Communicated in “If”
Here is a lesson plan in which pupils connect themes and rules to live by from the story Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis to those found in the poem If by Rudyard Kipling. First, scholars discuss their reading and review Bud's...
Curated OER
Lesson Plan 7: The Elements of Story
Budding novelists work on character development by relating to the characters in their stories. They imagine their own hopes and dreams and recall those of characters from books they've read. Learners also consider struggles the...
Curated OER
It's All an Allusion: Identifying Allusions, in Literature and in Life
To allude, or not to allude, that is the question: whether ‘tis better to make a reference and engage your audience or risk confusing them or sounding dated. After reading an article about, and loaded with allusions, class members take a...
Curated OER
Deck the Halls with Literature Trees
Reinforce and assess reading comprehension by having your class make a literature tree! After reading a book, pupils make decorations to represent the book's themes, characters, and setting. Materials for decorating can be as diverse and...
Curated OER
Mini-Lesson Planning for Inferences
Making inferences and drawing conclusions is a key component to successful active reading. Encourage your class to use context clues and prior knowledge to infer different elements of a story, including the setting, plot, and character...
Curated OER
Book Illustration
Students view a video and discuss what illustrations in a book show and don't show. In this observation lesson, students look at the details on a page in Alice in Wonderland and create an illustration.
American Library Association
Great Early Elementary Reads
Here is an excellent reference list of over 60 recommended book titles for early readers, each of which includes the author, title, number of pages, and brief summary.
Roald Dahl
The Twits - The Monkeys Escape
Houses come in all shapes and sizes, but not all houses are safe from Mr. and Mrs. Twit. The 10th lesson in a unit designed to accompany The Twits by Roald Dahl turns learners into architects. While designing houses for the monkeys, they...
Curated OER
A Study Guide for The Phantom of the Opera
Immerse yourself in the beautiful, twisted world of Andrew Lloyd Webber's The Phantom of the Opera. A detailed lesson plan provides important details about the writing, stagecraft, music, and literary elements of the famous musical, as...
Curated OER
Researching Lesson 4
Students explore a "table of contents." In this book researching lesson, students identify common elements of a "table of "contents" and complete a worksheet with questions about this topic.
Curated OER
Word Reference Materials
A class discussion on reference materials opens up a lesson plan on how to use these important resources. They discover that dictionaries, glossaries, and thesauruses are called word reference resources, and they practice using them. The...
EngageNY
Writing a First Draft: Accessing Books Around the World Informative Paragraph
Supervise the final drafting of a well-organized paragraph by following the steps outlined in this plan. Using the included sample paragraph as a model, class members brainstorm criteria for quality work and then compose their paragraphs...
EngageNY
Editing and Publishing: Accessing Books Around the World Informative Paragraph
Provide time to polish paragraphs in class. Pupils, who have been working on these informational pieces for several days now, will have a chance to check for spelling and grammar before publishing their work. Sure to be a rewarding final...
All for KIDZ
Building Relationships: The Orphan of Ellis Island
Family and friendship are two very important themes of the historical fiction novel The Orphan of Ellis Island by Elvira Woodruff. From video clips and writing prompts to reader's theater and family interviews, this resource provides...
Reed Novel Studies
What Katy Did: Novel Study
What doesn't break you
makes you stronger. Katy, in What Katy Did, learns this lesson the
hard way. After a terrible accident and a long recovery, Katy becomes what she always wanted to be—good and kind. Scholars learn
about Katy's...
Curated OER
Express Yourself Lesson Seed 14: Dedication
Connect Martin Luther King Jr's famous speech, "I Have a Dream," to The Cay by Theodore Taylor. Taylor refers to the speech in his dedication, which creates a natural segue into talking about the speech and how it relates to the novel....
Scholastic
Ready to Research Owls
Researching facts about owls can be a hoot for your class. Let them wisely collaborate on this writing project. The resource is the second part of three parts. It is best to use all three lessons in order.
Curated OER
Read 'n' Give -- Planning Our Book Drive
Students explore the concept of philanthropy. In this service learning lesson, students design and implement a book drive to benefit their community.
Curated OER
Anatomy of a Book
Students reference books to become familiar with locating information necessary for citing resources in a research paper. For this technical writing lesson students work in groups to find the answers to prepared questions.