Curated OER
Gary Paulsen's Canyons: Question the Author (QtA) Strategy
Gary Paulsen’s Canyons is the focus of an exercise that models how to read closely using a Questioning the Author (QtA) strategy. Complete directions for the strategy, which can be used with any text, are included in the richly-detailed...
Florida Center for Reading Research
Treasure Chest
Segmenting and blending phonemes helps budding readers understand words. Use this strategy in an engaging game where partners test each other's auditory processing using familiar words. Using picture cards and a chart (included),...
Curated OER
During Reading Strategy: Literary Newspaper
Add some writing to your class's reading of Cold Sassy Tree! With this plan, readers assume the role of journalist and create a segment of a paper with their peers. Suggested segments are included, and a worksheet dividing the text into...
English Enhanced Scope and Sequence
Blending and Segmenting Multisyllabic
Syl lab i ca tion. Kindergartners practice segmenting and blending multisyllabic words in an activity that asks them to repeat the process modeled by their teacher. The teacher slowly says the name of a classroom object, enunciating each...
Curated OER
Segmenting and Blending with Word Families
Students sound out CVC words. In this literacy lesson, the teacher guides students through the process of sounding out three-letter words with a as the middle vowel using both repetition and movement. Then students complete a worksheet.
Curated OER
Two Greedy Bears
Improving listening comprehension skills is the goal of this language arts lesson. Young readers listen to the story Two Greedy Bears, stopping to have discussions with a partner. They predict outcomes and make inferences based on...
Novelinks
Touching Spirit Bear: Directed Reading Thinking Activity
What experiences lead people to change and how do they do it? After reading about Cole's encounter with Touching Spirit Bear, readers complete the second out of a series of five activities to predict future events in the text. The...
Curated OER
Tomas and the Library Lady
Students practice read aloud comprehension strategies. In this literacy comprehension lesson plan, students listen to Tomas and the Library Lady, stopping to discuss with a partner aspects of the story suggested by the teacher. Students...
Curated OER
Celebrate Comprehension with Classical Characters
Students listen to books and answer questions using reading skills. In this reading lesson, students develop reading strategies such as decoding, understanding characters, and comprehension. Students relate characters and events in the...
Curated OER
Immigration Debate
The 2010 immigration bill passed in Arizona provides class members with an opportunity to examine various perspectives of the immigration debate by watching news videos, reading interview, editorials, and viewing images. Discussion...
Novelinks
Tuck Everlasting: Titles for Chapters
High schoolers synthesize the information they've learned from each chapter of Natalie Babbitt's Tuck Everlasting with a creative summarizing activity. With a graphic organizer for all of the book's chapters, readers title the chapter...
PBS
Reading Adventure Pack: Bees
A Reading Adventure pack explores the busy life of bees. After reading a fiction and nonfiction text, scholars complete three hands-on activities. Participants invent a robot that can do the work of bees, cheers to hardworking bees with...
Florida Department of Education
Phonemic Awareness
Build your library of strategies and activities for teaching phonemic awareness with the ideas provided in this resource. Described here are five different activities to try out with your class.
Curated OER
Using the Sounds of Words Reading Task
Young readers demonstrate phonemic awareness in words and blends, and recognize 100 high-frequency words. Use a nursery rhyme to point out rhyming words, and change the words by putting a new letter at the beginning. Each learner will...
Stanford University
Letter from Birmingham Jail: The Power of Nonviolent Direct Action
What strategies are most effective in changing an unjust law? Class members examine the tactics used in the Birmingham Campaign of 1963 (Project C) to achieve social justice and social transformation. After examining documents that...
Crafting Freedom
Sequencing of Events in the Slave Narrative of Henry "Box" Brown
What steps did Henry "Box" Brown take while planning his own escape from slavery? Learners work in groups to analyze segments of Brown's narrative and identify the sequence of the most important events of his story.
Curated OER
Multimedia Storytelling
Experiment with multimedia storytelling. After watching a segment of American Family, first, middle and high schoolers tell a story about their families, clarifying the setting, characters, and script. They work on setting their story in...
Curated OER
Georgia CRCT Online: 8th Language Arts Quiz
Review word choice and grammar skills with this practice test for the Georgia Criterion-Referenced Competency Test (CRCT). Fifteen multiple-choice questions prompt eighth graders to recall writing strategies, grammar skills, and...
Curated OER
Introduce Word-Form Recognition
Sound out sight words using these word cards and word-form recognition strategies. As you point to each word, scholars sound out the letters silently instead of segmenting the sounds aloud. Show them how you do this by mouthing the...
Curated OER
Introduce: Summarizing Narrative Text
When scholars re-tell a story, do they boil it down to important details in a logical order? Practice summarizing narratives using this think-aloud strategy, which is scripted here for your convenience. After explaining why this is an...
Curated OER
Commemorating a Tragedy
Learners read newspaper articles and watch segments on the anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing. In groups, they discuss how each media outlet presented the material and decide which one was more productive. As a class, they discuss...
Channel Islands Film
Arlington Springs Man: Lesson Plan 2
West of the West's documentary Arlington Springs Man and a two-page scientific article about the same topic provide the text for a reading comprehension exercise that asks individuals to craft a one page summary of information gathered...
Curated OER
The Great Gatsby: Symbolic Story Representation
The themes of The Great Gatsby are embodied in the images F. Scott Fitzgerald creates. To encourage reader interaction with the text, individuals create a symbolic representation of themselves, place themselves in the story, and consider...
Pennsylvania Department of Education
What's My Sound?
Learners follow a power point presentation to practice the sounds each letter of the alphabet make. In this 'what's my sound' lesson, students apply word recognition strategies and demonstrate listening and comprehension skills to build...