Curated OER
Fantastic Fluency!
Students participate in repeated readings of an assigned passage to increase their reading fluency. They are assisted in their reading by seeing the words and hearing them read while working with a partner. After practicing, they read...
Curated OER
Drop Everything And Read
Students observe and demonstrate a variety of decoding strategies to read silently. Each student selects a book for silent reading, and observe the teacher modeling silent reading strategies. Students then demonstrate their silent...
Curated OER
To Be Or Not To Be: Reading With Expression
Students observe and demonstrate a variety of strategies for reading with expression. They listen to the teacher read "Jabberwocky" by Lewis Carrol with and without expression, and discuss the differences. In small groups they...
Curated OER
Summarize and Celebrate Earth Day!
Students observe and demonstrate the process of summarizing text. As a class they read and discuss a poster of the rules for summarization, then silently a page from the book "Let's Celebrate Earth Day." Students then summarize the...
Curated OER
Sweet Potato Pie Goes Fast
Students practice their reading fluency by covering up parts of words in order to identify word they do not know, and by completing repeated readings. They read "Sweet Potato Pie" with a reading partner who times them and records the...
Curated OER
Map Out the Important Stuff!
Students practice summarization by creating a story map. Students listen to a read aloud by the teacher, after which the class creates a storymap of the major events in the story. They read a passage from the Indian in the Cupboard...
Curated OER
Beginning Reading Design: Blending Boats
Students study how to blend the sounds together in words with the CVC form. They use letter cards and the books, "Tin Man Fix-It," and Dr. Seuss', Green Eggs and Ham. They work with /m/ words to blend the sounds together to read words....
Curated OER
Comprehension is Key!
Students observe and demonstrate how to use a story map to identify the main idea of text. They observe the teacher read an article about birds out loud, and create a story map for the article. Students then independently read another...
Curated OER
READ 180 Routine Assessment
Students complete assessments to determine strengths and weaknesses in their reading and writing skills. They use an educational software package to complete a computerized assessment. Afterward, they write a narrative about a memory in...
Curated OER
Discussion Questions for Amber Bechtel's Essay on AIDS in South Africa
Students read an essay by Amber Bechtel on the situation of AIDS in South Africa. After reading, they participate in a class discussion answering questions posed by their teacher. To end the lesson, they reflect on the situation in the...
Curated OER
Families and neighborhoods
Students create their house to add to a class "neighborhood". For this lesson on family and community, students read the book Family by Todd Parr and discuss how all families and houses are different. Then, students create their own...
Curated OER
The Letter Aa
Students explore letter Aa. In this letter recognition instructional activity, students participate in country, state, food, literature, physical education, colors, careers, music, and game activities that are linked to the main...
Polk Bros Foundation
Governor Deval Patrick's Inaugural Speech
“America herself is an improbable journey.” So is Deval Patrick’s journey from the South Side of Chicago to the governorship of Massachusetts. The complete text of Patrick’s inaugural speech, delivered outdoors facing Boston Common,...
Curated OER
Palace Adventure
Young language arts learners write and illustrate a short fantasy story based on the book Corduroy. First, learners need to develop a character. Then, through their writing and illustrations, they take their characters on adventures...
Curated OER
Once upon a Time in the 1800's
Young readers examine the details in an 1821 painting by Jacques-Louis David depicting two sisters who are exiled princesses. They read a tale about the Brothers Grimm, who were writing fairy tales during the same time period that these...
Curated OER
Cross-Cultural Dialogue Lesson
Use the Peace Corps to explore a different place and different perspectives. Your class reads the personal narrative "Cross-Cultural Dialogue" by Roz Wollmering, completing an attached story frame sheet in preparation for a class...
Texas Instruments
Collaborating on Flashback
Explore a flashback in a story with readers. They will read a story, identify the flashback in the story, then evaluate how the flashback is used. Using the NoteFolio, students analyze the meaning and merit of a flashback in a story....
Odell Education
Making Evidence-Based Claims: Grade 9
Sorry, Charlie. Scholars take a close look at Apology by Plato. Activities analyzing the text help pupils understand, make, organize, and write about claims. Learners work in groups, complete claim tools, and evaluate thinking by filling...
Curated OER
The History of The Cyclorama and Moving Panorama
Here is a instructional activity designed to acquaint learners with two amazing forms of entertainment from the 19th century: The Cyclorama and the Moving Panorama. After seeing what these two contraptions were all about, pupils make...
Curated OER
Information Overload: Looking at News
How do events reported in mainstream newspapers, on television news, blog posts, and social network sites differ? Ask your class to investigate the way the same news item is presented in the many information sources available. Groups...
Scholastic
Citing Text Evidence
Could you go without your cell phone for 48 hours? Pose this question to your class and then read the article provided here. Pupils mark the text and and complete a graphic organizer that requires the use of textual evidence.
Curated OER
We Can Dance!
Students explore a variety of creative body movements and practice speaking the terms used to demonstrate the movements and shapes. The creation of a video provides an opportunity to learn the vocabulary and practice their speech.
Curated OER
Short Story Commercials
Middle schoolers read short story selections, and work with classmates to produce commercials using digital video equipment.