Students will look at examples of illustrations and diagrams in informational texts and discuss how each one helps enhance the text. Students gain the knowledge that sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words because a complex idea...

These teacher resources focuses on why it is important to teach elementary students to determine the importance and to summarize informational text. It leads an activity to help teachers experience when and how we use these strategies.

This module provides strategies to use with informational text. Teachers will explicitly teach students about graphic organizers to use before reading informtational texts.

This lesson uses the book Explorers of North America - A True Book by Brendan January to teach students how to identify the main topic of a multi-paragraph informational text and specific paragraphs within the text. Students are guided...

[Free Registration/Login Required] Lesson uses Bats by Gail Gibbons to teach students how to identify facts learned from labeled diagrams within an informational text. Ideas for direct teaching, guided practice, and independent practice...

Expository text can be challenging to young readers because of the unfamiliar concepts and vocabulary it presents. Discover ways to help your students analyze expository text structures and pull apart the text to uncover the main idea...

At the end of this lesson, learners will be able to identify and create diagrams associated with informational text. Included is a link to an eSpark video on diagrams, rules for group work, multiple examples of diagrams, and a...

Learners will learn the difference between books that tell stories and books that give information. Multiple videos of different level reading groups engaged in this lesson, along with a printable activity sheet are included.

Links to 56 lessons and activities that build student skills in standard W.3.2: Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly.

Contains plans for three lessons designed to improve comprehension of nonfiction, especially nonfiction texts on the web. It focuses on identifying text features, locating specific information, and generalizing that information. In...

As adults, we explore pictures, captions, diagrams and text, when reading any kind of informational piece. Kids can do this too! In this lesson, students will sort information that was obtained from pictures and diagrams, from that...

Sequencing is an important skill for kindergarten learners. This instructional activity uses nonfiction texts to allow students to make a real-life connection to the skill of sequencing and learn about the plant cycle at the same time!...

This instructional activity is a final step towards supporting students to practice writing an informative/explanatory paragraph conveying complex ideas and presenting information clearly and accurately. Second-grade students can usually...

This website offers a free download of the Research-Based Content Area Reading Instruction booklet. The purpose of this booklet is to provide teachers with research-based and classroom-tested information about each of these aspects of...

[Free Registration/Login Required] Lesson uses A Picture Book of George Washington by David A. Adler to teach students what biography is and why the subjects of biographies are important people. Ideas for direct teaching, guided...

What are the foundations for reading? Come and explore this informative article to discover the answer to this question.

Learning to follow directions is an essential skill needed for success in school as well as in life. Through participation in this lesson plan, kindergartners will learn the importance of following directions in a specified sequence....

Art history and culture website teaches us with great detail and depth of analysis about Michelangelo's High Renaissance work, Last Judgment fresco that appears in the Sistine Chapel. With video [7:29], informational text and images of...

Was it possible to manipulate photographs during the Civil War? Teach your learners about critical viewing through this innovative lesson and engage them in discussion, analysis and research to explain their findings.

Students will read an article by Byron Loosle on the meaning of Native American symbols and compare that to a video clip of an actual Native American explaining the symbols. There is a difference of opinion and students will weigh both...

In this lesson students will study Arthur Miller's The Crucible including the langugage used, the issues involved, the background information, reading the text, and planning and delivering (both live and in video) scenes from the play in...

Students will synthesize information from multiple historical fiction books to find common themes and support them with evidence from the text. Working with a partner who has read a different book, they will share their theme from their...

Summarizing teaches students how to take a large selection of text and reduce it to the main points for a more concise understanding. Upon reading a passage, summarizing helps students learn to determine essential ideas and consolidate...

An overview of Tibetan Biddhism, with links to more information on teachings, texts, and similar subjects.