EngageNY
Revisiting Big Metaphors and Themes: Revising and Beginning to Perform Two-Voice Poems
Now that your class has read all of Esperanza Rising, take the time to tackle big metaphors and themes. Pupils will participate in an activity called Chalk Talk, in which they circulate around the room in small groups and add comments to...
Curated OER
Big Pumpkin
Learners read a story and retell it through role playing. They will read Big Pumpkin, identify the main ideas and important characters, retell the story through dramatic play, and identify their favorite character.
Curated OER
What's the Big Idea? Exercise 3
In this main idea instructional activity, students write the common subject for the group of words. Students add anther word that could be included in the group.
Curated OER
Summing it all Up...In Your Own Words
Learners observe and demonstrate the steps to identifying the main ideas of a text. They listen to the teacher read a paragraph and model the steps of summarizing the main idea. Students then independently read a different paragraph...
Teachnology
Paragraph Review
Writers are asked to examine four sentences that contain details and craft a topic sentence for a paragraph that encapsulates the main idea.
Curated OER
Come Fly with Me . . . Open a Book: Travels through Literature
This detailed overview of a curriculum unit suggests using travel literature to engage and stimulate your third graders’ interest in reading. The suggested reading list includes fiction and non-fiction materials and offers urban children...
Curated OER
Let's Discuss Current Events
Investigate articles from the daily news and share opinions with classmates. Using current events, learners view a news program without sound and predict what news is being discussed by analyzing the visuals. Then they read news articles...
EngageNY
Mid-Unit Assessment: How Chávez Develops His Claims in the Commonwealth Club Address
Scholars complete a mid-unit 2 assessment, analyzing how César Chávez supports his claims in his 1984 speech, "Address to the Commonwealth Club of California." Learners focus on paragraphs 18 and 19 of the speech, answering text-based...
EngageNY
Researching Part 2: Reading for Gist and Gathering Evidence Using the Researcher’s Notebook
The gist should be short and sweet! Pupils practice finding the gist of an informational text and then write a summary of the text. Next, they gather with their research teams to discuss a focus question based on the novel Bud, Not Buddy...
Curated OER
Let's Find the Main Ideas!
Third graders examine how finding the main ideas and summarizing increases their reading comprehension. They read "The Sea in Danger" while applying the six rules of summarization in a modeled lesson. Next, working in small groups, they...
Curated OER
Little Red Hen
First graders listen to the story "The Little Red Hen". They buddy read the story and then illustrate their own interpretation of the story on story paper. Students then use AlphaSmart to type their stories in sequential order.
Gourmet Curriculum Press
James and the Giant Peach
Here is a 19-page sample lesson that uses an interesting format. It starts with an appetizer or activity to make reading the book James and the Giant Peach fun. Then it dives into the main course or core content instruction which...
Curated OER
Using Wordless Comics To Help Create Meaning in Reading
Use picture cues as a tool in order to create meaning along with text. With a wordless comic, young illustrators discuss the main idea and character traits, and independently write a summary for a page of a wordless comic. This strategy...
Curated OER
Nonfiction Sharing Board
In this nonfiction sharing board worksheet, students complete questions about the books main idea, vocabulary, facts, connections. Students also graph information from the book, go beyond the text, and evaluate how they felt about the...
National Humanities Center
Teaching Emily Dickinson: A Common Core Close Reading Seminar
Three of Emily Dickinson's poems, "I like to see it," "Because I could not stop for Death," and "We grow accustomed to the Dark," provide instructors with an opportunity to model for class members how to use close reading strategies to...
EngageNY
Identifying Author’s Opinion and Evidence: The Value of Sports in People’s Lives, Part I
Just like instant replay, it's time to take a closer look! Pupils work together to add ideas to a Close Readers Do These Things anchor chart. They then put their knowledge to the test as they read an informational article about the...
Curated OER
Goodnight Goon
Students identify fictional story elements. In this reading comprehension lesson plan, students read the book Goodnight Goon, which is a parody of Goodnight Moon, and discuss the story elements. Students use an included worksheet to...
Curated OER
Word Maps Teaching Ideas
In this literacy worksheet, students are given a graphic organizer to complete or are presented it as part of the lesson developed from using this sheet.
Curated OER
Media Literacy
Elementary learners observe and discuss advertisements for tobacco and alcohol. They identify how advertisers place information in strategic spots and make their product look good. They choose an ad and fill out the attached form on...
Thoughtful Education Press
Personal Narratives: Learning from Lessons Life Teaches Us
"First Appearance," Mark Twain's tale about overcoming stage fright, serves as a model of a personal narrative and gets young writers thinking about milestones in their own lives. After examining student models and considering the...
Curated OER
Keywords: A Memorization Strategy
Here is a fabulous, five-page lesson plan on how keywords can help a reader with his/her reading comprehension. After a teacher-led discussion, pupils pair off with each other and work together to identify the main idea in a passage of...
Roald Dahl
The Twits - Muggle-Wump Has an Idea
If a bar of chocolate was on the floor, would you try to pick it up? What if it was covered with glue? The eighth lesson in an 11-part unit designed to accompany The Twits by Roald Dahl has scholars imagine crazy scenarios. The lesson...
Preswick House
Teaching Unit: Invisible Man
Invisible Man is a core text in high school literature classes and one of the most cited works on the AP Literature and Composition exam. Instructors new to using Ralph Ellison's novel and those who have long included it as part of their...
Read Write Think
Poetry Portfolios: Using Poetry to Teach Reading
Over the course of five periods, scholars create a poetry portfolio. They begin with a reading of the poem, Firefly. With a focus on vocabulary, learners reread the poem then look for sight words and other skills.