Better Lesson
Better Lesson: I See the Weather
Young scholars will answer text-dependent questions for the expository text "Seasons and Weather". While text-dependent questions have been around for a long time, Common Core asks teachers to focus on them during reading. This...
Thinkport Education
Thinkport: Read Like This: A Strategy for Analyzing Literary Nonfiction
Read, analyze and answer text-dependent questions about several excerpts from a famous slave narrative called The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano.
Better Lesson
Better Lesson: Speaking, Listening and Writing Compound Contrasting Sentences
Students will be answering text-dependent questions in which they will have to describe the differences between the different characters, settings, and major events in our stories using complex contrasting sentences. The students will...
Better Lesson
Better Lesson: Miss Nelson Is Missing Key Details
Where did Miss Nelson go? We look at the key details in the text to determine what is happening throughout the story. Students will locate and record key details about story elements (characters, setting, problem, solution, and theme) in...
Better Lesson
Better Lesson: Go Away Shadow!
Shadows are all around us. During this instructional activity, with teacher guidance, students will answer text dependent questions and draw conclusions about the book Bear Shadow.
CPALMS
Cpalms: Five Little Monkeys: Comparing and Contrasting
[Free Registration/Login Required] Five little monkeys sitting on a bed or sitting in a tree? In this close reading lesson, students will compare and contrast the actions of the characters in two of Eileen Christelow's beloved books,...
Better Lesson
Better Lesson: Frog and Toad Are Friends
In this lesson for early readers, students will describe the major events in the plot, describe the characters, and ask and answer questions about the first chapter in Frog and Toad Are Friends---Spring.
Wisconsin Response to Intervention Center
Wisconsin Rt I Center: Close Reading [Pdf]
Teachers will learn about the importance of close reading. Teachers will learn how to implement close reading; measure progress of close reading; and find research to support close reading. A list of close reading activities are also...
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: "The Crucible": Inspiration and Reception
This media gallery explores the inspiration for and reception of "The Crucible" during the Hollywood Blacklist with videos from the American Masters film "None Without Sin." The videos and support materials are best used during or after...
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Huac and Hollywood
This video and support materials detail the Hollywood blacklist and House Un-American Activities Committee, chronicling the fear of Communism and resulting blacklist based on political ideology. The video is from the American Masters...
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Huac: Backlash and Implications
These videos and support materials explore the intense division experienced by those who testified before and blacklisted by HUAC during the Cold War, focusing on the testimony of Elia Kazan. The videos are from American Masters None...
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Hemingway: The Man Versus the Image
Learn about Ernest Hemingway's public persona and how it differed from the actual life of the writer in these videos from the American Masters film Ernest Hemingway: Rivers to the Sea. Using video, text, and text-dependent discussion...
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: Reading Comprehension Across Genres: Annotate for Meaning
This lesson focuses on Annotation, a "writing-to-learn" strategy. It consists of writing explanatory notes and critical (analytical) commentary to yourself. Annotating text consists of two steps: (1) underlining, highlighting, circling,...