Elementary schoolers examine the components of reading nonfiction. They use think-alouds to help them complete reading the selected sections. They also identify text features as they read.

As scholars begin identifying stories as realistic fiction, its important they see many examples to solidify their concepts of this genre. Readers begin with a personal connection, thinking of television shows they like and determining...

Why would Robert E. Lee order Pickett's Charge, an action that changed the course of the Civil War? Geographer and historian Anne Knowles uses digital technology to explain what she thinks is the missing piece in trying to understand...

The threat posed by super volcanoes is explored in a short video that reviews the destruction caused by Mount Tambora in 1815 and by Peru's Huaynaputina in 1600. Think it can't happen again? The narrator contends that the explosive...

A thorough lesson plan takes your first grade class through Jane Yolen's beautiful Owl Moon. It crafts the unit with clear objectives, high-level guiding questions, cloze activities and sentence frames, and extension...

Students explore the Civil Rights Memorial. In this character development and U.S. History lesson, students employ reading comprehension strategies while reading a news article about the Civil Rights Memorial. Students work in groups to...

Examine the elements in a mystery with The Westing Game. Learners unscramble words as if they had to put clues together. Additionally, they discuss terms used in mysteries. They practice the word using the context of the story, as well...

“So I’m going to have a copy of this play put in the cornerstone and the people a thousand years from now’ll know a few simple facts about us.” Our Town is used as the text in a Common Core exemplar that examines the dramatic and...

What does the term "lifestyle" mean? What constitutes an active lifestyle? What constitutes a healthy lifestyle? The main ideas in this lesson focus on what an active healthy lifestyle looks like. There are questions for discussion, and...

From December 20, 1860 to June 8, 1861, eleven states seceded from the Union. Alabama seceded on January 11, 1861. Why did so many white Alabamians want to secede? Why did they believe the South could win the war? These are the essential...

A highly relevant and great cross-curricular project! In teams, your class will plot a course from the East Coast to Sacramento, California passing through all of the state capital cities along the way. As part of the journey, teams...

Here is a one-stop planning resource for Louis Sachar's Newbery Award-winning book Holes. You'll find 21 links to worksheets and various activities designed to span the entire book. Learners draw to help analyze settings and...

As the first American president to win the Nobel Peace Prize, and only one of four presidents to do so in United States history, Theodore Roosevelt's foreign policy achievements and preservation of peace are often overshadowed by his...

Use the Caldecott Award-winning book Make Way for Ducklings by Robert McCloskey (which can be found on YouTube if you don't have it) to guide budding readers through vocabulary in context. Although the...

Readers of Orson Scott Card's award-winning science fiction novel, Ender's Game use the provided KWL worksheet to list what they already know about war, what they think they will learn in reading the book, the new information they...

Get readers thinking about the major themes in Victor Martinez's award-winning novel, Parrot in the Oven: Mi Vida by asking them to agree or disagree with the prompts on an anticipation guide and to discuss...

Think you can solve the energy problem? You'll first need to know about current energy use. Analyzing a set of circle graphs lets scholars see where energy consumption is the greatest, both by sector and by household use. They develop a...

Are your scholars reading Jerry Spinelli's Maniac Magee? If so, use this textual analysis packet and activity guide to drive deeper thinking about the characters, create personal connections, and apply historical...

Learners focus on plot and sequence as they read the story Sheila Rae, The Brave by Kevin Henkes. The entire class will follow along with the teacher as she reads and models her thinking about the plot of the story. When instruction...

Use the pictures from Knuffle Bunny to determine setting with your class. Model your visualization and thinking process, asking questions to help your listeners determine time and place. After reading this story, go through other...

What is the main idea? Interest your young readers with this fun introductory lesson! After selecting several items from a paper bag, the teacher leads learners to determine the big idea for those items. This concept is then applied to...

Compare and contrast while challenging your class with this higher-level thinking and reading comprehension lesson plan. After observing the teacher model comparing and contrasting bats and birds, learners read passages about two towns....

Do your learners need to practice identifying figurative language? This lesson outlines a method for working on that tricky skill. After teacher modeling and think-aloud, fourth and fifth graders identify examples of figurative language...

Work on characterization with a narrative writing lesson, in which middle schoolers interpret a character's perspective. They discuss family traditions and examine how culture can influence a character's perspective. Next, they read...