Curated OER
My Antonia: Directed Reading Thinking Activity
Walk your pupils through the beginning of My Antonia by Willa Cather with a read-aloud-style activity. The goal is to make predictions and back them up with textual evidence.
Scholastic
Reading Characters
Philip Pullman's The Golden Compass provides the text for a study of how writers bring characters to life. Using the provided character mapping worksheets, readers respond to questions and then write a short character sketch.
Curated OER
Cat on the Mat Guided Reading Lesson
Young learners participate in a guided reading instructional activity. They will read the book Cat on the Mat by Brian Wildsmith. The teacher helps provide the group with reading strategies, and provides more one-on-one support during...
Curated OER
Post-Reading Strategies
Students practice post-reading strategies. In this reading comprehension lesson, students review pre-reading strategies, then read a handout entitled "Thirteen Reasons Our Ancestors Migrated." Students complete a post-reading worksheet...
Curated OER
Reading with Bailey’s Book House
Students decode words as they construct meaning. In this writing lesson plan, students create a story using the software program Bailey's Book House. They listen to their story on the computer, print it out, and read it aloud....
Curated OER
ReQuest Strategy: Reciprocal Questioning
Explore reciprocal questioning with this ReQuest comprehension strategy. After reading a passage, learners first question the teacher, trying to "stump" her. Then it is the teacher's turn to ask the pupils questions. All correct answers...
EngageNY
Close Reading: The Introduction to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights
As part of a group of lessons, your class will return to the primary text for this unit, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Key vocabulary as well as close reading strategies continue to be the focus skills; however, this lesson...
Curated OER
Guided Reading: Cold and Hot
Explore the text, Cold and Hot, with comprehension strategies for young readers. First, give them a purpose for reading: find out what the boy wore outside in the snow! Then have them use one-to-one matching and picture clues to...
Curated OER
When Is a Noun a Verb? Examining Double Duty Words
The New York Times' Learning Network provides great lessons! This one uses articles from the paper to help readers understand homonyms like mail (verb and noun). It also includes an exercise in reading informational text. Links to the...
Education Foundation of Sarasota County
Self-Calming Strategies to Manage Emotions
Tweens and teens learn coping skills to help manage strong emotions such as anger, fear, and sadness with a lesson that asks them to generate a list of self-calming strategies they use and to consider the suggestions in a short video and...
EngageNY
Close Reading: Unpacking Specific Articles of the UDHR
Lesson 6 of this extensive unit finally has your class begin to work their way through specific articles from the text of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). Before examining the rights actually detailed in the...
EngageNY
Close Reading: Excerpt 2 of “The Digital Revolution and the Adolescent Brain Evolution”
Help scholars comprehend a challenging text. Using the resource, pupils read excerpts from an article about the digital revolution and adolescent brain development. As they read, they answer text-dependent questions and complete a close...
Folger Shakespeare Library
Pre-Reading Hamlet with "Hamlet: An Insider’s Guide"
Prove that Gertrude did kill Ophelia from practicing the word inflections activities with these pre-reading strategies for Hamlet. Thespians practice the line, “Is that your sandwich?” as they stress and accent different words, and...
Washington Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction
Using Our Senses to Observe
Look around and explore. Little ones use their five senses with some day-to-day activities designed to guide observation and apply STEM strategies. Young scientists learn through comparing/contrasting and...
Curated OER
Successful Reading Strategies for ELL Students
Learners improve their reading comprehension through predicting, connecting with text and summarizing. Students should have already read the book Seedfolks and made predictions based upon what they had seen from the cover and pictures...
Curated OER
Applying Reading Strategies to Aid Comprehension
Students practice their reading skills. In this reading comprehension lesson, students read articles about fast food topics using the wordstorming strategy described to prepare for reading the text.
Curated OER
During Reading Strategies (Prediction, Self-Question, and Correct)
High schoolers practice their reading skills. In this reading fluency and comprehension lesson, students read instructor-selected passages and use metacognitive skills to predict, self-question, and correct.
Curated OER
Harry Potter And The Prisoner of Azkaban: KWHL Strategy
J.K. Rowling's world of wizards and magic focuses on some topics that relate to our own society, especially in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Have kids complete a KWHL chart (what they know, what they want to know, how...
Curated OER
Gary Paulsen's Canyons: Question the Author (QtA) Strategy
Gary Paulsen’s Canyons is the focus of an exercise that models how to read closely using a Questioning the Author (QtA) strategy. Complete directions for the strategy, which can be used with any text, are included in the richly-detailed...
Curated OER
Pre-Reading Strategy Instructional Routine: Maus I and II
Vladek's attitudes are difficult for many young learners to understand. Prepare your class for the events represented in Art Speigelman's graphic novel with a pre-reading activity that has them read articles about and interviews with...
Curated OER
Bounce into Speedy Reading: Growing Fluency and Independence
Increased reading comprehension begins with decoding and automatically recognizing words, which is the focus of this instruction. Using their choice of six different Winnie the Pooh stories, partners practice a variety of strategies...
Curated OER
Ordinary People: Cubing Strategy
Readers of Ordinary People employ a cubing strategy based on Bloom’s Taxonomy to analyze, from multiple perspectives, an excerpt from Chapter 10 of Judith Guest’s novel. The excerpt, a rationale and complete directions for the...
Curated OER
Regarding the Fountain: A KWHL Strategy
A KWHL strategy prepares young readers for the different type of writing found in Kate Klise's story of the Dry Creek Middle School drinking fountain. Step-by-step directions, student and teacher copies of the KWHL template, and...
Curated OER
Measure for Measure: DRTA Strategy
“The tempter or the tempted, who sins most?” Prediction, verification, judgment, and extensions of thought are all part of a
Directed ReadingThinking Activity (DRTA) developed for Measure for Measure. The rationale, assessments...