Curated OER
Reading to Elementary Children
Students participate in a cross-age reading program. In this language arts lesson plan, students choose a class of younger children and read them the book The Legend of the Bluebonnet. Students reflect upon their service project in a...
Novelinks
The Dark Is Rising: Guided Imagery
To launch a reading of The Dark is Rising, the second novel in Susan Cooper's award winning contemporary fantasy novel sequence for young adults, class members engage in a guided imagery exercise that asks them to visualize the setting...
Curated OER
Using a "Before Reading" Organizer with Informational Text
Lead your students in creating a graphic organizer that uses the titles and subtitles of an informational text. Your class should recognize and use features of narrative and informational text before connecting and remembering the main...
Benjamin Franklin Tercentenary
Franklin’s Philadelphia: Another Point of View
While Benjamin Franklin enjoyed fame and success in colonial Philadelphia, that was not the experience of all coming to the British colonies. Young scholars trace the life of an indentured servant using a scholarly biography and reading...
Florida Center for Reading Research
Phonological Awareness: Rhyme, Rhyme Closed Sort
A rhyming activity challenges scholars to sort picture cards according to their rhyme. Four picture cards line up across the top of a pocket chart. Learners take turns choosing from a face-down stack of picture cards and sort them...
Virginia Department of Education
Go with the Flow
How does nature's hierarchy relate to our local human environment? Answer this question, along with others, as the class visually depicts the natural hierarchy provided by nature. Pupils discuss each piece of the pyramid and its energy...
Curated OER
Lesson Plans That Boost Reading Comprehension
Reading comprehension is a cyclical process that can be supported with lesson plans that build students' knowledge and cognition.
Curated OER
Picture This
Learners examine how to create mental images to help them comprehend what they read. They discuss what it means to visualize and they draw a mental picture of what they read. Students draw a picture of what they see in their minds while...
Curated OER
Close Your Eyes and Imagine...
Students practice the techniques and strategies to become more fluent readers through visualization. They read and construct mental images from the reading of a text. The book, "Charlotte's Web," by E.B. White is read in class and then...
Curated OER
Reciprocal Teaching: The Migrants
Fourth graders use techniques involved in Reciprocal Teaching: predicting, clarifying, questioning, summarizing, and visualizing. They use these reading strategies while reading "The Migrants."
Curated OER
Visualizing School Equity
High schoolers examine how school segregation is affected by funding gaps. In this equity lesson,students read the article, "Crossing the Gap." High schoolers analyze funding gaps between schools. Students understand that every high...
Curated OER
Musical Alphabet: Skipping Down
Students explore the concept of skipping down while reading music. In this skipping down lesson, students review how to step up, skip up, and step down when reading music. Students then learn how to read music by skipping down.
Curated OER
Pigs: A Visual Splendor
Third graders practice using visualization to aid in their reading comprehension. After a reading a chapter from the book "Charlotte's Web," students write a brief summary of the plot using their visualizations, aided by reading...
Curated OER
Visualizing
Students create a radio announcement after reading Strega Nona. In this visualization lesson, students investigate visualization strategies. After reading Strega Nona, students complete a graphic organizer and produce a radio...
Curated OER
Flying High in Our Imaginations
Students visualize they are any bird they want to be and visually create their surroundings. They share the type of bird they were and the surroundings with their peers. They read a chapter of "Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone" and...
Curated OER
Bridge to Terabithia
Young scholars explore scenes from Katherine Paterson's book, Bridge to Terabithia. In this visualization lesson, students listen to the story read aloud. The young scholars then choose words and phrases that paint a picture in their...
Perkins School for the Blind
Eating Out
Going out to lunch, reading a menu, making choices, and spending time socializing are all parts of growing up. Teens with visual impairments use several braille menus from local restaurants to practice ordering and appropriatelyeating...
Perkins School for the Blind
Baseball
Baseball is an American pastime, super fun to play, and can be made accessible to learners with visual impairments. Instead of taking to the ball field, your class can learn the rules of the game by playing a small three-dimensional...
Curated OER
Introduction to Ludwig van Beethoven
"Ode to la Tortilla" and "Ode to Joy"? Sure! Use Gary Soto's poem to introduce learners to the ode format. After examining the descriptive words Soto uses, class members study a poster of Ludwig van Beethoven, suggest words that describe...
Memorial Art Gallery
Art Alive! - Towing a Boat, Honfleur
Color, light and shadow, the placement and size of objects. These are some of the tools artists used to tell their stories. Model for learners how to read a painting by closely examining these features. The richly detailed packet...
Memorial Art Gallery
Art Alive! - Beach at Blue Point
And then what happened? Class members engage in a series of activities that model for them how to read the story in a painting. Participants respond to questions that ask them to closely examine the elements in William Glackens' "Beach...
Perkins School for the Blind
Stuff, Seal and Stamp Mail
Have your class practice functional skills that can be applied to a wide variety of job opportunities. They will use a folding jig to help them fold, stuff, seal, stamp, and mail letters. Students with visual impairments will build...
Curated OER
Create a BIG Book
Students explore about big books. They create a big book version of a favorite story or an ABC book about a favorite topic. Students describe the size of a book. Students are explained that big books are books that have large pictures...
Curated OER
Persuasive Practice: A Mt. Rushmore Addition
Budding authors research a US President and persuade the National Park Service to add him to Mt. Rushmore. In addition to the persuasive essay, individuals are required to develop a visual presentation using a web-based software that...