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Character and Relationship Changes
Fifth graders examine text for examples of changes in character relationships. In this character and relationship changes lesson, 5th graders read Dogs Don't Tell Jokes, chart changes in relationships, and write about specific character...
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Lesson 5: Character and Relationship Changes
In this reading comprehension activity, 5th graders, after reading the novel, Maniac Magee, by Jerry Spinelli analyze characters and their roles in other peoples lives. Students interact with plot conflicts and character relationships....
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Mysterious Plot Problems
Students explore the plot of mystery books. In this genre study lesson, students read the book, Sammy Keyes and the Hollywood Mummy and listen to a read aloud of a chapter from the text. Students fill in a graphic organizer that helps...
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Predicting a Mystery's Solution
Awarded the 1998 Edgar Award for Best Children's Mystery, Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief offers readers a chance to hone their predictive and deductive skills along with Sammy Keyes, who the Midwest Children's Book Review calls "the...
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Genre Lesson: Autobiography
Have your middle schoolers write a short story about themselves with an autobiography unit about Rosa Parks. They learn the difference between biographies and autobiographies, define the different types of autobiographies and determine...
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Predicting Events-Realistic Fiction
Start out with a general scenario to get your class warmed up. Have individuals guess what will happen next and then apply that skill to Maniac Magee. Provide guided practice and then break your class off into partners to fill out a...
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Lesson 4: Author's Purpose
Learners identify the author's purpose in various poems from the book Words with Wings: A Treasury of African-American Poetry and Art. In order to determine the purpose, pupils first observe as the teacher completes a PIES char...
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Mystery Plot Problems
Students recognize that mysteries contain a problem that needs solving at the beginning of the book. In this mystery plot activity, students become the detectives finding the problems and minor problems in a mystery story. Students...
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Red Herrings
Students follow clues and find a hidden object that is really in plain sight. In this red herrings lesson, students recognize that some reading clues are misleading. Students read Chasing Vermeer and search for misleading clues in the...
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Realistic Fiction
How do you that you are reading a realistic fiction story? Help your pupils discover the answer to this question by providing a series of situations for them to relate to and analyze. The instructional activity is meant as a build-up...
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Lesson 4: Text Features
The ability to use text features effectively can translate to many texts and purposes. Show your class these tools while working with the biography Lost Star: The Story of Amelia Earhart. Explore the different text features within the...
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Character and Relationship Changes
Fifth graders examine how characters and relationships can change in a text. In this realistic fiction lesson, 5th graders identify changes in the characters and relationships while reading The Great Gilly Hopkins. Students record their...
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Genre Lesson: Fantasy
Students study the elements of fantasy in fiction as a whole group by dissecting fiction stories. In this story elements lesson, students work through a handout about fantasy to point out the elements that point to the story being...
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Analyzing Plot Conflict
Fifth graders examine plot conflict. In this plot analysis lesson students study conflict between two characters in The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Students imagine themselves as a news reporter watching the combating in Narnia.
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Retelling A Life
Use comic strip format to help organize and sequence events in a story. The lesson here focuses on The Story of Jackie Robinson: Bravest Man in Baseball; however, this strategy could be used for summarizing any text. Pupils must choose...
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Text Features
Fifth graders utilize text features. In this text features lesson students read The Story of Jackie Robinson: Bravest Man in Baseball by Margaret Davidson. Students use clues from the table of contents, illustrations, and timeline to...
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Two Settings
Fifth graders analyze two settings. In this compare and contrast instructional activity students compare and contrast the settings in The Watsons Go to Birmingham-1963 by Christopher Paul Curtis. Students find and record similarities and...
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The Tone of a Poem
Pupils are often confused by the literary terms tone and voice. Focus on tone by analyzing the poems suggested here, which are all from Words with Wings: A Treasury of African-American Poetry and Art. While reading through each poem,...
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Picture Talk
Students explain a picture or caption using events from a story. In this literacy lesson, students analyze a picture and make a connection to the text. Additionally, students share ideas about how pictures can form a better understanding...
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Answering a Research Question
Students explore beginning research skills. For this nonfiction comprehension and research lesson, students generate possible research questions to answer when given the book title of Animals of the Sea and Shore by Ann O. Squire....
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Changing An Author's Purpose
Some write to inform, and others to persuade. Show your class the difference between these two purposes with the instructional activity and sample essays provided here. First, model how you might change a few words in order to present a...
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Compare and Contrast Passages
Combine two skills with the activities included here. Pupils not only practice determining the main idea of short passages, they also use a Venn diagram to compare and contrast the main ideas of the different passages. Start out...
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Identifying Plot Conflicts
Fifth graders read Katherine Paterson's book, Bridge to Terabithia, and find two plot conflicts in chapters 5 and 6. In this plot conflicts lesson plan, 5th graders identify the conflicts of character vs. character and character vs. self.
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Author's Purpose
Determining an author's purpose can help readers understand a text more deeply. Using a PIES chart (persuade, inform, entertain, share) and poems from Leaf by Leaf: Autumn Poems by Barbara Rogasky, class members organize lines that show...