Better Lesson
Better Lesson: Identifying the Difference Between Informational and Literary Text
Students will learn the difference between books that tell stories and books that give information. Multiple videos of different level reading groups engaged in this lesson, along with a printable activity sheet are included.
Better Lesson
Better Lesson: Comparing and Contrasting With "Then and Now"
This instructional activity is a great small group reading instructional activity that has a social studies connection. In this instructional activity, learners will be comparing and contrasting schools from long ago and schools of today...
Read Works
Readworks: Read Aloud Lesson: Stellaluna
Compare Stellaluna's experience of living like a bird with her experience of living like a bat. Included in this lesson are a detailed lesson plan, a graphic organizer, and a student worksheet.
Better Lesson
Better Lesson: Where Did You Learn That?
As adults, we explore pictures, captions, diagrams and text, when reading any kind of informational piece. Kids can do this too! In this instructional activity, learners will sort information that was obtained from pictures and diagrams,...
Better Lesson
Better Lesson: Many Parts
Preparation for reading complex informational texts starts in K and First grade. Knowing the features of the genre, and how to navigate through it is one of the necessary stepping stones. This instructional activity introduces the...
CPALMS
Cpalms: What Do You Do With a Tail Like This?
[Free Registration/Login Required] In this instructional activity, students will use What Do You Do With A Tail Like This? by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page to identify the main topic and key details using the illustrations and text....
Read Works
Read Works: Lesson 1: Actions
In this resource, students will practice identifying and describing the actions of a character. Teachers will model these skills through the use of text and pictures from the story No, David! by David Shannon. Students will then draw a...
Better Lesson
Better Lesson: Speaking and Listening: Collaborative Conversations
Students will partner read The Kite, by Alma Flor Ada. Then work together in small collaborative groups to describe the character of the mother, the children, or the kitten. Included in this lesson are video demonstrations, printable...
Better Lesson
Better Lesson: Speaking, Listening and Writing Compound Contrasting Sentences
Young scholars 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...
Reading Rockets
Reading Rockets: Using Collaborative Strategic Reading
In this article, the Collaborative Strategic Reading (CSR) technique is explained, along with research to support the use. The technique teaches students to use comprehension strategies, while working cooperatively, as they engage in the...
CPALMS
Cpalms: Giraffes and Zebras Oh My!
[Free Registration/Login Required] For this lesson plan, students will be able to ask and answer questions about key details in a text. Additionally, students will also be able to identify, compare, and contrast characteristics between...
The Balanced Literacy Diet
The Balanced Literacy Diet: Interactive Story Retelling
The goal of Interactive Story Retelling: Encouraging Retelling with Picture Supports is to build early comprehension skills and promote oral expression by having students sequence the events in a story using pictures and then retell the...
Other
Smekens Educational Solutions: Expose K 2 Readers to Annotation Strategies
This article discusses how to begin teaching students in K-2 to record their ideas about text using highlighters, colored pens, large graphic organizers, and sticky notes. Students can retell a story with a storyboard, use a web to find...
Michigan State University
Michigan State University: Intervention for Reading: Group Story Mapping
This intervention, which is based on Schema Theory, emphasizes linking previous knowledge structures (schemata) with reading materials. A pre-reading technique (see "My Story Map") provides a framework that directs students' attention to...
Michigan State University
Michigan State University: Interventions for Reading: Reconciled Reading
This intervention, which is based on Schema Theory, engages young scholars in enrichment activities prior to reading the passage. In this way, students have the opportunity to activate and enhance existing knowledge before reading....
Writing Fix
Writing Fix: If You Give a Student an Animal
For this lesson plan, the book If You Give a Moose a Muffin, written by Laura Numeroff, is used as a mentor text for word choice. The content focus of the lesson is to teach the students to take ownership of scientific and descriptive...
PBS
Pbs Kids: Martha: True Stories
A collection of interactive story activities about topics including the environment, technology, inventions, and measuring. There are four stories about each of the topics. In addition to being able to page through the books, the books...
Other
Castle Technology: Compare and Contrast: A Web Quest for Grade Two
This activity for young readers includes step-by-step teacher directions, student directions, resources, and rubrics. Students read or listen to two or more versions of a fairy tale and then work in groups to update the fairy tale to a...
Family Education
Family Education: Fifteen Minute Reading Activities
What can you do with your child in fifteen minutes to improve their reading skills? This site has a list of reading activities.
Florida Center for Reading Research
Florida Center for Reading Research: Expository Fact Strip [Pdf]
A lesson plan in which students read a text and identify the topic and four facts presented within the text. Materials are included.
Quia
Quia: Literary Terms Quiz
In this self-scoring practice activity, students read four passages and select the main idea of each.
Read Works
Read Works: Genre Studies: Informational Texts: Pictures and Photographs
[Free Registration/Login Required] Lesson uses All About Cats and Kittens by Emily Neye to teach students how to identify facts from photographs and pictures in informational text. Ideas for direct teaching, guided practice, and...
ReadWriteThink
Read Write Think: Exploring Before, During, After Sequencing
From Read-Write-Think, here is a three-day lesson plan in which a class collaborates to produce a book, focusing on carving a jack-o-lantern. The emphasis is on teaching the skill of sequencing events.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Harcourt: School Publishers: Test Tutor: Sequence
Students will increase their reading comprehension skills and understanding of story sequence by reading a passage of text and then answering questions about the order of events.