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Lesson Plan
Better Lesson

Better Lesson: Identifying the Difference Between Informational and Literary Text

For Teachers K - 1st Standards
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.
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Lesson Plan
Better Lesson

Better Lesson: Comparing and Contrasting With "Then and Now"

For Teachers K - 1st Standards
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...
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Lesson Plan
Read Works

Readworks: Read Aloud Lesson: Stellaluna

For Teachers K - 1st Standards
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.
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Lesson Plan
Better Lesson

Better Lesson: Where Did You Learn That?

For Teachers K - 1st Standards
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,...
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Lesson Plan
Better Lesson

Better Lesson: Many Parts

For Teachers K - 1st Standards
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...
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Lesson Plan
CPALMS

Cpalms: What Do You Do With a Tail Like This?

For Teachers Pre-K - 1st Standards
[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....
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Lesson Plan
Read Works

Read Works: Lesson 1: Actions

For Teachers K - 1st Standards
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...
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Lesson Plan
Better Lesson

Better Lesson: Speaking and Listening: Collaborative Conversations

For Teachers K - 1st Standards
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...
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Lesson Plan
Better Lesson

Better Lesson: Speaking, Listening and Writing Compound Contrasting Sentences

For Teachers K - 1st Standards
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...
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Professional Doc
Reading Rockets

Reading Rockets: Using Collaborative Strategic Reading

For Teachers K - 1st Standards
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...
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Lesson Plan
CPALMS

Cpalms: Giraffes and Zebras Oh My!

For Teachers K - 1st Standards
[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...
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Lesson Plan
The Balanced Literacy Diet

The Balanced Literacy Diet: Interactive Story Retelling

For Teachers Pre-K - K Standards
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...
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Article
Other

Smekens Educational Solutions: Expose K 2 Readers to Annotation Strategies

For Teachers K - 1st Standards
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...
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Lesson Plan
Michigan State University

Michigan State University: Intervention for Reading: Group Story Mapping

For Teachers Pre-K - 1st Standards
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...
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Lesson Plan
Michigan State University

Michigan State University: Interventions for Reading: Reconciled Reading

For Teachers Pre-K - 1st Standards
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....
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Lesson Plan
Writing Fix

Writing Fix: If You Give a Student an Animal

For Teachers Pre-K - 1st Standards
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...
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Interactive
PBS

Pbs Kids: Martha: True Stories

For Students Pre-K - 1st Standards
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...
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Activity
Other

Castle Technology: Compare and Contrast: A Web Quest for Grade Two

For Students Pre-K - 1st Standards
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...
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Article
Family Education

Family Education: Fifteen Minute Reading Activities

For Students Pre-K - 1st Standards
What can you do with your child in fifteen minutes to improve their reading skills? This site has a list of reading activities.
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Lesson Plan
Florida Center for Reading Research

Florida Center for Reading Research: Expository Fact Strip [Pdf]

For Teachers K - 1st Standards
A lesson plan in which students read a text and identify the topic and four facts presented within the text. Materials are included.
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eBook
Quia

Quia: Literary Terms Quiz

For Students Pre-K - 1st Standards
In this self-scoring practice activity, students read four passages and select the main idea of each.
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Lesson Plan
Read Works

Read Works: Genre Studies: Informational Texts: Pictures and Photographs

For Teachers K - 1st Standards
[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...
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Lesson Plan
ReadWriteThink

Read Write Think: Exploring Before, During, After Sequencing

For Teachers Pre-K - 1st Standards
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.
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Unit Plan
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt

Harcourt: School Publishers: Test Tutor: Sequence

For Students Pre-K - 1st Standards
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.