TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Metamorphosis Stories of Change
The goal of this activity is for students to learn how to tell a story in order to make a complex topic (such as global warming or ozone holes) easier for a reader to grasp. Students realize that the narrative impulse underlies even...
TeachEngineering
Teach Engineering: Pingus Penguins: Writing Good Instructions
Students use the free computer game Pingus to learn how engineers, specifically environmental engineers, use their technical writing skills to give instructions and follow the instructions of others. Students learn to write instructions...
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: Synthesize Ideas in Informational/expository Texts
[Accessible by TX Educators. Free Registration/Login Required] Learn how to synthesize and make logical connections between ideas within a text and across two or three texts representing similar or different genres (including literary...
CommonLit
Common Lit: What Is Antarctica?
CommonLit.org is a wonderful resource to use in a Language Arts classroom. Each story or article is accompanied by guided reading questions, assessment questions, and discussion questions. In addition, students can click on words to see...
Better Lesson
Better Lesson: A Storm of Ideas
The first step in writing an informational text on the topic of students' choice is helping the student choose a topic of interest. Students will brainstorm ideas that will be possible final topics.
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...
Other
Educator Voices: Grade 3 Research Skills Unit
Describes the process teachers went through to create a lesson unit where students first brainstormed what it means to do research, then were tasked with choosing a topic, researching it, and presenting on it several days later. The...
Scholastic
Scholastic History Mystery
Students will choose from a variety of concepts and can play a game to enhance their learning.
Writing Fix
Writing Fix: Scientific Important Book Passages
Students read and examine the structure of The Important Book by Margaret Wise Brown and then follow that pattern while writing about the most important things about various scientific topics. Printable handouts and student samples are...
Writing Fix
Writing Fix: Writing Scientific "Recipes"
Adapted from a lesson plan in the book 51 Wacky We-Search Reports by Barry Lane, this lesson plan asks young scholars to read several recipes to gain an understanding of how they are written and the types of words they use. Then students...
Curated OER
Mc Graw Hill: 4th Grade Use Details and Examples
When reading a story learn how to recall specific examples from the text to answer comprehension questions. In addition, you can also use story details to make inferences.
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University
De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: I Can Analyze a Story or History [Pdf]
This graphic organizer can be used to help students analyze a story or a historical event. Students will look closely at the story's characters or people involved in the historical event. Then they will summarize the story or event, and...
Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility
Jefferson Lab: Reading Passages: The New Scientific Method in the Lab
Read and fill in the blanks of this passage explaining the new scientific method procedure in the lab. Each blank has a dropdown menu with choices. When you finish, click CHECK MY ANSWERS. If you pick a wrong answer, the right answer...
Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility
Jefferson Lab: Reading Passages: Looking for Quarks Inside the Atom
Read and fill in the blanks of this passage explaining quarks inside the atom. Each blank has a dropdown menu with choices. When you finish, click CHECK MY ANSWERS. If you pick a wrong answer, the right answer will be displayed along...
Thomas Jefferson National Accelerator Facility
Jefferson Lab: Reading Passages: Magnets and Electromagnets
Read and fill in the blanks of this passage explaining atomic history. Each blank has a dropdown menu with choices. When you finish, click CHECK MY ANSWERS. If you pick a wrong answer, the right answer will be displayed along with your...
ReadWriteThink
Read Write Think: Narrative Pyramid
A printable narrative pyramid where students can record information about a story including the character, setting, problem, main events, and solution. Directions on how to use this type of graphic organize as well as lists of teaching...
Quia
Quia: Polygon Quiz
In this game, students are to number the steps for making cookies in chronological order to reveal a hidden picture.
ReadWriteThink
Read Write Think: Comprehending Nonfiction Text on the Web
Contains plans for three lessons designed to improve comprehension of nonfiction, especially nonfiction texts on the web. It focuses on identifying text features, locating specific information, and generalizing that information. In...
ReadWriteThink
Read Write Think: Technical Reading and Writing Using Board Games
Contains plans for a game that helps teach technical reading and writing while reviewing a novel that young scholars have read. In addition to objectives and standards, this instructional plan contains links to sites used in the lessons...
ReadWriteThink
Read Write Think: Using Science Texts to Teach the Organization of Nonfiction
Contains plans for three lessons that use science textbooks to teach about the organizational features of nonfiction such as labels, captions, headings, and fonts. In addition to objectives and standards, this instructional plan contains...
ReadWriteThink
Read Write Think: Sequencing a Strategy to Succeed at Reading Comprehension
Contains plans for lessons that use the story of Paul Bunyan to teach about sequencing and order of events. In addition to objectives and standards, this instructional plan contains links to sites used in the lessons as well as...
Quia
Quia: Sequence: Putting Things in Order
Using clue words, students are asked to number a list of events in order from 1-10 and then check answers. Students have up to three attempts to solve.
Quia
Quia: Literary Terms Quiz
In this self-scoring practice activity, students read four passages and select the main idea of each.
Austin Independent School District
Austin Independent School District: Summary of Fiction and Nonfiction Text [Pdf]
This 31-page document focuses on teaching summarizing strategies for use with fiction and nonfiction texts. This series of lesson plans starts with fiction summarizing strategies such as "Somebody-Wanted-But-So-Then" and "Story Arch."...