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Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University

De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: Nonfict Readers Analyze Structure/views[pdf]

For Teachers 9th - 10th Standards
This graphic organizer contains questions for students as they analyze any nonfiction text. Students will read closely to determine the text's structure, viewpoint, and tone. This graphic organizer is a copyrighted material that may be...
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Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University

De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: Comprehensive Questions: Nonfiction [Pdf]

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
Questions are provided to help students determine the main idea, topic, and fact versus opinion of a nonfiction piece. Students are prompted to write a summary of an informational text.
Lesson Plan
Other

Curriculum Associates: Determining Theme or Central Idea [Pdf]

For Teachers 4th - 6th Standards
In this reading comprehension lesson unit, learners are guided in learning how to find the main theme or idea of a text and understanding how details in the text convey that. Includes lots of exercises and examples, as well as...
Lesson Plan
ReadWriteThink

Read Write Think: Using Thieves to Preview Nonfiction Texts

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
Contains plans for three lessons that introduce a nonfiction prereading strategy with the acronym THIEVES, which stands for Title, Headings, Introduction, Every first sentence, Visuals and vocabulary, End Questions, and Summary. In...
Lesson Plan
ReadWriteThink

Read Write Think: Playing With Genre Through Newspapers and Short Stories

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
Contains plans for three lessons that ask students to compare narrative writing (short stories) to expository writing (news articles) in order to understand what makes each genre unique. In addition to objectives and standards, this...
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Other

Academic Reading: Sample Task [Pdf]

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
This Academic Reading task provides a practice assessment for identifying headings and subheadings. In the task, students must read the selection and then determine the best subheading for each of the sections.
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Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University

De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: One Page Nonfiction Readings: Grade 6

For Teachers 6th Standards
This site contains 17 nonfiction articles that are appropriate for students with a 6th grade reading level, as measured by the Fry Formula. Questions for each passage are provided. Graphic organizers are available for these copyrighted...
Lesson Plan
ReadWriteThink

Read Write Think: Scaffolding Summarization With Fishbone Mapping

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
Lesson that teaches students how to find important and significant information while reading text. After locating information through strategies, students learn how to summarize content-area text. A downloadable fishbone template is linked.
Unit Plan
University of Houston

University of Houston: Extra! Extra! What's the Big Idea?!

For Students 3rd - 6th Standards
Get the feel of running a newspaper by selecting articles and pictures. If you are interested in checking out real newspapers, there is a clickable list of online newspapers for younger readers.
Unit Plan
Read Works

Read Works: Passages: The Film Editor

For Teachers 6th Standards
[Free Registration/Login Required] Students read a nonfiction text about the job of a film editor and answer questions about comprehension, supporting details, inferencing, main idea, and more. Links to a paired text and paired text...
Unit Plan
Read Works

Read Works: Passages: The Process of Acting

For Teachers 6th Standards
[Free Registration/Login Required] Students read a nonfiction text about what it takes to be an actor and answer questions about comprehension, main idea, supporting details, vocabulary, transitions, and more. Links to a paired text and...
PPT
Sophia Learning

Sophia: Understanding the Question

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
This lesson focuses on how to understand a reading question; it details three main parts: look for content and process words, state the question in your own words, and restate the question as a statement. It explains each and provides...
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Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University

De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: Comprehensive Assessment: Nonfiction [Pdf]

For Students 9th - 10th Standards
Questions are provided to help students determine the main idea, topic, purpose, and opinion of a piece of nonfiction. Students are prompted to write a summary of the informational text.
Unit Plan
Texas Education Agency

Texas Gateway: Summarize Informational/expository Text (English 6 Reading)

For Students 5th - 7th Standards
[Accessible by TX Educators. Free Registration/Login Required] Learn how to summarize the main ideas and supporting details in text and understand that a summary does not include opinions.
Unit Plan
Texas Education Agency

Texas Gateway: Summarize Informational/expository Text (English 7 Reading)

For Students 6th - 8th Standards
[Accessible by TX Educators. Free Registration/Login Required] Learn how to evaluate a summary of the original text for accuracy of the main ideas, supporting details, and overall meaning.
Unit Plan
Texas Education Agency

Texas Gateway: Synthesize Ideas in Informational/expository Texts

For Students 4th - 7th Standards
[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...
Unit Plan
CommonLit

Common Lit: Where Did I Come From

For Students 5th - 6th Standards
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...
Unit Plan
CommonLit

Common Lit: Women in Ancient Rome

For Students 5th - 7th Standards
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...
Unit Plan
CommonLit

Common Lit: Duck & Cover: School Drills During the Cold War

For Students 5th - 6th Standards
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...
Article
Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD)

Ascd: Building Literacy in Social Studies: Ch 1: Reading Social Studies Texts

For Students 6th - 8th Standards
Article provides excellent tips and strategies for building comprehension and critical thinking skills in Social Studies. It describes some of the challenges students have with reading and understanding their textbooks.
Website
Other

Reading Quest: Making Sense of Social Studies

For Teachers 9th - 10th Standards
Teaching students to read well in areas other than language arts requires teaching and reinforcing the kinds of reading strategies taught here. There are 27 strategies, ranging from brainstorming to word mapping. The site includes PDF...
Lesson Plan
Better Lesson

Better Lesson: Analyzing Text Complexity of Non Fiction Sources

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
This instructional activity will help students read and comprehend nonfiction, specifically biographies, through determining criteria for text complexity. Included is a PDF and Smart Notebook titled Determining Text Complexity, and an...
Lesson Plan
Louisiana Department of Education

Louisiana Doe: Louisiana Believes: English Language Arts: Grade 6: If Stones Could Speak

For Teachers 6th Standards
Sixth graders will explore history and will learn that archaeologists, like detectives, work to piece together the past through investigation. Archaeological research provides us with stories of human history that help us understand the...
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ProProfs

Pro profs.com: 8th Grade Main Idea Quiz

For Students 6th - 8th Standards
An interactive quiz with four short passages and thirteen multiple choice and extended response questions focusing on main ideas and supporting details. Students can access all passages and questions without an account, but a free...