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Worksheet
The New York Times

New York Times Reading Log

For Students 7th - 12th
Inspire your pupils to read the news and make connections between articles and another text, event, or experience with a straightforward reading log. Learners note down the article information at the top of the instructional activity and...
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Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Text-Dependent Questions and Making a Claim: Digging Deeper into Paragraphs 20–23 of Steve Jobs’ Commencement Address (and connecting to Chapter 11)

For Teachers 6th Standards
In preparation for the unit exam, groups employ the strategies they have been practicing to formulate an interpretative claim about the connections between Christopher Paul Curtis's " Bud, Not Buddy, and Steve Jobs' 2005 Stanford...
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Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Text-Dependent Questions Text-Dependent Questions and Making a Claim: Digging Deeper into Paragraphs 12–14 of Steve Jobs’ Commencement Address (and connecting to Chapter 9)

For Teachers 6th Standards
Readers draw connections between Bud, Not Buddy and Steve Jobs' 2005 Stanford University commencement address and cite evidence from the two texts to support their analysis.
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Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Text-Dependent Questions and Choosing Details to Support a Claim: Digging Deeper into Paragraphs 6–8 of Steve Jobs’ Commencement Address (and connecting to Chapter 7)

For Teachers 6th Standards
Readers learn how to choose specific details drawn from a primary source (Steve Jobs' 2005 Stanford University commencement address) to support an analysis of informative text.
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Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Getting the Gist: Steve Jobs Commencement Address (Focus on Paragraphs 6-8, and connecting to Chapter 6)

For Teachers 6th Standards
As part of a unit study of Bud, Not Buddy, readers compare Buddy's list of rules to live by with those that Steve Jobs enumerates in his commencement address to Stanford's 2005 graduating class.
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Organizer
Teacher Printables

Making Connections

For Teachers 3rd - 10th
Encourage your readers to make text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world connections with a graphic organizer that also asks them to detail how they made these connections. Reproduce the template for each learner or project the...
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Printables
Curated OER

Paper Chain Connections

For Teachers 4th - 8th
Make real connections in literature and in life. While reading, class members fill out links for a chain, circling the connection type, noting the page number, and commenting on each one. When they've completed all the links, they cut...
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Lesson Plan
Hawaiʻi State Department of Education

Text Connections

For Teachers 5th
There are so many different ways to help learners make text-to-self connections. Here, fifth graders will create tableaus that show an event from a chapter in the class reader. They'll discuss why they chose that event to dramatize and...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Blue Ribbon Readers: Making Connections

For Teachers K - 5th Standards
Model for young readers how to make the shift from passive to active reading by making text-to-self and text-to-text connections. After a series of activities that provide guided practice, the focus shifts to making text-to-words...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Newcomers

For Teachers K - 3rd
Explore emotions associated with moving to a new home with young learners. First they listen to the books Painted Words/Spoken Memories by Aliki and Going Home by Eve Bunting. Then they are invited to share their experiences as well as...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Poetry Through Digital Storytelling

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Bring digital storytelling to your language arts class! To begin, learners select their own topic, such as a poem that reflects a life experience they had or a historical figure who interests them. Then they work to create a storyboard...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Build a Connection

For Teachers 2nd - 8th
Learners discuss their personal connections with stories they've read in the past and identify techniques to connect with more stories. They create illustrations, construct task cards, and complete sentence stems based on books they read...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Those Fabulous Fables

For Teachers 3rd - 5th Standards
A video leads off this activity on fables, introducing the class to this important form of traditional storytelling. The group defines fable and hears an explanation of the origin of this type of folk tale. They summarize the story they...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Teaching Peace through Literature and Song

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Negative effects of bullying come to light through listening to the book Thank You, Mr. Falker by Patricia Polacco. Class members identify philanthropic acts portrayed in the story and make illustrations to connect them to their own...
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Interactive
Curated OER

Student Opinion: Should Couples Live Together Before Marriage?

For Students 9th - 12th
Bring nonfiction into the classroom with this high-interest op-ed piece from the New York Times about love, marriage, and relationships in the 21st century. Pupils read a short article on the topic of cohabitation and offer their own...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Identifying Main Events

For Teachers K
Help kindergartners learn to identify the main events in fiction. They will review elements of fiction, retell information found in the text, and discuss their real-life daily experiences. All the while, they will be asking themselves...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Relatives

For Teachers K - 2nd
Primary learners read the text The Relatives Came and make text to self-connections. In this literature discussion, they discuss what the text reminds them of in their own lives. They can also write down their connections and share them.
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Writing
Curated OER

Student Opinion: How Impulsive Are You?

For Students 9th - 12th
Sure to spark lively discussion in any Language Arts classroom, this article from The York Times asks the question, 'How much self-control do you have?'. Pupils begin by reading a short passage about a study on delayed gratification and...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Art Around the World

For Teachers 2nd - 3rd
The non-fiction book Art Around the World by Heather Leonard serves as inspiration for learning how art reflects cultures and values. New vocabulary and background knowledge are fleshed out before reading the story. Afterward, the class...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

How Much Is A Million

For Teachers K - 1st
Help young learners visualize the concept of "a million." To convey concepts of numeration and literacy, they will listen to the book How Much is a Million? by David Schwartz. They should be able to make self-to-text connections....
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Guided Reading: What Is Government?

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Learn about the government's role in everyday life in a guided reading activity. Groups create a KWL chart concerning the government's impact on the community.
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Good Readers Visualize

For Teachers 1st - 2nd
Learners explore reading. In this visualization lesson plan, students practice, creating images in their minds while listening to the story The Vegetables Go To Bed, by Christopher King. They listen to the story and then draw what they...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Text to Self Connections

For Teachers 1st - 3rd
Students read the story Ira Sleeps Over and write something about the end of the story that they have a connection with in their own life. In this text to self lesson plan, students look for something that helps them relate to the story...
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Worksheet
Curated OER

Text-to-Self Connection

For Students 2nd - 5th
Here's a text-to-self connection learning exercise that guides learners to think of a text-to-self connection about a selection they listened to, draw a picture, and write about it on lines provided. Page is a generic template.