+
Assessment
Fluence Learning

Writing About Informational Text: Beyond the Beyond—Galaxies

For Students 8th Standards
Everyone has a different point of view, even when it comes to the enormity of the universe. Two separate text passages explain the scope of a galaxy, prompting young readers to write an essay about each author's argument and how the...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Press Review

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
How can word choice affect a political speech? Middle and high schoolers examine the text of the 1999 State of the Union Address, and then determine how newspaper articles and television reports describe and analyze the event. Use this...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Short But Sweet

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
After analyzing and evaluating news summaries found in the New York Times "Week in Review" section, middle schoolers study the steps for summarizing a news article briefly and accurately. They write two news summaries: one on a newspaper...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Using a Magazine/Non-Fiction Texts

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Working with magazine articles and other informational texts, students identify the parts of a non-fiction work. The learners use SMART board files to guide instruction, as well as a transition to writing their own non-fiction article in...
+
Printables
Nancy N. Boyles

Summary Frame for Story Text and Informational Text

For Teachers 4th - 8th
Provide these templates as aids for pupils as they work to compose summaries of both stories and informational texts. The first two frames provide sentence starters to help learners structure their summaries and include all the necessary...
+
Lesson Plan
2
2
Curated OER

Search Warranted?

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Young readers work on evaluating claims in a piece of informational text with the article "In New York, It's Open Bag or Find Exits" from the New York Times. They analyze current search procedures implemented to fight terrorism and...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

A Better Class of Journal-ists

For Teachers 1st - 12th
Young academics create a current events journal by skimming newspapers for articles that fit defined guidelines for informational texts. After cutting out two articles each week to add to their journals, they write a brief description of...
+
Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Mid-Unit Assessment: Analyzing an Informational Text about a Refugee Experience

For Teachers 8th Standards
Refugee & Immigrant Transitions is an organization that helps newcomers adjust to life in the United States through education and community leadership opportunities. As part of a mid-unit assessment, pupils independently read a...
+
Lesson Plan
5
5
National Math + Science Initative

Reading an Informational Text: "It All Started with Sputnik"

For Teachers 6th - 8th Standards
Sputnik was one of the greatest scientific advancements of the 1950s, and this reading lesson does it justice. Pupils start off with pre-reading questions and a video. They then read an excerpt from an article, which is accompanied by...
+
Lesson Plan
Media Smarts

The Newspaper Front Page

For Teachers 7th - 10th
Hot off the presses! A perfect instructional activity idea for a journalism class or even a language arts class looking to incorporate some informational texts. Young writers analyze the front pages of various newspapers to determine the...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Information Shuffle

For Teachers 7th - 10th
Gather some information, print it onto sentence strips, and then have your class physically shuffle the cards to better understand the importance of organizational patterns in writing. Middle school learners examine information for a...
+
Lesson Plan
1
1
Curated OER

Reading Comprehension: History of the Periodic Table

For Teachers 7th - 9th
Although the article that launches this lesson is about the history of the Periodic Table, the objective is reading comprehension. Using the eight-page informational text, learners answer five comprehension questions and craft one essay....
+
Unit Plan
2
2
Odell Education

Reading Closely For Textual Details: Grade 8

For Teachers 8th Standards
Only a thorough understanding of history can save us from repeating it. Practice close reading skills with an eighth grade unit that focuses on 19th century America, including European immigration into Ellis Island and Frederick...
+
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...
+
Lesson Plan
2
2
Curated OER

Strong Convictions

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
How can the rhetorical structure of an editorial help to develop its argument? Use this New York Times editorial to emphasize the importance of structure in a piece of informational text. Adolescent writers then use the editorial as a...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Writing Summaries

For Teachers 7th - 12th
Practice summary writing with informational texts. Young readers create summaries after reading magazine articles, newspaper articles, or other forms of informational texts. Readers use the GRASP strategy (read text, write what you...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Analyzing Two or More Nonfiction Texts

For Teachers 4th - 8th Standards
How does recognizing the author's purpose help you draw conclusions about a topic? Using two articles (both are attached), learners brainstorm why each author wrote each article. Are their purposes similar or different? Learners use a...
+
Lesson Plan
Literacy Design Collaborative

A Pale Blue Dot: That's Here. That's Home. That's Us.

For Students 5th - 8th Standards
21st-century learners live in such a visual world that many are unused to letting their minds imagine the picture that words create. An excerpt from Carl Sagan's lecture, "The Pale Blue Dot: A Vision of the Human Future in Space,"...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Comprehending Informational Text

For Teachers 8th - 9th
Do you know what a fallacy is? Discuss this term and its meaning with your class. Then, talk about why making generalizations about a large group of people isn't the best thing to do. As a group, study the included letter excerpt. It...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Is That a Fact?

For Teachers 5th - 12th Standards
Investigate popular scientific claims and gather evidence to defend or argue against an author's stance. Writers synthesize information and compose their own "Really?" columns modeled after those found in the weekly "Science Times"...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Newspaper Article

For Teachers 4th - 8th Standards
Have your class participate in an interview activity using an informational text about the Amazon. After reading a Cultural Connections story about a person from the Amazon, middle schoolers write interview questions based on the text....
+
Organizer
Polk Bros Foundation

How to Summarize a Non-Fiction Passage

For Teachers 3rd - 8th Standards
After reading a text, one way to find out how much your class comprehended is to ask your pupils to summarize. This worksheet helps class members prepare for writing a summary of a nonfiction text. They note down the topic, up to eight...
+
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Does Mother Nature Know Best?

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Investigate herbal medicine in the science or health classroom with this lesson from the New York Times. After a discussion about class members beliefs about and experiences with herbal medicines, pupils read an article that might impact...
+
Organizer
3
3
Polk Bros Foundation

I Can Identify a Nonfiction Writer's Main Idea and Supporting Examples

For Teachers 6th - 12th Standards
Use this page to quickly identify the central idea of a text and organize ideas for writing an informational or explanatory text. The activity is split into two parts. In the first part, pupils note down the main idea and supporting...

Other popular searches