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Lesson Plan
National Council of Teachers of English

Timelines and Texts: Motivating Students to Read Nonfiction

For Students 6th - 8th Standards
With the emphasis on incorporating more nonfiction in language arts classes the question arises about how to design activities that motivate kids to engage with informational text. How about an assignment that asks class members to...
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Lesson Plan
K20 LEARN

Annotating Nonfiction - Conflicts, Cliques, Stereotypes: What Makes Us Clique?

For Teachers 9th - 12th Standards
John Hughes' The Breakfast Club takes center stage in a lesson about annotating nonfiction texts to keep track of evidence that may be used later in discussions and writings. Scholars consider the stereotypes and conflicts presented in...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Check it Out...Nonfiction Can Be Fun!

For Teachers 5th - 9th
Organizing information gathered for a research topic can be a challenge. Read aloud notes you have collected on a topic and use suggestions offer by the class to categorize and sort this information. Partners then follow this pattern,...
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Lesson Plan
Georgia Department of Education

Exploring Poetry and Poets

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Combine the study of poetry and non-fiction texts with this complete and ready-to-use six-week unit. After reading numerous poems from local writers and compiling a personal anthology, high schoolers find and read a memoir or biography...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Using a Magazine/Non-Fiction Texts

For Teachers 6th - 8th
Working with magazine articles and other informational texts, learners 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...
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Activity
Lee & Low Books

Classroom Guide for Sacred Mountain: Everest

For Teachers 4th - 8th Standards
The most famous climbers of Mount Everest could never have made it to the summit without the assistance of the local Sherpa. Christine Taylor-Butler's nonfiction children's book Sacred Mountain: Everest is the focus of an extensive...
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Lesson Plan
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Maryland Department of Education

The Concept of Diversity in World Literature Lesson 8: Nonfiction Close Reading

For Teachers 10th - 11th Standards
As part of their study of Things Fall Apart, class members conduct a close reading of a section of Chinua Achebe's essay, "An Image of Africa: Racism in Conrad's Heart of Darkness." Jigsaw groups then compare the voice in the essay...
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Lesson Plan
The New York Times

Fiction or Nonfiction? Considering the Common Core's Emphasis on Informational Text

For Teachers 6th - 12th
Nothing aids in comprehension more than an explanation and understanding of why things are done. Address why the Common Core requires the reading percentages that it established and analyze how this affects your readers. Learners read...
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Lesson Plan
K20 LEARN

Mob Mentality and "The Outsiders": Integrating Fiction and Nonfiction

For Teachers 7th - 8th Standards
S. E. Hinton's The Outsiders allows middle schoolers to reflect on mob mentality. After reading an article and watching a video about herd mentality, class members find examples in the novel of when characters go along with the crowd and...
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Unit Plan
Core Knowledge Foundation

Maya, Aztec, and Inca Civilizations

For Teachers 5th Standards
A 10-lesson unit explores the Maya, Aztec, and Inca civilizations. Over the course of two weeks, scholars read nonfiction excerpts, discuss their findings, and complete activities. An assessment equipped with multiple choice and matching...
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Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Close Reading of Waiting for the Biblioburro: Finding the Main Message and Taking Notes

For Teachers 3rd Standards
Expose your class to Waiting for the Biblioburro, narrative nonfiction that will act as the bridge between ficiton and informational texts to come. Class members do a close reading of the text, looking at excerpts instead of the whole...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

A Pill with a View

For Teachers 5th - 12th
Students brainstorm a list of potential uses for micro-video technologies. After reading an article, they analyze the development of a new pill-sized camera. In groups, they create a children's book that shows them the various systems of...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

What Do You See at the Pond?

For Teachers K - 2nd
With What Do You See at the Pond?, young readers explore pond life and practice reading strategies. Learners first make predictions and then read the simple story independently. After a second read-through with a partner, kids come...
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Lesson Plan
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Media Smarts

Bias in News Sources

For Teachers 9th - 12th
As young consumers of media, it is important for high schoolers to explore concepts of bias and prejudice, and how they may be present in media. After discussing ideological messages that media can contain, individuals complete a warm-up...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Persona in Autobiography

For Teachers 10th - 12th Standards
A talkative old man? A naïve believer in Human Perfectibility? A Sage? Who is this guy, anyway? The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin launches a study of the way Franklin uses structure, style, and purpose, as well as different...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Reintroduce: Main Idea

For Teachers K - 3rd
What would a main idea be without important details? Readers use a graphic organizer to record key details from an informational text (a fiction text would also work). Review main idea as a concept before beginning, asking scholars to...
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Unit Plan
Roseburg Public Schools

Library Skills and Literature

For Teachers K - 5th Standards
The library is such a valuable resource for kids of all ages. Help elementary readers learn all about parts of the library, text features for both fiction and nonfiction text, and different ways to find books that they want to read.
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Lesson Plan
Civil War

Civil War Medicine: Fact or Fiction

For Teachers 7th - 12th Standards
Young historians compare the presentation of medical care during the Civil War in passages from fictional and nonfictional texts. They examine passages from Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell and Soldier's Heart by Gary Paulsen, and...
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Lesson Plan
EngageNY

Analyzing the Significance of the Novel’s Title: Connecting the Universal Refugee Experience to Inside Out and Back Again, Part 2

For Teachers 8th Standards
How does poetry help people better understand societal issues? Pupils participate in a jigsaw activity to analyze poems from the novel Inside Out & Back Again. Next, they connect the poems to real-life refugee experiences from the...
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Lesson Plan
K20 LEARN

Watch Your Tone: Tone Analysis Through Music And Nonfiction

For Teachers 10th - 11th
Identifying the tone of a piece of writing or the author's attitude toward the subject matter can be difficult for learners. Simplify the process with a lesson plan that begins with skits, moves to songs and their lyrics, and then to...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Find The Hidden Message: Media Literacy in Primary Grades

For Teachers K - 2nd
Learners practice listening to and reading various types of media and text. In groups, learners use video, newspapers, magazines, and more to compare and contrast different types of information. They identify the differences between fact...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

The Best Main Idea

For Teachers K - 4th Standards
What is the main idea? Interest your young readers with this fun introductory lesson! After selecting several items from a paper bag, the teacher leads learners to determine the big idea for those items. This concept is then applied to...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Fears and Phobias

For Teachers 7th - 10th
Take the fear out of reading with this series of three lessons from HotWire Magazine about fears and phobias. Each lesson contains pre-reading and post-reading activities aimed at improving learners' reading comprehension skills with the...
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Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Bias and Crime in Media

For Teachers 10th - 12th
Critical thinking and social justice are central themes for this resource on bias and crime in media. The class views and discusses an incisive PSA that highlights assumptions based on race. Small groups read newspaper opinion pieces...

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