Elementary readers in literature groups practice summarizing chapter-by-chapter with Roald Dahl's James and the Giant Peach. Focus on main idea, supporting details, and the 5 Ws. Unfortunately, a clever "peach" graphic organizer to which...

Strap on those backpacks, it's time to travel through history with this literature unit based on the first four books of The Magic Tree House series. While reading through these fun stories, children create story maps, record...

Students read a text and summarize what they have read to others. In this summarization worksheet, students also cross out unimportant details.

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...

Could the history of bread really be interesting? Yes, it could! An informational text gives scholars wheat production background from 8,000 years ago, discussing different types of bread and the current industry in Oklahoma. Learners...

Students build a variety of comprehension skills through the nine lessons of this unit. Picturing events, monitoring understanding during reading, forming questions, and summarizing stories form the core of the lessons being taught...

As your class finishes the novel Dragonwings, use these culminating projects. A vocabulary list is given for chapters eleven and twelve and either an epitaph or letter activity concludes the book. The final project consists of creating a...

Dive into journalism with your high schoolers! The resources provided here will help your learners write unbiased, clear, and succinct newspaper articles. First they spend time sifting through stacks of articles, filling out a graphic...

Having students use a rubric to score a piece of writing is an excellent practice. They read a passage titled, "Firefighters," and discuss different summaries that were written about it. They evaluate several summaries then score them...

Improve writing skills using methods from Robert Gay's Writing Through Reading; Gay espouses reproducing the work of successful writers to build the ability to convey original ideas effectively. Young writers transcribe, paraphrase,...

Who is Mo Willems? Explore the author with your class. Learners read books written by Willems, compare and contrast the characters therein, and make predictions about what will happen. Finish off this author study by having small groups...

Students recognize the importance of summarizing in this instructional activity. They "sum up" an article about monarch butterflies. Students practice writing summaries of the article charging themselves 10 cents/word. They try to...

Compare and contrast World War II to the modern Iraq war with this instructional activity. After watching a film, learners use supporting evidence to support their point of view of the conflicts. Using the internet, they create a...

Connect to real-world experiences by having your primary learners create an award certificate based upon literal and inferential information from a story. They present the award to a character from a story and explain the criteria used....

Double click that mouse because you just found an amazing lesson! This cross-curricular Ornithology lesson incorporates literature, writing, reading informational text, data collection, scientific inquiry, Internet research, art, and...

It is key to the learning process to make everything a child with visual impairments does as tactile as possible. After reading Anne of Green Gables, the class discusses her life events in order to make a tactile time line. They...

Young scholars explore the basic concept of micro-financing. In this economics/literacy lesson, students listen to One Hen by Katie Smith, in which a small loan changes the life of the main character. Young scholars employ comprehension...

Students practice summarizing text by retelling what they have read. They read selected, leveled passages and use enthusiastic and createive ways to members of their group. Students complete a journal entry documenting their experience...

Students create a classroom story quilt. In this literacy lesson plan, students recall events from a text and illustrate their favorite part of the story on a quilt piece. The quilt is sewn together to form a classroom quilt.

A thorough activity introduces learners to Hans Christian Andersen, the nineteenth-century author who created wonderful tales. They read the original texts of several of his stories, including "The Ugly Duckling," "The Little Mermaid,"...

High schoolers analyze the problems with staging and character using the play Julius Caesar. They summarize the final scene of the play and view film versions of the scene. Additionally, they prepare a promptbook for the final scene and...

Create baseball cards for literary characters with this lesson plan. It introduces learners to baseball cards, their components (stats, picture, etc.), and prompts them to draft and publish their own cards based on figures from...

Students with hearing loss read independently and understand what is being read to them. In this independent reading lesson plan, students sequence and discuss the book that is read.

Pupils research the history of paper money using the Internet in order to answer questions and create their own bills.