What should readers do to prepare for reading an informational text? What should they do during their reading? What should they do after completing such a text? Introduce your pupils to reading strategies and techniques to gain meaning...

Explore the multiple meanings of common homographs with this fun language arts activity. Given a series of word webs and a pile of definition cards, pupils complete each web by matching four different definitions to each target word.

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...

A two-day assessment challenges scholars to read an excerpt from the story, Bud Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis then complete a series of exercises in preparation for a writing assignment. Day one includes an independent...

Class members work to translate the Declaration of Independence into their own words, as well as design a Facebook page within the context of 1776 to raise public awareness about the document and its meaning for citizens.

How can opinions slant facts? Workshop participants learn how to examine primary and secondary sources and identify the author's point of view. They also examine how visual art impacts the meaning and rhetoric of sources. Full of...

Before continuing to read the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, learners need to understand why and how this document was written. First, show and discuss a video from UNICEF to demonstrate the need for such a document. Then...

Immaculate, accumulation, dissipation. Vocabulary drawn from chapter 16 of James McBride's memoir, The Color of Water, can prove to be challenge for readers. To help kids understand the meaning of these words and what they add to the...

High schoolers log their computer usage hours. They determine the mean, median, mode and standard deviation of the collected data. They make a frequency histogram of the grouped data, both on graph paper, and on the TI 83+ graphing...

Following extensive modeling about how to apply word analysis and vocabulary skills to learn new words, partner teams create brief word presentations to teach new vocabulary to the class. Preselect words from upcoming social studies,...

Students analyze one way to help in comprehending information from text is summarization. They encounter that summarizing includes instruction on how to delete trivial details and redundancies, place items and events in order, and create...

With a chapter book in hand, readers practice visualizing the events and characters of the story. The instructional activity gives suggestions of novels that are rich in detail to help facilitate the process. Drawings from what they read...

The fourth standard for reading literature in the Common Core calls for young readers to be able to determine the figurative and connotative meanings of words and phrases. Use this resource, a continuation of a series of Common Core...

Here is a great little reading and vocabulary development lesson created just for learners with special needs. The lesson is constructed with both core content and necessary adaptations in mind. The group will use PECS, pointing/gesture,...

Students listen to a story and chime whenever they hear rhyming word pairs. Students generate other rhyming words that rhyme with each pair from the story. Students draw and/or paint illustrations to go along with a rhyming song given....

Students identify and interpret the function, usefulness or utitlity, form, beauty or aesthetics, and meaning, context or story, of objects and how they learn new skills and make things that they learn traditionally, by observation and...

Students keep a steady beat by body movement exercises, improvise, identify a beat/no beat sequence and sing a nursery rhyme from Portugal in this Kindergarten General Music lesson. The use of simple rhythmic instruments is required.

Third graders read the story "The Woman Who Outshone the Sun" from the Scott Foresman reading series. They create puppets and a setting out of a shoebox and retell the story with props. They research the Oaxaca region and the Zapotecs.

Fifth graders practice making inferences on various types of reading material. As a class, they develop a definition of the word "theme" and discuss themes for some of their favorite stories. They use the context of the reading...

Third graders explore poetry by completing a worksheet.  In this poetry lesson, 3rd graders create a quilt using images students have drawn based on imagery.  Students practice using vocabulary from the poem "Adventures of...

Students identify base words and their inflectional forms. In this base words lesson plan, students learn how adding "ing" can change the meaning of the word, and they fill in a chart with different forms of base words.

First graders examine the word and sentence structure of reading, writing, speaking, and listening effectively. In this structural analysis lesson, 1st graders review the ending of compound words, root words and their usages.

Pupils collect data from classmates about their favorite animal. They use the ClarisWorks graphing program to enter data, graph results, and interpret data.

Fourth graders understand the benefits of recycling. In this recycling literacy lesson, 4th graders read an article and identify the main idea. Students understand the process of transfer to the landfill and discuss how recycling helps...