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QAR: Question Answer Relationships with an example from Canyons by Gary Paulsen
As you're reading Gary Paulsen's tale of self discovery and adventure, Canyons, bring this questioning strategy into your classroom. The QAR questioning strategy is meant to encourage a deeper analysis of the text, as some questions are...
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Pairing Picture Books with Edith Hamilton's Mythology
As a before reading strategy, class members select a tale from mythology, examine several picture book versions of the myth, and fill out part of a Venn diagram with observations about the hero in particular and the myth in general.They...
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Required Annotations and the Dialectical Journal
Does your class annotate to deepen their understanding of a text? Before they jump into Night by Elie Wiesel, have them practice annotating with a short excerpt. Provided here is a guide to annotation and a two-page excerpt on the...
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"Guermo's Surprise"
Have you ever thrown a surprise party? Use this question to engage your intermediate English language learners. After a brief discussion, read the passage "Guermo's Surprise," and have learners answer the 10 multiple-choice questions...
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Themes in To Kill a Mockingbird
Can you name the most important themes in To Kill a Mockingbird? Help your class study seven themes throughout their reading of the classic. They search for examples linking to education, bravery/cowardice, racial prejudice, social class...
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Jump-Start the Reading of Authentic Latin
Are your advanced learners reading authentic Latin this year? Whether you're teaching Caesar, Cicero or Virgil, use some of these strategies to map out your unit. What do you focus on? Consider taking small passages and making that the...
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Cloze Reading: The House on Mango Street
An advocate of cloze reading? “Marin”, a chapter from Sandra Cisneros’ The House on Mango Street, is used as the basis of a cloze reading exercise. An answer sheet is provided.
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Comprehension: Identify the Main Idea from Text
Children in first grade listen and read along with the teacher to practice main idea identification. They use the provided reading passages to read, locate the main idea and supporting details. This is a fully scripted lesson which means...
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Reading Skills: Chunking
Prepare advanced English learners and low-level readers for the reading demands of post-secondary education with skill of chunking. Readers learn to make meaning from phrases rather than individual words, helping them to read more...
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The Real Tooth Fairy
First graders listen to the story "The Real Tooth Fairy and explore the concept of mental images. In this mental image instructional activity, 1st graders create a mental image of what the tooth fairy looks like. Students listen to the...
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Identifying a Title for a Passage Based on the Main Idea
Third graders create a title. For this lesson students read a passage and discuss the main idea. Students determine the main idea for each paragraph of the passage. Students choose a main idea for the passage and use the main idea to...
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Winning the Vote for Women
Students read and respond to the text, Mama Went to Jail for the Vote. In this literary response lesson, students are introduced to vocabulary terms and read the book. Students discuss various text-to-self connections they made to the book.
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Prereading
Fourth graders participate in think-pair-share reading strategy in this lesson. They identify their purpose for reading as well as purposes for reading fiction/nonfiction. They list and discuss several prereading activities, and then...
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Traveling With Limited Funds; A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
Middle schoolers participate in a pre-reading activity which helps them see what it would be like to live in poverty. In this reading comprehension lesson, students make a list of items they take on a trip considering they have very...
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Literacy in Content Areas: Think Aloud
Fifth graders examine the "think aloud" reading strategy. In this reading strategies lesson, 5th graders apply the think aloud strategy to solving word problems in math.
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Reading Response Log
In this reading strategy activity, 5th graders choose a reading strategy to respond to what they previously read. Students use the sentence starters to help them complete the activity.