Maryland Department of Education
The Concept of Identity Lesson 1: Close Reading/Socratic Seminar
John Knowles' A Separate Peace provides readers with an opportunity to develop their close reading and analytical skills as they look for what Knowles feels are the factors that shape our identity.
Curated OER
Assessing Reading Fluency Using the Flip Video
Utilizing a video camera, learners will read a story while being recorded. Later, they analyze the footage. After identifying their strengths and weaknesses with the teacher, they discuss reading fluency techniques. Adaptation: Instead...
PBS
Pbs: Academic Vocabulary in the Common Core: Middle School English Language Arts
This video [14:33] shows a demonstration of academic vocabulary instruction through the context of a complex work, a poem. The teacher demonstrates how to access the literal meaning of new vocabulary and then infer the deeper meaning....
Buck Institute
Pbl Works: What Does It Mean to Align Pbl With Common Core?
[Free Registration/Login Required] Seeing the phrase "CCSS Aligned" on everything and wondering if it truly aligned? This article and video discusses five considerations to look for in problem based learning. To ensure alignment to...
Annenberg Foundation
Annenberg Learner: Analyzing Complex Text
During this lesson, students will use close reading strategies to analyze aspects of the setting in The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain. [7:57] CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.10, RL.11-12.10a/b Text Complexity
McGraw Hill
Mc Graw Hill: How to Use Strategies to Teach Students to Access Complex Texts
In this short video, the strategies of summarizing, clarifying, and asking-answering questions are used. These instructional tools will help teachers show students how to access complex texts. [5:54] CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.10
Better Lesson
Better Lesson: Rl.4.10: Read and Comprehend Literature in Grades 4 and 5
Links to 94 lessons and activities that build student skills in standard RL.4.10: By the end of the year, read and comprehend literature, including stories, dramas, and poetry, in the grades 4 and 5 text complexity band proficiently,...
Writing Fix
Writing Fix: Story Starting Participles
In this activity, Roni Schotter's picture book entitled The Boy Who Loved Words is used as the mentor text. This Language Arts Common Core Standards-aligned activity pre-writing task engages students in writing a collection of ideas of...
Better Lesson
Better Lesson: Cities in Mesopotamia: Understanding a Complex Text
In this instructional activity, 6th graders use details from a nonfiction article to create a visual representation and then, from that visual, provide evidence that demonstrates their understanding of the text. Includes samples of...
Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD)
Ascd: Building Literacy in Social Studies: Ch 1: Reading Social Studies Texts
Article provides excellent tips and strategies for building comprehension and critical thinking skills in Social Studies. It describes some of the challenges students have with reading and understanding their textbooks.
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: Themes in Literary Texts (English 6 Reading)
Learn how to infer the implicit theme in a work of fiction, distinguish theme from topic, and make complex inferences using textual evidence.
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: Analyze Development of Plot Through Characters in Literary Text
[Accessible by TX Educators. Free Registration/Login Required] Often characters are a driving force behind the plot. In this lesson, students will learn how complex, multilayered characters contribute to the development of a story's plot...
Sophia Learning
Sophia: Reading Comprehension and Classroom Discussions
This tutorial focuses on active reading comprehension strategies including reading aloud, taking notes, summarizing, and writing in the margins of books to improve retention and class discussion. It includes two Flickr videos on active...
Sophia Learning
Sophia: Critical Reading as a Learning Strategy
This tutorial focuses on critical reading using a downloadable PowerPoint presentation, "Critical Reading 101," which includes separating fact from opinion, 6 propaganda techniques, and 6 common fallacies in reasoning. Also provided is...
AdLit
Ad lit.org: Seven Strategies to Teach Students Text Comprehension
Comprehension strategies are conscious plans - sets of steps that good readers use to make sense of text. Comprehension strategy instruction helps students become purposeful, active readers who are in control of their own reading...
AdLit
Ad lit.org: Key Literacy Component: Text Comprehension
Text comprehension allows readers to extract or construct meaning from the written word. Students who misread words or misinterpret their meanings are at a disadvantage. Proper instruction can boost students' skills in this key area.
Education.com
Education.com: Rl.3.10 Worksheets: By End of the Year, Read and Comprehend Lit
[Free Registration/Login Required] Links to 30 worksheets and graphic organizers that can be downloaded and printed. Each worksheet focuses on skills highlighted in standard RL.3.10: By the end of the year, read and comprehend...
CPALMS
Cpalms: Lafs.1112.rst.1.3: Follow Precisely a Complex Multistep Procedure
Find a collection of standards-aligned teacher and student resources where students follow procedural text.
Better Lesson
Better Lesson: Speaking, Listening and Writing Compound Contrasting Sentences
Students will be answering text-dependent questions in which they will have to describe the differences between the different characters, settings, and major events in our stories using complex contrasting sentences. The students will...
Other
Ncrel: Reading Strategies: Before, During, and After [Pdf]
This page provides a detailed chart to aid students' understanding of texts. It goes through the steps of pre-reading, during reading, and after reading, outlining what students should be thinking about as they interact with a text. This...
ReadWriteThink
Read Write Think: Using Comprehension Strategies With Elie Wiesel's Night
Working in small groups, students read and discuss Elie Wiesel's memoir Night and then take turns assuming the "teacher" role, as the class works with four different comprehension strategies.RI.11-12.4 Word meaning, RI.11-12.10b Text...
Education Development Center
Tv411: Tune in for Reading: Reading: Strategies for Better Reading
Self-checking interactive tutorial puts reading comprehension skills to work by asking learners to make inferences, predict what happens next, and identify the main ideas in a series of short reading passages. Related materials include...
Other
Reading Quest: Making Sense of Social Studies
Teaching students to read well in areas other than language arts requires teaching and reinforcing the kinds of reading strategies taught here. There are 27 strategies, ranging from brainstorming to word mapping. The site includes PDF...
Library of Congress
Loc: Teachers: Personal Stories and Primary Sources
Students will explore the value of personal stories and first-hand accounts when exploring history, in this case, the events of the early twentieth century, which included World War I and the Great Depression. Through this five-unit...