State Bar of Texas
Baker v. Carr
Can the federal government override the state government to protect the citizens of the United States? The 1962 Supreme Court case Baker v. Carr outlines the issue of equal protection under the law. Scholars investigate with a short...
State Bar of Texas
Edgewood ISD v. Kirby
Have you ever wondered where the money comes from to pay for your school, teachers, supplies, and building? The 1989 Supreme Court case Edgewood ISD v. Kirby lays a framework for open discussion on the funding of public schools. Using a...
EngageNY
Building Background Knowledge: The Dinka and Nuer Tribes
Building on a previous lesson plan, readers continue using context clues to learn new vocabulary. Additionally, they continue working on their Gathering Evidence graphic organizers, making connections between an informational text and A...
Humanities Texas
Primary Source Worksheet: Theodore Roosevelt, Excerpt from Inaugural Address
"Much has been given us, and much will rightfully be expected from us." As part of a series of worksheets that provide readers with an opportunity to develop their primary source comprehension skills, kids examine an excerpt from...
Curated OER
Close Reading of “The Necklace”
Designed for teachers, this 12-page packet uses passages from Guy de Maupassant's "The Necklace" to model how to design activities that encourage close reading of complex text.
Student Achievement Partners
Eleven
Turning 11 comes with a range of emotions. Explore those emotions by reading the short story "Eleven" by Sandra Cisneros. Readers analyze the main character's reactions to the events of her day. Then, they write an essay describing what...
Farmington Public Schools
British Literature Honors: Beowulf
Whether new to teaching Beowulf or an experience pro, you'll find much to like in a richly detailed unit plan that asks readers to consider how the epic represents the difficulty in defining good and evil but also reflects the changing...
Health Smart Virginia
Tinkle Times
The big idea in the last lesson in the Health Smart series is that individuals must practice emotional first aid, that just as we take care of physical injuries, we must take care of emotional injuries. Scholars watch a short video and...
Curated OER
Picture It!
Pupils participate in visualization exercises as a reading comprehension strategy. As the teacher reads a poem, the students visualize the setting, then read the poem "Daddy's Making Dinner" and create a drawing of what they visualize...
Curated OER
Sensational Summarizers
Students study strategies that aid comprehension. They focus on the main ideas of a passage and eliminate unnecessary and repetitive information. They substitute super ordinate terms for a list of items and create a topic sentence.
Curated OER
Read and Remember - Story Grammar
Pupils use the Story Grammar strategy to outline the main elements of the story which will help them with free recall and cued recall. The strategy includes: identifying the main characters in the story, recalling where and when the...
Curated OER
Don't Despise, Summarize!
Students are introduced to strategies that they can use to summarize text. After reading an article, they use five steps to accurately summarize the material to share with the class. They also review what it means to comprehend what...
Curated OER
When Sophie Gets Angry-Really, Really Angry
Students explore feelings. In this language arts lesson, students realize that books help in talking about feelings. Students discuss how they feel during the reading of a story and listen to each other in answering various comprehension...
Curated OER
Reader's Workshop: Julius
First graders use prior knowledge and reading strategies for the story (Julius). In this reader's workshop instructional activity, 1st graders use elbow buddies to discuss parts of the story during guided reading. Students...
Curated OER
Kumara From the Farmer's Field
Learners discuss the essay, Kumara From the Farmer's Field and examine strategies for organizing facts for future reference. In this reading comprehension lesson, students pretend they are advertising executives who must create a grocery...
Curated OER
Remembering What We Read
Pupils discover strategies to help them better understand the stories they read. As a familiar story is read to the class, individuals practice answering basic questions about the main characters, settings, problems, etc. while...
Curated OER
The Tell - Tale Heart
Students read The Tell Tale Heart and practice critical analysis while reflecting on its underlying meanings. In this reading lesson, students make predictions, monitor their own comprehension and adjust their reading accordingly....
Curated OER
In a Nutshell....
Students examine how to summarize the most important details in a reading passage in order to increase their comprehension. They design a story web using the summarization skills. Before class, they complete a reading assignment prior to...
Curated OER
Musicians and Vampires
Students practice techniques and strategies for understanding the parts of a story to help them remember what they've read. They review and analyze the elements of a story and how to find them first in a paragraph and then in a book.
Curated OER
What's the Main Idea?
Fourth graders comprehend what they are reading. An effective strategy for comprehension is summarization. They single out and explaining the main ideas of a passage. Students find a sentence or rewrite their own that covers...
Curated OER
To Sum It All Up...
Students one main goal when reading is to comprehend, and one strategy to improve reading comprehension is summarization. As students begin reading expository texts, it is vital for them to be able to pick out and summarize the main...
Curated OER
Ask Questions About a Topic
Students explore reading comprehension by completing a graphic organizer. In this journalism technique lesson, students discuss important questions they can ask about stories they read to improve comprehension. Students identify keywords...
Curated OER
Guided Reading: Family Picnic
Students blend phonemes. For this guided reading lesson, students create words by blending isolated phonemes. Students read a book discussing families.
Curated OER
Guided Reading: Shapes Where We Play
Students discover shapes on a playground. For this guided reading lesson, students discover new vocabulary words related to shapes as they read Shapes Where We Play. In small groups, students use picture clues and one to one matching to...