In this article, the Collaborative Strategic Reading (CSR) technique is explained, along with research to support the use. The technique teaches students to use comprehension strategies, while working cooperatively, as they engage in the...

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.

Can you name the five essential components of reading? Check out this informative site from Papa Jan.com to learn more about phonemic awareness, phonics, reading fluency, vocabulary development and reading comprehension.

This site offers links to several lesson plans for teaching main ideas to first and second graders; it also provides and explains some activities for teaching the main idea to first graders.

[Free Registration/Login Required] Students read a nonfiction text about building a model for a new playground and answer questions about comprehension, supporting details, main ideas, vocabulary, and more. Links to a paired text and...

[Free Registration/Login Required] Students read a nonfiction text about the Campanile bell tower in Berkeley, California and answer questions about comprehension, supporting details, main ideas, transitions, and more. Links to a paired...

Students will partner read The Kite, by Alma Flor Ada. Then work together in small collaborative groups to describe the character of the mother, the children, or the kitten. Included in this lesson are video demonstrations, printable...

Links to 44 lessons and activities that build student skills in standard SL.3.2: Determine the main ideas and supporting details of a text read aloud or information presented in diverse media and formats, including visually,...

Explore a list of simple things that principals can do to help all children learn to read. Come and learn more about the collaboration process with school administrators, teachers and staff.

English Campus is an excellent site for Chinese speakers learning English. It includes seven channels - Watch, Read, Practice, Play, Create, Meet, and a Teachers' Corner. Learn by playing word and grammar games, watching movies and...

This lesson plan models an information-gathering process for primary learners as they listen to and look at resources, seeking information pertinent to the questions on an information wheel. Guiding the listening, looking, and learning...

This series of 12 downloadable activities teach students some basics of story writing, using books or videos from the PBS "Arthur" series as a springboard. Activities include creating story maps, asking questions about characters and...

In this instructional resource, students will learn more about summarizing texts. Worksheets and PowerPoint lessons are provided to reinforce understanding about ways to summarize nonfiction texts and to identify main ideas. This module...

ACT has developed this list of activities to help middle-school students improve their reading ability. Parents and educators can use this information to help ensure that these students are on target for college and career readiness.

Reading 101 is a self-paced professional development course for K-3 teachers. It presents some of the core information that teachers need to help young children learn to read and write well and to support the children who struggle. The...

This comprehensive teacher's guide for the book "Zathura" by Chris Van Allsburg provides us with an opportunity to examine how writers blend scientific information with a fictional story.

Extensive site for teaching Spanish-speaking ELL. The theme of this unit is animals. Exercise follows short reading. Instructions are in Spanish; exercise in English.

What is meant by "school climate", and how can you assess the climate at your school? Read on for helpful definitions, assessment ideas, tools, and resources.

Pre-reading activities can engage student interest, activate prior knowledge, or pre-teach potentially difficult concepts and vocabulary. They also offer a great opportunity to introduce comprehension components such as cause and effect,...

Organizing information questions ask you to understand and analyze how a passage works to make an argument. What is the progression of ideas in the passage? or What is the purpose of a specific paragraph?

Engaging all students in a themed study or unit is a challenge that teachers can resolve by using materials that match students' independent or instructional reading levels (Robb 1994, 2000). When students face textbooks that are above...

A teacher created lesson plan to help students conquer how to make connections between directions in an effort to create something. This activity will have students sharing recipes and understanding why recipes should be followed in...

This is a lesson plan for teaching storytelling and/or fables to first graders including listening, reading, lesson plan learned (moral), and follow up ideas.

This collection of storytelling activities-developed by storyteller/author Heather Forest for her storytelling workshops with pupils, teachers, and librarians-can be expanded by educators into language arts lesson plans to support...