Sail with Christopher Columbus on a biographical reading adventure. Young explorers learn about the life of Sir Columbus as they hone their comprehension skills through guiding questions, shared reading, and fluency practice. Included in...

In order to make evidence-based claims, one must be able to draw explicit information from text. From here, learners take that information, analyze the text to develop a deeper understanding, and connect with the information in order to...

To generate interest in some of the major issues in Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner, class members engage in a four corners activity that asks them or agree or disagree with a series of statements and provide reasons for their...

Everyone can be an expert! After finishing Wendelin Van Draanen's book Flipped, divide your class into small groups. Then, assign each group a topic to become experts on. The resource suggests topics such as characters, themes, setting,...

Does Amir have an obligation to find Sohrab and take him to the orphanage? That is the question class members debate as part of their reading of Khaled Hosseini's The Kite Runner. 

Help young readers align character relationships in an activity for Kyoko Mori's Shizuko's Daughter. After kids discuss the characters and how they relate to each other, they use index cards and a graphic organizer to outline the...

Students are given a science reading assignment outside the text followed by a discussion on the content. The reading is augmented with a series of thought questions for students to consider prior to class discussion. They direst the...

Students study the New England colonies. In this colonies lesson, students use a directed reading-thinking method to learn about the New England colonies. Students follow the method to make predictions, read the text, and analyze the...

In this parent and child activity, young learners read Martin’s Big Words and a biography of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. There is a wonderful guided reading pdf that defines challenge words and provides reading tips. The object of...

Introduce young learners to the idea of disabilities and making friends with children who are different than they are. Using Don't Call Me Special - A First Look at Disability by Pat Thomas, learners are guided through the new...

Young scholars explore the book Billy Brown and the Belly Button Beastie. For this verb, onomatopoeia, and syllable lesson, students pantomime verbs, read onomatopoeia from the story and clap out syllables. Young scholars unscramble...

Read Pink and Say and discuss the Civil War with your upper elementary learners. They create a KWL about the Civil War and record words relating to the Civil War as they read the book. Then they work in groups to create an ABC...

As part of the introduction to Edward Bloor's Tangerine, class members generate a KWHL chart listing what they know, what they want find out, how they plan to find this information, and what they have learned or still want to learn.

If you need to bulk up your reading comprehension worksheet collection, take a look at a resource that includes graphic organizers and reading comprehension questions. The series of 50 worksheets addresses novels such as Julie of...

Scholars gain an insight into the relative size of planets and distance between inner and outer planets with the help of informational text, a data table, and a series of four questions.  

Break your class into groups and have them read certain passages from the text Flipped (included here). After every two paragraphs, the groups stop to answer the questions included. Which questions provided are right there questions?...

Are you enjoying the use of all five senses? Imagine that you have to lose one of them; you can choose which one, but it's gone forever. Work through a lesson based on Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis that asks class...

What is Labor Day, and why do we celebrate it? Find out using an online scavenger hunt in which pupils search one website to locate information and answer a series of five short-answer questions. 

Split the class into two groups for a fishbowl discussion using of Jerry Spinelli's Maniac Magee. The first group initiates the conversation by reviewing the important points of Chapter thirteen while group two...

Chapter 12 of The Hobbit provides the text for an exercise that asks readers to use the QAR strategy to develop and respond to questions about story.

To gain insight into the many different types of habitats, individuals must first get to know their own. Here, scholars explore their school environment, draw a map, compare and contrast their surroundings to larger ones. They then...

Even someone with a dark side can make a good decision—and vice versa. Readers explore Cole's traits and decisions in Ben Mikaelson's Touching Spirit Bear and analyze his sunside and...

Celebrate Eric Carle’s beloved children’s books, especially those about animals. Teachers and readers alike engage in Carle’s books as they explore the art and color in each of his stories, and how these elements support comprehension.

What was everyday life like in Colonial Virginia? To find the answer cooperative groups work collaboratively to read an informational handout and complete a graphic organizer. The speaker of the group then shares their new-found...