A learning module that teaches students about using text features to guide reading in three mini lessons: Engaging with Text, Literary Think-Aloud, and Informational Think-Aloud. Download a PDF with lesson plans and printable handouts...

This article provides tips for using nonfiction with guided reading and independent reading. The following strategies are shared: ways to help kids select "just right" nonfiction books; lessons to use with nonfiction in guided reading...

In this instructional activity, students will engage in a second guided reading of "Don't Need Friends" by Carolyn Crimi. Students will compare and contrast elements within the story and elements between two stories.

Contains plans for three lessons to improve reading comprehension using a visualizing strategy called sketch-to-stretch. In addition to objectives and standards, this instructional plan contains links to sites used in the lessons as well...

Guide to F. Scott Fitzgerald's The Great Gatsby, with historical information about the novel's Jazz Age setting, an author biography, and access to a radio program (audio plus transcript) of excerpts from the novel and analysis of its...

Guide to Ernest Hemingway's A Farewell to Arms, with historical information, author biography, discussion questions, and a ten-lesson unit of study with activities, assignments, project ideas, and essay topics. A radio show, with...

Contains plans for four 50-minute lessons that ask students to use their five senses for poetry prewriting. In addition to student objectives and standards, this instructional plan contains links to PDF handouts and sites used in the...

This lesson introduces learners to the comprehension strategy of evaluating. Students learn this strategy through the "meeting of the minds" technique that teaches them to act out opposing views of two or more characters.

Lesson that introduces students to the comprehension technique of summarizing. Students learn using the QuIP (questions into paragraphs) method which involves organizing information and putting it in writing.

How do you approach Recognition questions? Perhaps the most basic task of Reading Comprehension on the LSAT is that of recognizing things that the passage text states on a literal, explicit level, so these types of questions may seem...

[Free Registration/Login Required] Lesson uses Bats by Gail Gibbons to teach students how to identify facts learned from labeled diagrams within an informational text. Ideas for direct teaching, guided practice, and independent practice...

Guide to the poetry of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, including historical context, author biography, discussion questions, and a ten-lesson unit of study with discussion activities, homework assignments, and essay topics.

This reference site provides within-sentence punctuation. This site accompanies the Praxis Core Reading Test.

Use this instructional activity to delve into the exploration of character development in fiction through the novel "Bright Morning," by Scott O'Dell.

Contains plans for five lessons that develop research skills in primary students by having them create their own question and answer books. In addition to objectives and standards, this instructional plan contains links to sites used in...

[Free Registration/Login Required] A lesson in which students use the books Froggy Goes to School by Jonathan London and Life Cycle of a Frog by Angela Royston to learn to classify texts as fiction or nonfiction. Lesson includes direct...

This lesson focuses on the how to approach the analysis of poetry. It provides a series of student activities such as having young scholars read and compare a draft and the final version of William Blake's "Tyger" which is followed by a...

[Free Registration/Login Required] Lesson uses The Grouchy Ladybug by Eric Carle to teach young scholars predict the outcome of a story by using clues provided in pictures and in repeated texts. Ideas for direct teaching, guided...

This lesson focuses on how to write a literary criticism, the different theories and approaches to literary criticism, and their standard format.

[Free Registration/Login Required] This website provides a lesson in which students learn to use a dictionary to determine the meanings of unfamiliar words. The lesson utilizes the book The Mitten by Jan Brett and includes directions for...

[Free Registration/Login Required] This is a lesson plan in which young scholars learn to use context clues in surrounding sentences to determine the meanings of unfamiliar words. The lesson plan utilizes the book The Life Cycle of an...

This lesson 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...

Students will have an opportunity to create memorials at the World Trade Center site to commemorate the September 11th attacks. Come and check it out.

Guide to A Wizard of Earthsea by Ursula K. Le Guin with information on historical context, discussion questions, and additional resources on the book. A teachers guide includes ten lessons designed to lead classes through the book with...