Curated OER
Under Construction
Young readers examine the elements of story structure that are included in all stories. They include these elements in their own written pieces. This phenomenally-designed plan has everything you need to easily implement it in your...
Curated OER
Caves
Explore caves with your class! Your scholars will participate in scientific observation, research, inference and deduction, reading, vocabulary, and writing activities about caves with this lesson plan. This resource contains five...
Curated OER
Answering Carnival Questions with the Scientific Method
Through the use of a Reading Rainbow episode, clever in-class games and activities, and an ITV Series video, second and third graders engage in a study of the scientific method; what it is, and how scientists use it. This well-designed...
Curated OER
What A Pair! A Cross Grade Writing Activity
What a pair! Older pupils interview younger ones and use what they learn to write a short, illustrated storybook that features the youngster as the main character. The youngster responds with a thank-you note in which they identify their...
For the Teachers
Main Idea Outline
Find the main idea in an informational text with a versatile lesson. Three levels of differentiation help you implement the strategy in any age or class level, based on the ability and objectives of your learners.
California Education Partners
Kitten's First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes
A 3-day exam assesses readers' comprehension. After hearing a passage from the story Kittens First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes, scholars work with a partner to discuss and sketch what they found memorable. Peers share their final products...
California Department of Education
Transitioning to High School
How do scholars prepare to take their next big step? The second in a series of six career and college readiness activities focuses on making a smooth transition from middle to high school. Groups research the resources available at their...
Baruch College Writing Center
Summarizing, Paraphrasing, and Quoting Workshop
What's the difference between summarizing and paraphrasing? Show class members how to find the main ideas from informational text and condense it, restate it, or quote it directly with a series of educational activities based...
For the Teachers
Fact vs. Opinion
Many informational texts are written as factual, but can your learners determine when an opinion is presented as fact? Have your kids read several articles on the same topic and record the statements that contain either facts or...
California Education Partners
Eleven
It is difficult to articulate how growing up feels as accurately and beautifully as Sandra Cisneros does in her short story "Eleven." After seventh graders read the story and note the author's use of figurative language, they respond to...
Curated OER
Bias and Crime in Media
Critical thinking and social justice are central themes for this resource on bias and crime in media. The class views and discusses an incisive PSA that highlights assumptions based on race. Small groups read newspaper opinion pieces...
Curated OER
How are People Portrayed by Different Media?
Your 9th - 12th graders can hone their analysis and critical thinking skills by studying the way a subject is portrayed across media types. They examine how various print, visual, and online sources have portrayed key players in the 9/11...
August House
Why Koala Has a Stumpy Tail
Learn about the animals of Australia with a language arts lesson about an Australian folktale called, Why Koala Has a Stumpy Tail. After reading the story as a class, kids discuss events and characters from the book, retell the...
Fabius-Pompey School District
Paired Passage Practice and the Extended Response Question
How do pupils relate paired passages to each other? Here's a resource that helps! The lesson includes a short story and a poem as a set of paired reading passages, followed by some analysis questions. It also includes an essay template...
Teacher Created Resources
Angelina and Sarah Grimke: Sisters of Social Reform
Who are the Grimke sisters? Scholars find out with a worksheet that details the struggles and triumphs of the lives of Angelina and Sarah Grimke. After reading an informational text, class members have the opportunity to show what they...
Pearson
Main Idea
The main idea of this resource is that you should take a look if you're planning to teach main ideas in your class! Cover just about everything you need to know about main ideas with a packet of materials that includes information and...
Curated OER
The Old Man and the Sea: Questioning Strategies
Readers learn to ask questions about text with an activity based on Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea. As they read, class members craft questions based on Bloom's Taxonomy and then find the answers themselves.
Smithsonian Institution
Cold War
The Cold War was not necessarily always cold in temperature, but the relationship between the United States and the Soviet Union sure was frigid! Scholars read various passages, view exhibition graphics, and observe an artifact from the...
NPR
Women Of Jamestown Lesson Plan
To better understand the role women played in early 17th century US history, class members examine the National Women's History Museum's online exhibit, Building the New World: the Women of Jamestown Settlement. After studying the 11...
Teacher Created Materials
The Tragedy of Julius Caesar
Bring Julius Caesar to life with a reader's theatre approach that engages the entire class. The opening exercises model the importance of reading with expression while choral reading exercises permit class members to practice their...
Terminix
Amazing Insect Facts
Insects are like little aliens living all around us. Explore fun and interesting insect facts by having the class read a short informational paragraph. The paragraph focuses on how we are similar and different to insects and includes...
Curated OER
Mini-Lesson: Planning for Inferences
The five lessons in this resource are designed to teach class members how to read between the lines, how to use personal experience/background knowledge/schema, along with the information in the text, to make assumptions about...
Center for Civic Education
Becoming an Informed Voter: Creating Initiatives
Continuing from a previous lesson on how to read and analyze proposed legislation on election ballots, your class members will now practice writing up their own proposals for a new school rule or local ordinance that will be...
EngageNY
Building Background Knowledge: Planning The Two Voice Poem
Scholars build background knowledge to understand the life and work of the union leader and labor organizer César Chávez. As they read teacher-selected resources, they complete a Building Background Knowledge worksheet and engage in...