For the Teachers
Cause and Effect Matrix
Study cause and effect in both literature and informational text with a lesson plan designed for several different reading levels. After kids review the concept of cause and effect, they read an article or story and note the causes and...
DePaul University
Bold Plans, Big Dreams, City Progress
Determining which statements represent fact or the author's opinion in an integral part of reading informational text. Encourage seventh graders to read a passage about Barack Obama and the city of Chicago, as well as a passage focused...
Curated OER
Asking and Answering Lower-Level Questions
Help your kindergartners with reading comprehension using this simple sentence strips approach. They answer basic questions about a simple sentence, determining the who and what of the story. Use the graphic organizer...
Curated OER
Reading Comprehension 4: Level 7
Make an impression with a reading comprehension assessment based on Claude Monet. After reading a short biographical paragraph about the famous French painter, readers demonstrate their comprehension skills by drawing inferences,...
Curated OER
Reading for Information
What should readers do to prepare for reading an informational text? What should they do during their reading? What should they do after completing such a text? Introduce your pupils to reading strategies and techniques to gain meaning...
Curated OER
Guided Reading: Main Idea
Readers are presented with a list of three questions and asked to actively listen to a story or article to answer them. They verbally answer the questions to learn the strategy. Next, read a story to them or have them silently read a...
Curated OER
Speed Racers
A review of decoding words is incorporated in a discussion on reading with expression in order to increase fluency. The teacher gives several book options for readers to practice smooth and inflected reading, giving a short book talk on...
Foreign Policy Research Institute
Comparing Regimes: Critical Reading of Memoirs and Experiences from Totalitarian Regimes
Can you imagine living in a totalitarian country? Learners will read several primary source memoirs to gain a deeper understanding of what life is like under a controlled government. They'll discuss each piece in pairs, research...
Curated OER
Reading Comprehension: History of the Periodic Table
Although the article that launches this lesson is about the history of the Periodic Table, the objective is reading comprehension. Using the eight-page informational text, learners answer five comprehension questions and craft one essay....
Curated OER
Leveled Vocabulary for And Then There Were None
Chaotic, perjury, tenacious, vague, predatory, idiosyncrasy. Using Marzano and Brown’s six steps of direct instruction for vocabulary (choose, restate, illustrate, use, discuss, play) readers of And Then There Were None engage in a...
Curated OER
Readings in Hudson River Natural History
Reading and understanding informational text is a key element to understanding every discipline. Elementary learners read three different articles focused on various animals and habitats in the Hudson River. They answer comprehension...
Curated OER
Introduction to Ozone Reading Activity
Simple, but suitable, this instructional activity gives mini-meteorologists a glimpse at ozone in the atmosphere. By reading an article, they find that ozone in the stratosphere is vital to life, but ozone in the troposphere is...
Curated OER
Antonyms 3: Level 10
Identifying antonyms is one strategy for increasing vocabulary and is the focus of a 10 problem, multiple-choice worksheet. In addition to the practice, learners will also benefit from a close reading of the provided answers and...
Curated OER
Reading Primary Source Documents: Historical Content
Why do we read primary source documents? What can they give us that other writings cannot? Provide your learners with any of the primary sources attached here (there are seven), and have them complete the graphic organizer (which opens...
Curated OER
Post-Reading Questions: "Cask of Amontillado" by Edgar Allan Poe
If your class has finish reading Edgar Allan Poe's "Cask of Amontillado" here's a great post-reading activity. Whether used as a reading assessment, as the basis of group discussion, or for whole class response, the fact-based,...
Curated OER
Descriptive Writing Using the Book Rumpelstiltskin
Use the fairy tale Rumpelstiltskin to teach your third grade class about descriptive writing. Following a teacher read-aloud of the story, the class brainstorms a list of adjectives describing the main character. Students use this list...
Illustrative Mathematics
Hundred Chart Digit Game
Math games, especially in the primary grades, provide great opportunities for developing the number sense of young mathematicians. Working in pairs with a deck of single-digit cards, students take turns drawing two cards and reading the...
Have Fun Teaching
Making Inferences Something Special (13)
Work on making inferences with a reading passage and comprehension questions. After kids read a short paragraph about Jalisa's birthday, they infer why she would be excited about receiving gifts from her brother.
Kenan Fellows
Reading Airline Maintenance Graphs
Airline mechanics must be precise, or the consequences could be deadly. Their target ranges alter with changes in temperature and pressure. When preparing an airplane for flight, you must read a maintenance graph. The second lesson of...
Curated OER
What Do Maps Show?: Lesson 4 How to Read a Topographic Map
Students examine the use of topographic maps as two dimensional representations that show elevations and slopes with contour lines. They read maps of the Salt Lake City, Utah area and complete the associated worksheets that show map...
Curated OER
Fluffy's Valentine Day
In these reading comprehension worksheets, students will read "Fluffy's Valentine Day" and work towards vocabulary development and story recall. Students unscramble 15 vocabulary words followed by a word search, a 12 sentence completion...
Curated OER
A Musical Accent Activity
Budding instrumentalists take on the task of reading accent marks and playing them correctly. They practice playing the provided rhythm or beat, focusing on emphasizing notes that have accents over them. The handout included provides...
Curated OER
Reading Comprehension
Whether you're looking to prepare your class for upcoming state testing or if you're looking to build reading comprehension, consider this resource! There's a short reading passage provided, followed by a list of five comprehension...
Curated OER
"The False Gems" by Guy de Maupassant
Readers must go beyond the surface level of Guy de Maupassant's story, "The False Gems," to answer the questions on this worksheet. They must draw inferences, evaluate character's actions, and analyze how irony and symbolism give depth...