Acquaint your class with informational text through a close reading. First, examine a couple of pages together, looking at text features and content. The whole class focuses on marking down a brief summary of each paragraph before...

Accompany informational text reading—independent or whole class—with a learning exercise that challenges scholars to examine the text's main idea, details, take notes, and record vocabulary words and their meanings.

Analyze informational text with a set of three worksheets that focus on the main idea and supporting details, and reinforces note taking skills, and the use of context clues to define new words. 

Augment your eighth grade language arts curriculum with a thorough set of reading comprehension activities and assessments. Focusing on a variety of skills, including vocabulary in context, text structure, main idea, and author's style,...

Students examine the effect of limiting factors, especially when it comes to human beings. They examine data from the Gulf of Maine area.

In the third activity from this unit based on the book Bullfrog at Magnolia Circle, learners focus on using specific details from the text-to-answer questions about the habitat of bullfrogs. While reading the text, young...

Discuss the environment of the Arctic tundra using this resource. The focus of this instructional activity is the story A Walk in the Tundra by Rebecca L. Johnson. The appealing illustrations are bound to captivate your class! After...

A fun lesson that utilizes toys and persuasion! After reading the article, which was written in 2005, pull some advertisements for toys currently being sold. These will be more relevant to your middle and high schoolers. What toy is a...

The first verse of A.A. Milne’s poem, Beetle, is the basis for a model of how to summarize a text. The two-page worksheet also includes a short story for guided practice, as well as summarizing questions, a story sharing activity, and an...

As 3rd graders continue reading Bullfrog at Magnolia Circle, they focus on the concepts of predator and prey in the fifth lesson plan of this unit. Scholars further develop their ability to answer questions using evidence from the text...

Investigate motivational problems using educational software as your students determine details and main ideas of the reading. the class practices sequencing activities and read scary and monster stories, then complete associated...

Sixth graders use short reading passages to identify, explain, and discuss the author's purpose for writing. After a lecture/demo, they utilize a graphic organizer embedded in this plan to organize their writing ideas.

As part of a group of lessons, your class will return to the primary text for this unit, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Key vocabulary as well as close reading strategies continue to be the focus skills; however, this lesson...

Scholars examine an excerpt from The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks and determine how the author builds up smaller details to create the larger idea of the main passage. To finish the lesson plan, learners discuss in pairs, answer...

A three-minute exercise warms-up scholars' writing abilities in order to follow a writing process that ends in an essay. The essay's topic is a barrier and the values used to break it. Four steps include choosing a topic,...

With this interactive resource, students learn about the main idea skill and practice the skill.

Celebrate Black History Month with the help of 10 ideas that delve deep into the history, major events, contributions, famous African Americans, and sheds light on how scholars today can take a proactive stance on current civil rights...

Third graders discover how to read sentences in a paragraph and know the main idea. In this main idea lesson, 3rd graders read paragraphs, underline the first and last sentences and determine the main idea. Students do guided and...

Second graders identify the main idea of a selection of text. In this creating a chapter title lesson, 2nd graders discuss how to find the main idea of a chapter, listen to a chapter read aloud, and create a title with explanation. 

Fourth graders identify the main idea of a sentence using the topic sentence and details of the paragraph. In this main idea lesson plan, 4th graders read paragraphs in the passage Hawaii Quakes, Then Shakes.

In this my family and other animals: Larry's Idea worksheet, student answer 22 questions about the story, Larry's Idea, match characters, put events in order, and rewrite sentences.

How did the ancient people of Egypt preserve their dead so well that their bodies are still recognizable today? Learn the painstakingly complex process they used for preservation. Young scholars read and summarize a narrative detailing...

Emerging consumers recognize the types and denominations of U.S. currency. They listen to a guest speaker (if possible) and view a video.  They create their own money using styrofoam and a toothpick for engraving. Consider creating...

This story is bound to motivate your class. Learners read a story called Elena by Diane Stanley. The story is about a young woman who marries for love but is soon widowed during the Mexican Revolution. She takes her children to...