Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Locate Key Information in Nonfiction Text

For Teachers 3rd - 5th
Interpret nonfiction text with your class. Readers use key information found in nonfiction text to answer questions and problem solve. They utilize the chapter headings, diagrams, glossary, maps, and captions as well as the table of...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Julian Secret Agent: Commas

For Teachers 3rd - 4th Standards
Your class participates in a variety of shared reading and writing activities related to the book Julian Secret Agent. They complete a class story chart, examine how to use punctuation for dialogue, write an alternative...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Holes Comprehension Companion

For Teachers 4th - 7th
Here is a one-stop planning resource for Louis Sachar's Newbery Award-winning book Holes. You'll find 21 links to worksheets and various activities designed to span the entire book. Learners draw to help analyze settings and...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

How Do You Spend Your Money?

For Teachers 5th
Fifth graders examine ways to save and spend money. They look at ways that people earn, save, and spend money using chapters from Tom Birdseye's Tarantula Shoes. They add and subtract decimals to fill in a worksheet entitled, "Is It a...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

Counting Up/Down Stories

For Teachers 6th - 10th
Mirroring Jerry Spinelli's style in Wringer, chapter 5, pupils use the "counting up/down technique" to recall an important moment in their lives. In the book, the character is being punched, and between blows he remembers details...
Handout
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Mississippi Trial, 1955: Concept Analysis

For Students 7th - 12th
Considering Christopher Crowe's Mississippi Trial, 1955 with reading groups or as a whole-class text? Check out the background information and instructional ideas in this seven-page resource packet.
Lesson Plan
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How To Write a Social Studies Outline

For Teachers 5th
One of the keys to success in school is organization. This resource leads learners through the process of creating an outline for a chapter from a social studies text. In addition, they review facts they have learned in their class...
Activity
Novelinks

The Color of Water: Concept Analysis

For Teachers 7th - 12th
Considering using James McBride's autobiography/memoir The Color of Water with your class? Check out this seven-page informational packet that includes background information on McBride, the organization pattern of the book, and...
Activity
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Character Development Project

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Read Dangerous Minds with your language learning disabled pupils to identify characteristics and connect to literature. This is a specific activity intended for use with the suggested book. The class uses a character map  as a way...
Worksheet
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The Joy Luck Club: Bloom's Taxonomy: Questions

For Students 10th - 12th
Really challenge your class when they're reading Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club. Provide them with this list of six thought-provoking questions to encourage a deeper analysis. The questions are based off of Bloom's Taxonomy, and a list of...
Lesson Plan
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"Voicing" - A Believable Account with "The Glory Fields" by Walter Dean Myers

For Teachers 7th - 8th
Dr. Seuss and Walter Dean Myers team up to cover the topic of prejudice. Using The Sneeches (about the culture clash between star-bellied and bare-bellied Sneetches) and The Glory Fields (about a boy coming to America on a slave ship),...
Writing
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Story Impressions-Gary Paulsen's Canyons

For Students 6th - 8th
What is a story impression? Learn about the strategy with the first page of this two-page resource. Before reaching chapters 21-24 in Canyons, readers use a list of words (taken from these chapters) to predict what is going to happen....
Activity
Curated OER

Express Yourself Lesson Seed 11: Setting

For Teachers 6th Standards
Encourage your learners to examine the setting in Theodore Taylor's The Cay. Pupils work in small groups to put together a description of the setting before reading two more chapters of the book. They use their double-entry journals to...
Organizer
Curated OER

Literature Study Guide: To Kill a Mockingbird

For Students 7th - 9th
Teaching tools designed to support student-centered literature study. Geared toward homeschoolers reading Harper Lee's book To Kill a Mockingbird, I would use these in my classroom. The materials are applicable to any text: graphic...
Lesson Plan
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The Time Machine

For Teachers 9th - 12th
Challenge your class with this lesson! Learners read The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, discuss context clues, identify main ideas and details, and analyze story elements. Discussion questions and activities are broken down for each chapter...
Study Guide
Reed Novel Studies

The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle

For Teachers 4th - 7th Standards
A long-awaited trip home quickly turns bad for Charlotte Doyle in The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle by Avi. Scholars read of Charlotte's trials and tribulations as they complete sentences with vocabulary words, answer...
Lesson Plan
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The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle: Graphic Organizer

For Teachers 3rd - 7th Standards
After completing the first five chapters of The True Confessions of Charlotte Doyle By Avi, use direct quotes to make inferences about how Charlotte feels about certain characters. Later, when the novel has concluded, revisit...
Lesson Plan
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Roald Dahl

Matilda - The Third Miracle

For Teachers 3rd - 7th Standards
Magnus takes a visit to the classroom in the 20th chapter of Matilda. Or does he? After reading, learners interview the person in the hot seat to get a detailed account of what happened during this chapter. Then, they write individual...
Activity
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Maniac Magee: Magic Number Strategy

For Teachers 4th - 6th Standards
Take a break from reading to find the magic number with this vocabulary game using words drawn from Jerry Spinelli's Maniac Magee.  Participants match the definition to the word in each numbered square of the puzzle, then add...
Lesson Plan
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Roald Dahl

Matilda - The Ghost

For Teachers 3rd - 7th Standards
How do you think the parrot in "The Ghost" chapter of Matilda feels in the chimney? Put a class member in the hot seat and have the class ask questions relating to how they might have felt if they were the parrot in the chimney....
Organizer
Curated OER

The Kid in the Red Jacket Question Booklet

For Students 3rd - 5th
A thorough guide to all ten chapters of Barbara Park's The Kid in the Red Jacket would be a great addition to your reading unit. Each page covers one chapter of the book, complete with vocabulary and content questions, and...
Lesson Plan
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Hiroshima: Question Answer Response Strategy (QAR)

For Teachers 9th - 12th
“The crux of the matter is whether total war in its present form is justifiable. . .” After reading “The Aftermath,” the final chapter of Hiroshima, class members use a Question Answer Response (QAR) strategy to reflect on issues raised...
Worksheet
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Touching Spirit Bear

For Students 6th - 8th
Designed to be used in conjunction with a reading of Ben Mikaelsen's Touching Spirit Bear, the worksheets and activities in this 32-page packet focus readers' attention on how to break the cycle of violence and develop more productive...
Lesson Plan
Curated OER

What a Character!

For Teachers 5th - 8th
Middle schoolers read a novel and discuss character personality. First, they analyze a character in a novel and keep a chart or web of the character's identity, which includes specific examples from the book. They then write a script...