EngageNY
Mid-Unit Assessment: On-Demand Note-taking and Text-Dependent Questions
Flex those brain muscles! Scholars take a mid-unit assessment, conducting research to take notes about how a particular invention helped meet society's needs. To complete the test, they work on draft sketches for their graphic...
Curated OER
The Louisiana Purchase: Reading and Quiz
In need of informational text and a related quiz regarding the Louisiana Purchase? Here are four pages containing basic information on Thomas Jefferson, Napoleon, Manifest Destiny, and the Louisiana Purchase, plus a 15-question...
Curated OER
Worksheet 6: Reading: Recipe for Beignets
Travel to New Orleans for their warm, sweet beignets, or bring a piece of New Orleans to your classroom by baking the delicious treats with your third and fourth graders! If baking them isn't possible, at least review the recipe for a...
Curated OER
Using a Preview Checklist with Informational Text
Sixth graders identify information from texts by working in pairs using Wikki Stix or highlighting tape to locate, mark, and read items on preview checklist. Students then compare what they marked with what another pair marked.
DePaul University
Settlement
Early settlers in the American Midwest experienced constant struggle. This reading passage describes for young learners the hardships of homesteaders as they journeyed west and sought to start a new life. When finished, students identify...
Curated OER
The Purpose and Power of Persuasion
Examine the power of persuasion and have learners consider how it influences events in their own lives. After reading and analyzing informational texts to understand the author's purpose, class members take a written test and craft a...
Maine Content Literacy Project
Exploring Text with the iMovie Application
Get your class going on one of the final assessments for a unit on short stories by introducing iMovie and its main features. In this tenth lesson in a series of fourteen, pupils take some time to explore iMovie before conducting an...
Florida Center for Reading Research
Comprehension: Text Analysis, Persuade, Inform, and Entertain Sort
Why do authors write? Practice determining the author's purpose with a categorizing activity. Learners sort twelve short passages into three categories: persuade, inform, and entertain.
EngageNY
Building Background Knowledge: Jigsaw to Build and Share Expertise about the 2010 Haiti Earthquake, Part 2
Calling all experts! Using the educational resource, pupils work together in small expert groups, reading an article about the 2010 Haiti earthquake. As they read, they record two main ideas and supporting details from the text.
EngageNY
Researching about the Red Cross: What Is a Multinational Aid Organization?
Lend a helping hand. Pupils read two informational articles about international aid organizations and how they help areas affected by natural disasters. Scholars attempt to uncover the gist of each text, discussing their thoughts in...
Curated OER
Author's Purpose Lesson Plans
Why do we practice identifying the author's purpose? Read this article to gain a better understanding of this reading strategy, and then peruse the attached lesson plans!
EngageNY
Informative Paragraph Pre-Assessment: What Is One Reason You Want the Power of Reading?
This writing pre-assessment has minimal instruction but maximum support and encouragement. It begins with a review of the book, Rain School, through a think-pair-share and small group discussion. The discussion...
Florida Center for Reading Research
Vocabulary: Word Meaning, Oh My Word!
Ever come across an unfamiliar word while reading and can't decipher its meaning? Use a worksheet and graphic organizer that tracks and helps bring meaning to unknown words as learners read a text. A worksheet and graphic organizer come...
K12 Reader
It’s Elemental
This comprehension worksheet provides readers with an article about basic matter and then asks them to use this information to respond to a series of comprehension questions.
Curated OER
My Antonia: Directed Reading Thinking Activity
Walk your pupils through the beginning of My Antonia by Willa Cather with a read-aloud-style activity. The goal is to make predictions and back them up with textual evidence.
PBS
Reading Adventure Pack: Farms
A Reading Adventure Pack features a fiction and nonfiction text—The Oxcart Man by Donald Hall and illustrated by Barbara Cooney and Farming by Gail Gibbons. Following the readings, scholars make a collage showcasing foods farmed from...
PBS
Reading Adventure Pack: Environment
A fiction and nonfiction text, The Great Kapok Tree: A Tale of the Amazon Rain Forest by Lynne Cherry and I See a Kookaburra! Discovering Animal Habitats Around the World by Steve Jenkins and Robin Page begins a learning experience in...
Soft Schools
Civil Rights
Informational text about the Civil Rights Movement challenges young historians to prove their reading comprehension skills with six multiple choice questions. After answers are submitted a new screen displays a score,...
Curated OER
Reading Strategies: Main Idea
Identify the main idea and the supporting details of a story in a literacy resource from Discovery Education. Complete with procedures, vocabulary, and assessment activities, this is a great way for pupils to practice their outlining...
Center for Civic Education
The Power of Nonviolence: The Children's March
What was the Children's Crusade and how did it impact the civil rights movement in the United States? Your young learners will learn about this incredible event through a variety of instructional activities, from reading a poem and...
Civil War Trust
Contrasting the North and South before the War
Learners create a standing cube with four panels that display information on the North and South's economy, geography and climate, society, and means of transportation before the Civil War. Through discussion and reading...
PBS
Reading Adventure Pack: Robots
Two activities work with a fiction and nonfiction book about robots‚—Robot Dreams by Sara Varon and Robot by Roger Bridgman. Scholars read each story, then build a robot out of found objects, examine robot sensors, and search for...
PBS
Reading Adventure Pack: Sleep
A reading adventure pack features two stories—Time to Sleep by Denise Fleming and Animals Don’t Wear Pajamas by Eve Feldman. In response to reading the fiction and nonfiction texts, scholars create a dreamcatcher, discuss hibernation,...
PBS
Reading Adventure Pack: Oceans
Flotsam by David Wiesner and The Magic School Bus on the Ocean Floor by Joanna Cole, illustrated by Bruce Degen, begin a reading adventure pack focusing on oceans. With story listening and thoughtful discussion, scholars complete several...