Other
Reading Quest: Strategies for Reading Comprehension: Summarizing
Teach students to summarize nonfiction text with these lesson plans. Includes worksheets and activities that can be downloaded and printed.
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University
De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: I Can Classify and Infer When I Read [Pdf]
This site contains links to two graphic organizers to guide and assess the understanding of nonfiction text in science and social studies.
Scholastic
Scholastic: Teaching With Nonfiction: Teach Text Features
A brief lesson plan, this site offers an example of non-fiction text and a graphic organizer to help orient students to the features they need to use when reading for information.
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University
Depaul University: Center for Urban Education: Evaluate Decisions [Pdf]
A nonfiction graphic organizer is available to help students evaluate decisions of people. Students will analyze how characters interact and develop throughout the course of a nonfiction text.
ReadWriteThink
Read Write Think: Nonfiction Pyramid
A printable pyramid for use with nonfiction texts while students identify the main ideas and supporting details within a text. Students also determine author's purpose and key vocabulary words. Directions on how to use this type of...
CommonLit
Common Lit: I Am Not an Inmate I Am a Man. And I Have Potential
CommonLit.org is a wonderful resource to use in a Language Arts classroom. Each story or article is accompanied by guided reading questions, assessment questions, and discussion questions. In addition, students can click on words to see...
CommonLit
Common Lit: "Excerpt From Trail of Tears Diary" by Jobe Alexander & Mary Hill
CommonLit.org is a wonderful resource to use in a Language Arts classroom. Each story or article is accompanied by guided reading questions, assessment questions, and discussion questions. In addition, students can click on words to see...
CommonLit
Common Lit: "Frederick Douglass: A Biography" by National Park Service
CommonLit.org is a wonderful resource to use in a Language Arts classroom. Each story or article is accompanied by guided reading questions, assessment questions, and discussion questions. In addition, students can click on words to see...
Utah Education Network
Uen: Cloud, Rain, and Fog
During these three days of lessons, 2nd graders will learn about weather from the nonfiction text by asking questions, and focusing on the text features of the book.
Ohio State University
Ohio State University: Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears: Reader of the Rocks
A nonfiction article where students read about Julie Codispoti, assistant curator at the United States Polar Rock Repository, located at Ohio State University's Byrd Polar Research Center. The article provides an overview of Antarctic...
Reading Rockets
Reading Rockets: Nonfiction
Provides advice for how to incorporate nonfiction into a reading program. Includes videos, links to downloadable 'adventure packs,' tip sheets for parent, a list of websites on nonfiction, and articles.
ReadWriteThink
Read Write Think: Using Science Texts to Teach the Organization of Nonfiction
Contains plans for three lessons that use science textbooks to teach about the organizational features of nonfiction such as labels, captions, headings, and fonts. In addition to objectives and standards, this instructional plan contains...
ReadWriteThink
Read Write Think: Literature in Nonfiction Inquiry
This lesson plan involves students working in groups after reading a work of literature to develop text sets. Included in the lesson plan is an overview, practice, objectives, resources, preparation, and more.
Scholastic
Scholastic Teaching Resources: Nonfiction Notepads [Pdf]
From Just-Right Reading Response Activity Sheets for Young Learners, this graphic organizer can be used when students read informational texts. As responses to nonfiction, students will write the following on each notepad response:...
Scholastic
Scholastic Teaching Resources: Five Finger Facts [Pdf]
From Just-Right Reading Response Activity Sheets for Young Learners, this graphic organizer can be used when students read informational texts. As responses to nonfiction, students will write the following information about their...
Other
Ncrel: Reading Strategies: Before, During, and After [Pdf]
This page provides a detailed chart to aid students' understanding of texts. It goes through the steps of pre-reading, during reading, and after reading, outlining what students should be thinking about as they interact with a text. This...
AdLit
Ad lit.org: Seven Strategies to Teach Students Text Comprehension
Comprehension strategies are conscious plans - sets of steps that good readers use to make sense of text. Comprehension strategy instruction helps students become purposeful, active readers who are in control of their own reading...
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: Literary Text: Imagery, Metaphor, and Simile
Writers use sensory imagery ("smelled the salty air"), similes ("like a strong man playing tug-of-war"), and metaphors ("the waves roaring in my ears") to capture the reader's imagination. In this lesson, you will learn how to identify...
Read Works
Read Works: Explicit Information 1st Grade Unit
[Free Registration/Login Required] A two-lesson plan unit in which students learn how to identify explicit information in both fiction and non-fiction texts. The lessons utilize the books Frogs by Gail Gibbons and Stellaluna by Janell...
Read Works
Read Works: Found at Last
[Free Registration/Login Required] This nonfiction text tells the story of Sabi, a military bomb-sniffing dog that was lost in Afghanistan and found over a year later. This passage is a stand-alone curricular piece that reinforces...
Read Works
Read Works: Compare and Contrast 3rd Grade Unit
[Free Registration/Login Required] A three-lesson plan unit on comparing and contrasting through which students learn how to compare two items using key terms, compare and contrast two non-fiction texts on similar topics, and compare and...
Read Works
Read Works: Main Idea 1st Grade Unit
[Free Registration/Login Required] Students learn to use titles and supporting details in both fiction and non-fiction texts in order to identify the main idea of the book in this three-instructional activity unit. The lessons utilize...
International Literacy Association
Ila: Unlocking the Power of Informational Text With Five Creative Ideas
Five easy ways to help unlock the power of informational text for all students.
Read Works
Read Works: Forms of Art African Sculpture
[Free Registration/Login Required] This nonfiction text discusses basic information about African sculpture.This passage is a stand-alone curricular piece that reinforces essential reading skills and strategies and establishes...