Curated OER
Practicing Silent Reading
In this reading comprehension worksheet, students are instructed to read a book with their family, note the title and author, then reread the story silently. Next, students answer 3 questions about the story. Worksheet is designed to be...
National Constitution Center
Fourth of July (Grades 3-5)
Bring history to life for your young scholars with a Fourth of July lesson series. After a class reading of the Declaration of Independence, students translate this pivotal document into layman's terms before working in small groups to...
Odell Education
Making Evidence-Based Claims Literary Technique: Louise Erdrich and Tim O’Brien
Take a ride in The Red Convertible by Louise Erdrich. Students read the story and discuss whether a car is really a character. After carrying out several activities using graphic organizers and tools for making their claims in The Red...
Novelinks
Touching Spirit Bear: Question Answer Response Strategy
What types of questions help readers learn the most? Sixth, seventh, and eighth graders learn how to ask four types of questions from the Question Answer Response (QAR) reading strategy to help grow their comprehension of Touching Spirit...
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Let’s Look Around!: Challenge Activities (Theme 3)
Let's Look Around! is the theme of a unit that offers a plethora of challenge activities. Enhance your scholars' learning experiences and reinforce concepts with activities such as writing a book about farm animals, an imaginary place,...
Hampton-Brown
From "First Crossing"
Young scholars look closely at four tales taken from the collection of short stories, First Crossing edited by Donald R. Galloby. While examining the life of four teenagers and the lives they lead as U.S. immigrants, your enthusiastic...
Curated OER
Vocabulary Building - Declaration of Independence
Young scholars read the first part of the Declaration of Independence and mark the words they don't know. First, they try to guess what the words mean by looking at the them in context, and then they look up the words in a dictionary.
Curated OER
Cinco De Mayo: ELD Reading and Language-Building
A brief passage about the Mexican holiday Cinco de Mayo is accompanied by an array of language activities for ELD: cloze exercise, phrase matching, word jumble, multiple choice, sequencing, interview, group presentation, fluency writing,...
Curated OER
Historical Background Leading to the Declaration of Independence
Students examine why, when our Fathers, signed the Declaration of Independence they were placing in jeopardy their freedom, property and lives.
Curated OER
Diagramming Practice: Independent, Adjective, and Adverb Clauses
Use these three sentences as a review for your lesson on clauses and sentence diagramming. Eighth graders identify independent, adjective, and adverb clauses as they diagram the sentences in the space below. The format of the activity...
Curated OER
Language Arts: Racing for Fluency
Pupils improve fluency through drills to increase quickness and smoothness. In pairs, they practice reading sentences out loud, each time increasing their fluency. Finally, students play a game of timed readings using a stop watch to...
Curated OER
Phonics: Decoding Words in Connected Text
Decoding words in connected text can make emergent readers really feel like they are great readers. They work as a class to sound out simple cvc words located in super short sentences. Tip: Extend this activity by having a variety of...
Curated OER
Expression Direction: Growing Independence and Fluency
Looking to move children away from monotone reading? That's what they will practice here. In a guided learning lesson, the class reviews punctuation marks and practices what type of intonation should accompany each. They then listen as...
Curated OER
Walking the Plank
This is a cool math activity. Kids collect and interpret data based on a physical act. A board is balanced between a scale and a step, learners record a peer's weight as it decreases while s/he walks further away from the scale. They...
ReadWriteThink
Literature Circles: Getting Started
Make reading more enjoyable and interactive with literature circles! Here you'll find detailed lessons to begin the literature circle process. Ten lessons introduce each role learners take on. Literature circle roles include...
Deliberating in a Democracy
Free and Independent Press
Young scholars determine how free press principles can be compromised. For this global studies activity, students read an article titled "Free and Independent Press." Young scholars respond to discussion questions regarding the article.
Curated OER
Literacy Block Activity Log
In this literacy block activity log worksheet, young scholars state what they accomplished during the literacy block and how they feel about what they accomplished. Students fill in two items about the literacy blog from Monday to Friday.
Florida Center for Reading Research
Fluency: Chunked Text, Reading Chunks
The activity focuses on reading chunked text. Peers grouped by specific ability levels take turns reading a text with proper intonation, expression, and phrasing.
Facing History and Ourselves
First Chapter Fridays
Fridays can be a challenge with learners already dreaming about their weekends. Here's a routine that will bring their minds back to the classroom. Read aloud the beginning of a story, sure to engage your listeners.
EngageNY
Introducing “If” and Noting Notices and Wonders of the First Stanza
After reading chapter 14 of the story Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis, scholars take part in a read-aloud of the poem If by Rudyard Kipling and compare it to the reading of Bud, Not Buddy. Learners then go deeper into the poem...
Common Core Sheets
Reading a Timeline
Sometimes the most important details of an informational text aren't within the text at all. Teach your class how to read timeline with a set of activities that prompts them to find specific dates and events on the timelines, as well as...
Curated OER
Analyzing Atmosphere: Macbeth Murder Scene and Dagger Speech
Shakespeare's Macbeth (Act II, Scenes I and II) lacks explicit details of the murder of King Duncan, yet the author creates an atmosphere that allows us to visualize the event. Readers interpret the "Dagger Speech" by writing stage...
EngageNY
Asking Probing Questions and Choosing a Research Topic
Begin the writing journey of an evidence-based essay detailing a rule to live by with various activities to familiarize learners with the topic and jump-start brainstorming. First, pupils take part in an in-depth review and discussion of...
Perkins School for the Blind
Cooking and Kitchen Tools
Independent living skills and skills that can be used to gain employment are very important for any learner. Teens with visual impairments explore the kitchen to understand what everything is and what it all does. The lesson includes a...