Curated OER
Class President
Fourth graders develop vocabulary to aid in comprehension as they read the novel, Class President.
National Endowment for the Humanities
Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart: Oral and Literary Strategies
Readers are first introduced to Chinua Achebe's Things Fall Apart by making a map of Africa. They will better understand the novel's historical and literary contexts, European and African literary traditions, and how...
Curated OER
Finders Keepers: Vocabulary Instructional Routine Guide for Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close
Like Oskar, the curious boy in Jonathan Safran Foer’s story, class members journey through other “stories that the mouth can’t tell” to find another sentence that uses a word found in novel. Individuals create their own vocabulary list,...
Curated OER
The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn: Semantic Feature Analysis
Racist, independent, conflicted? Readers of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn brainstorm words that describe the traits of characters in Twain’s novel and then rate these qualities in several of their favorite characters. Individuals...
Curated OER
Writing as a group activity
Did you know that 50% of all Americans can trace a relative who traveled through Ellis Island? Relive these journeys with your class and then provide sentence strategy templates for them to use to compose their own informative...
Curated OER
Who's in the Shed?
Second graders examine the cover of the book, WHO'S IN THE SHED? and talk about the animals portrayed and the noises they make. They then read the book as a class, looking through the peepholes and making predictions.
Curated OER
Benedict Arnold Lesson Plan
Fourth graders read about and write a biography on Benedict Arnold.
Curated OER
The Run-On Sentence
Explore grammar rules by completing a worksheet. In this sentence structure lesson, kids define run-on sentences and read sample sentences to determine whether they are complete or incomplete. There is also a space for the writer to edit...
Curated OER
Jay Gatsby's Souvenir Scrapbook
Pupils create a Power Point scrapbook that compiles memorabilia representing the life of Jay Gatsby. They read the novel, "The Great Gatsby" and conduct internet research using the "American Twenties" website. In small groups, they...
Curated OER
Rest in Peace, Maniac Magee
Scholars read Maniac Magee and create epitaphs for each of the major characters using precise words reflecting the individual characters personality and nature. They will learn what an epitaph is and practice writing their own. They can...
Curated OER
Using Context
Teams practice decoding and using context strategies to determine the meanings of unfamiliar words. After verifying the meanings of words through the use of dictionaries, the Internet, thesauruses, and other sources, learners write the...
Curated OER
Here's an Instant Activity for September 19, 2005
Young writers study similes and then complete a writing activity for similes. They complete a teacher-led activity for similes and then work independently to write sentences using the given similes. A solid lesson!
Curated OER
Origami Ducks: Geometry, Listening, and Following Directions
Make origami ducks with your class to reinforce geometry concepts and vocabulary; develop fine motor and visual translation skills; and enrich study of Japanese culture, the pond habitat, or migration. Create a whole group "worksheet"...
Polk Bros Foundation
I Can Infer the Meaning of a Word in Context
Work on developing strategies for determining the meaning of unknown words and phrases with a quick context clues exercise. Class members choose two words from their reading and write down what they think they mean and why. See the...
Curated OER
Visualizing While Reading
Third graders listen to the story Where the Wild Things Are, and draw pictures to illustrate what they think is happening. Students share their visualizations with their partners.
Curated OER
What's Important To You?
Second graders discuss as a class the importance of silent reading and describe some examples when it would be inappropriate if everyone read out loud. They read silently along as an article called, "Fighting a Mystery Illness" is read...
Curated OER
Visions of Pigs
Students examine the importance of silent reading before practicing the technique of visualization. They listen while the teacher leads they through a visualization exercise in which they imagine they are at the beach. Next, they...
Curated OER
Short But Important
Students review the concept of silent reading. They listen to an article and, through guided practice and modeling, create a concept map of what they hear. Then, in groups of two, they read another article on their own and map it the...
Curated OER
Sum + It = Up
Learners review silent reading techniques as well as summarization. They read copies of "Forest Life" silently and complete a story web to organize the main points of the story. They then use use the points to write a brief paragraph to...
Curated OER
Land, Liberty and the Struggle for the American Dream
Students investigate equality by reading a historical fiction book in class. In this civil rights lesson, students read the story Roll of Thunder, Hear my Cry with their classmates and define the Jim Crow Laws that kept blacks...
Curated OER
Poetry and Visualization
Students use visualization techniques when reading poetry. In this visualization and poetry lesson, students work in groups to present a tableau that depicts a word from the poem as classmates guess the word. Students then...
Curated OER
Animal Coverings
Students read a book. In this animal characteristics lesson plan, students read the book Animal Coverings, answer comprehension questions, and complete a chart where they match animals with their coverings.
Curated OER
5 W Questions
Second graders practice asking the 5 W questions by reading a Boxcar Children book. In this journalism lesson plan, 2nd graders read a single story from the Boxcar Children series and answer the 5 W's about each specific...
Curated OER
What's It All About?
Students summarize nonfiction text. After reviewing the process for reading in order to summarize, students independently read a nonfiction article. They write a summary paragraph and discuss the process for summarization with the...