The time has come to find out what your fourth grade readers have learned after another year of hard work. This Common Core-designed practice assessment provides two reading passages, one narrative and one expository, that children must...

Can investigative journalism become too sensationalistic and accusatory, or is it vital for the survival of a democracy? Middle schoolers analyze primary source documents from early 20th-century newspapers as well as Theodore...

Eighth graders investigate varous writing skills as part of larger course of study. The lesson is essentially a rough guide for conducting a class for writing. The main focus of the plan is organizing ideas using various strategies that...

Students identify that comprehension is the main goal in reading. Then they read the words in a text, but also draw information from what they read. Students also identify and practice summarization. They read a piece of text and...

Students, while in the computer lab visiting the National Geographic Kids website, fill out a checklist of unimportant/redundant information, look for important events and ideas and search for the author's main idea and supporting...

Select an article that explores people of another culture. After reading it as a class, distribute copies of this worksheet. It asks for a brief summary, encourages readers to make text-to-self connections, and asks learners to identify...

Work with your department or on your own to create organized unit plans that connect to all parts of the Common Core standards. The three-page template includes space to summarize the unit, list standards for each category of the ELA...

Fourth graders study women's involvement in Texas politics. In this US history instructional activity, 4th graders discuss woman suffrage, examine three Texas female pioneer legislators by reading biographies, and explore women's issues...

Students one main goal when reading is to comprehend, and one strategy to improve reading comprehension is summarization. As students begin reading expository texts, it is vital for them to be able to pick out and summarize the main...

What elements make up a successful argument? A helpful resource describes aspects of an argument such as the claim, evidence, counterargument, and audience. Perfect as an individual assignment for a flipped lesson or collaborative work,...

In this literature lesson, students listen to folk tales and then discuss the main ideas and plot of the story. Additionally, students guess what story is being talked about when their teacher describes the main idea and plot. Good...

Pupils read a passage from a magazine. They highlight the main ideas and facts they feel are important and black out the unimportant details. They review the concept of summarizing and use the highlighted text to write a summary with...

Students review the concept of silent reading. Through modeling and guided practice, they follow six given steps in summarizing a chapter from "Charlotte's Web." Then they follow the same steps in summarizing the next chapter on their own.

Learners read and analyze three different news sources that describe the same event. They compare/contrast the similarities and differences of the news sources, and write an essay describing the main event.

Students observe and demonstrate three steps to summarize text. They read and discuss the three steps to summarizing, then silently read an article about dugongs from "National Geographic Kids" magazine. Students demonstrate the three...

What's this all about? Scholars learn the importance of summarizing skills using a summary writing graphic organizer. They work with an elbow partner to discuss summaries and complete the organizer using Middle Ages Excerpt 1. Learners...

Making inferences and drawing conclusions is a key component to successful active reading. Encourage your class to use context clues and prior knowledge to infer different elements of a story, including the setting, plot, and character...

Young community members explore philanthropic foundations. They discuss the work of community foundations, and then they listen to a guest speaker describe the vision and activities of a local foundation. Is there a way they can join the...

It's all about the details. Scholars examine how specific details contribute to a central idea in an excerpt from The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Learners discuss the details in pairs, share with the group, and respond to guided...

It's a jungle out there! Teachers gain information to guide learners through reading The Jungle by Upton Sinclair. Instructors give an overview of the characters in the story and a summary of each chapter. The resource includes questions...

W.W. Jacobs' story "The Monkey's Paw" provides plenty of foreshadowing which readers use to make predictions in this tightly composed, sound instructional plan. Your class reads the story, recording predictions and checking for veracity...

Students explore how to summarize a text while reading. They discuss what it means to summarize. Students read a non-fiction text and practice summarizing the pages they read. They highlight the main ideas and important details within...

Students review the concept of silent reading. Through modeling and guided practice, they follow five given steps in summarizing a written passage. Then they read a passage independently and follow the same steps in summarizing the...

Third graders complete activities for the book The Legend of the Indian Paintbrush, by Tomie dePaola. In this literature lesson, the students read the story and summarize the main events. They look for story elements focusing on the...