It's easy to find information at the click of a mouse, but is it trustworthy? Pupils learn about the E.S.C.A.P.E. acronym for evaluating sources. Next, learners read a news story and evaluate its sources to determine credibility. Last,...

Kids explore the world of news media by creating a wiki page. They will create a wiki page on the Internet in order to comment on and question the stories that take place in the world. They will practice creative writing by summarizing...

Much more than a simple reading assessment, this resource can form the basis of a review of comprehension strategies, as a worksheet that models for readers how to employ strategies to answer questions based on passages, or as a practice...

Eight questions regarding Alfred Noyes' poem "The Highwayman" assess comprehension; readers infer, recall details, summarize, draw conclusions, compare and contrast, and respond to literature. A clean, useful resource if this poem is on...

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...

Learners listen to a passage (suggested reading: "Do a Cat's Eyes Glow?") and create a map of what they hear. They use the map to write a summary. Then, they read their own passages and independently map and summarize it the same way....

Discuss the reading comprehension strategy of summarization with your elementary schoolers! They read a chapter from their social studies textbook, Regions Near and Far, and create a map, or word web, for the chapter. They identify...

Discuss the concept of main idea in a story or other reading material. Middle schoolers identify the main idea in a passage using a technique that eliminates unnecessary words not relevant to the main idea.

Learners find 54 words related to Rosa Parks and the civil rights movement. The answers are found at the bottom of the page. Tip: Have the class use 15 of the provided words to construct a short paragraph summarizing the events...

Encourage scholars to retell their favorite short story or folktale, adding personal details to make it their own. After reading their book of choice several times, story tellers retell a tale verbally to their classmates. 

Scholars apply prior knowledge of statistics to write a conclusion. They summarize using correct academic language and tell the story of the data.

Sharing and cooperation are difficult skills for kindergartners to grasp. Using the story Stone Soup and a series of activities, kids learn about the benefits of working together, categorizing and comparing items, and eating...

As I Lay Dying is a beautiful book and a wonderful vehicle for understanding, interpreting, and comparing themes. The class reads and analyzes the novel, discusses possible interpretations, and characterizations. They compare the themes...

Challenge your class with this lesson! Learners read The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, discuss context clues, identify main ideas and details, and analyze story elements. Discussion questions and activities are broken down for each chapter...

Teamwork makes the dream work! Learners work in groups to analyze pages 2-9 of The Boy Who Invented TV, The Story of Philo Farnsworth. They complete a first read to determine the gist and a second read to identify main idea and...

This scripted lesson suggests using the journalist’s five W’s (who, what, when, where, why) to teach readers how to summarize a story and to how to distinguish between significant and supporting details. A template and rubric are...

Use the class textbook to read a full story about Martin Luther King, Jr. The class writes facts about him and outlines his life, then they read the author and illustrator summaries at the end of the story. They compare and contrast the...

Teach your young readers how to summarize a text using a strategy called Somebody Wanted But So. Kids identify the character (Somebody), the motivation (Wanted), the conflict (But), and the resolution (So). The resource comes with...

The summarizer’s job in a literature circle is to identify the key events in a story and to use those main ideas to craft a summary. Give this one-page worksheet to each of your summarizers to assist them in drafting their summary.

Study and research the American Civil War in this explanatory writing lesson. Middle schoolers complete six activities to learn about the American Civil War and soldiers' views of the war. The lesson includes several options to complete...

Introduce your class members to allegory and propaganda with a series of activities designed to accompany a study of George Orwell's Animal Farm. Readers examine the text as an allegory, consider the parallels to collective farms...

Readers take a look at pages 40-45 in Promises to Keep and identify evidence to support Sharon Robinson's opinion about her father. They divide up the text and complete task cards before writing vocabulary from the story on index cards.