Dig into some prehistoric vocabulary in Bob Barner's informative book Dinosaur Bones. This works best if you introduce the primitive words before reading the story. These are the focus terms in the text: ancient, climate, extinct,...

Travel out to sea as scholars learn vocabulary in context through Kathleen Zoehfeld's informational book Dolphin's First Day. Go over the new words scholars will hear before reading: approach, coast, expert, feeble,...

Combine vocabulary in context with art history using Jonah Winter's colorful biography Frida. Although there are quite a few words you could teach from this text, four are listed here with connecting questions: ill, imitate,...

Combine counting and vocabulary using Francine Bassede's book George's Store at the Shore, which has learners exploring new words and numbers 1-10. Suggested words for this text are: arrange, assortment, customers,...

Lisa Peters presents macroevolution as a large-scale family tree in her book Our Family Tree: An Evolution Story. She suggests the process from single-celled organisms to modern-day humans, and learners explore new vocabulary...

Identify the author's organizational pattern for expressing ideas. After reading an article on the California Gold Rush, middle schoolers determine the author's purpose for writing a passage of informational text. A full list of...

A complete resource from BBC World Service provides informational text for English or ESL classes to teach vocabulary, grammar, and reading skills. Learners participate in small group work, whole class discussions, and role-plays to...

Newspapers are the perfect medium through which to explore different perspectives in informational text. After researching the fur trade and resultant colonization, groups write a newspaper, including an editorial page, selecting one of...

Connect historical text to primary sources. Researchers observe and discuss primary sources. Then, historians bring in their own personal artifacts and connect them back to their history.

Students explore the role of a police officer while investigating the Microsoft Word program. In this technocop instructional activity, students examine how to format  text using a computer program. Students follow...

Show your class how to read a map and decipher all of the markings and features. Start out by connecting maps to their homework from the night before and their current reading, in this case That Book Woman, and a related informational...

Do your best on the test! Readers finish up by completing the end of the unit assessment. Using the assessment, writers describe how Percy's experiences in The Lightning Thief align to four parts of The Hero's Journey. After completing...

“It was a miracle.” Basil Heatter’s “The Long Night of the Little Boats,” which details the miraculous rescue of the British army from the shores of Dunkirk in 1940, is featured in a series of exercises that ask class members to read,...

"It is my lady, O, It is my Love!" Provide class members an opportunity to develop their skills reading difficult text with an exercise that focuses on the balcony scene from Romeo and Juliet (Act II, scene ii). Using the provided...

Jacque's soliloquy from Act II, scene ii of As You Like It sets the stage for a close reading exercise that models how to approach difficult, dense text and enables readers to practice reading comprehension and analysis...

In the first lesson plan of this unit on colonial trade, fourth graders gain background knowledge of different jobs performed by early colonists. The class begins with a slide show presentation that includes a variety of great...

How can something be true even if it didn't happen? Invite your classes to investigate the truths found in the world of magical realism as they analyze short stories, poems, informational texts, video, and art from this genre.

Encourage young learners to identify persuasive writing techniques in a text with this resource, which includes two multiple-choice worksheets with advertisements for students to analyze.

Wouldn't it be great to live an a community without pain, without danger? Such a society is the goal of the community in The Giver. Using Lois Lowry's dystopian novel as the core text, class members read primary source materials...

A read-aloud anthology closely examines human impact on the Earth while boosting reading comprehension skills. Through stories, scholars examine the concepts of natural resources, pollution, garbage, and recycling and brainstorm...

After rereading the full text of Walter Mosley's essay "True Crime," groups complete an evidence collection tool worksheet, and then class members independently draft a multi-paragraph, evidence-based response that identifies how Mosley...

A 190-page anthology explores the life and parts of plants, flowers, and trees while boosting reading comprehension skills. Literature and informational texts showcase Johnny Appleseed and George Washington Carver. Lessons...

Ancient world civilizations are the focus of a read-aloud anthology. First graders explore the early world of Mesopotamia, Babylon, the sphinx, and pyramids, get to know people of the Nile, Hatshepsut, and Tutankhamun, and examine world...

A read-aloud anthology focuses on astronomy. Each week for three weeks, first graders are introduced to and listen to a text, answer comprehension questions, then complete extensions that include a learning activity and skills practice....