City University of New York
Cuny: E Resource Center: Course Tutorials: Reading Your Textbook
A tutorial consisting of seven exercises showing different text structures used in textbooks. Learn how they organize information to help students locate specific details and how to take notes based on information within a textbook.
Better Lesson
Better Lesson: Speaking, Listening and Writing Compound Contrasting Sentences
Young scholars will be answering text-dependent questions in which they will have to describe the differences between the different characters, settings, and major events in our stories using complex contrasting sentences. The students...
Better Lesson
Better Lesson: Visual Representations in Informational Text
Students will look at examples of illustrations and diagrams in informational texts and discuss how each one helps enhance the text. Students gain the knowledge that sometimes a picture is worth a thousand words because a complex idea...
Joe Landsberger
Study Guides & Strategies: Writing Basics
This site by University of St. Thomas focuses on the basics for writing any paragraph. It is developed in outline fashion and is very easy to follow. This site provides a basic overview of the process of writing without going into a...
Capital Community College Foundation
Guide to Grammar and Writing: Definitions of Basic Sentence Parts
This site from Capital Community College Foundation provides all the different parts of speech and their definitions. It also shows word functions and their use.
Capital Community College Foundation
Guide to Grammar and Writing: Classification and Analysis
This site provides some help reading an essay that deals with the classification and analysis of a piece of literature. Offers some instruction about the type of essay, a sample text, and guiding questions to help you analyze your own...
Capital Community College Foundation
Guide to Grammar and Writing: Definition of a Sentence
The Guide to Grammar and Writing defines many of the terms common to sentence development, such as the parts of speech, or provides links for those definitions. Discusses strategies for adding variety to sentence structures. Includes...
Capital Community College Foundation
Guide to Grammar and Writing: Diagramming Sentences Power Point
This handy PowerPoint presentation introduces the concept of sentence diagramming. It includes a number of examples.
Capital Community College Foundation
Guide to Grammar and Writing: Paragraph Development
This site from the Capital Community College helps with paragraph development and topic sentences.
Curated OER
Neh: Edsit Ement: Walt Whitman's Notebooks and Poetry: The Sweep of the Universe
For this lesson plan, students will consider "Walt Whitman's Notebooks and Poetry: The Sweep of the Universe." The plan includes worksheets and other student materials that can be found under the resource tab.
AdLit
Ad lit.org: Classroom Strategies: First Lines
First Lines is a strategy in which students read the beginning sentences from assigned readings and make predictions about the content of what they're about to read. This pre-reading technique helps students focus their attention on what...
Scholastic
Scholastic: Listen and Read
Choose to read and/or listen to 15 different books on members of the community, animals, and the President. Review vocabulary at the end of each book.
Writing Fix
Writing Fix: Show What Your Mind Sees
This writing activity asks writers to make use of both showing and telling as they create a well-organized paragraph of description. After reviewing showing versus telling by building a writer's notebook page, each writer will show what...
Writing Fix
Writing Fix: Teaching Students to Compose a Power Paragraph [Pdf]
This PDF lesson, POWER PARAGRAPH, focuses on analysis and will also help students to understand structure in a paragraph. The "power" concept teaches the students to organize their sentences according to different levels of importance....
Curated OER
Mc Graw Hill: Part 2 Reading: Informational Text: Connections Within Text
Learn how information in a text can be connected through compare and contrast, cause and effect, and sequence.
Grammarly
Grammarly Handbook: Patterns of Organization for Academic Texts
A list of six different ways to organize a text with links to more information for each.
Education Development Center
Tv411: Summarizing
This activity asks students to read short paragraphs and select the statement that best summarizes each paragraph. It is part of a larger reading unit.
Other
Laus Dnet: Grade 1 Word Lesson Plan (Stone Soup) Pdf
In this lesson plan, students use Stone Soup by Ann McGovern to generate word lists and use patterned text to assist with descriptive writing. Gives links to step sheets and samples for creating a table , a template for shared writing, a...
Other
Wilfrid Laurier University: Paragraph Writing [Pdf]
This site from the Wilfrid Laurier University provides a complete guide to paragraph writing. Contains many examples along with details and structures that are often left out when students write.
Florida Center for Reading Research
Florida Center for Reading Research: Expository Fact Strip [Pdf]
A lesson plan in which students read a text and identify the topic and four facts presented within the text. Materials are included.
Grammarly
Grammarly Handbook: Body of the Text
This page explains how to write the body of the text from your outline (a link to "How to Write an Outline" is provided). The body must support the thesis and provide evidence and examples to support the thesis.
ReadWriteThink
Read Write Think: Get the Gist: A Summarizing Strategy for Any Content Area
A five-part standards-based lesson plan in which students learn to write a 20 word summary of an informational text by focusing on answering the questions who, what, when, where, why, and how. This strategy can be applied to any content...
ReadWriteThink
Read Write Think: Writing Abc Books to Enhance Reading Comprehension
Contains plans for four lessons that are adaptable to many texts that young scholars may be reading. Students analyze the text for literary elements such as characters, setting, figures of speech, and themes, and then publish their...
Grammarly
Grammarly Handbook: Organize Your Thoughts in Patterns
Tips on organizing ideas in an essay.