Curated OER
Abraham Lincoln and the Five-Dollar Note
Young scholars study Presidential history by researching Abraham Lincoln. In this U.S. history lesson, students discuss the changes in the 5 dollar bill and create a timeline of Abraham Lincoln's life. Young scholars complete a puzzle...
Scholastic
Scholastic: Writing With Scientists With the American Museum of Natural History
Follow this six-step method and you'll have a good understanding of what a good scientific research paper involves and how it is organized. There are plenty of samples for you to look at. This explanation is also very helpful for...
![Smithsonian in Your Classroom: Introduction to the Nature Journal [Pdf] Unit Plan](https://d15y2dacu3jp90.cloudfront.net/images/attachment_defaults/resource/large/FPO-knovation.png "Smithsonian in Your Classroom: Introduction to the Nature Journal [Pdf] Unit Plan")
Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian in Your Classroom: Introduction to the Nature Journal [Pdf]
Smithsonian in the Classroom presents "Introduction to the Nature Journal." Teachers can download this comprehensive teaching package in which students will practice and develop their skills of writing observations and making hypotheses....
Other
Curriculum Associates: Determining Theme or Central Idea [Pdf]
In this reading comprehension lesson unit, students are guided in learning how to find the main theme or idea of a text and understanding how details in the text convey that. Includes lots of exercises and examples, as well as...
ReadWriteThink
Read Write Think: Demonstrating Comprehension Through Journal Writing
Contains plans for lessons that ask students to write journal entries about texts they have read by responding to open-ended questions. The book "Mr. Popper's Penguins" by Richard Atwater is used as an example. In addition to objectives...
Scholastic
Scholastic: Writing With Scientists
After students investigate a topic through research, hypothesizing, observing, and experimentating, teachers can use this lesson to help their students prepare short science reports and publish them online. The Writing with Scientists...
Other
4 Teachers: Persuade Star: Writing Persuasive Essays
This free online application is designed to help students in grades 5-12 write an online persuasive essay.
Scholastic
Scholastic: Writing Workshop: Persuasive Writing
This site has a great unit that leads students all the way through the writing process while composing a persuasive paper. Includes a teacher guide, mini-lessons, assessment rubric, and worksheets to help out at each step of the way.
Beacon Learning Center
Beacon Learning Center: Information Elimination: Lesson on Narrowing the Topic
This is a tutorial which focuses on how to narrow the topic for expository writing, how to determine what information to keep or eliminate, and what questions to ask yourself. Students respond to questions throughout. A comparison is...
Other
Newsela
[Free Registration/Login Required] Newsela offers new current events articles daily in areas ranging from the arts to war and peace. Each article is available at five different reading levels; grade level and word count are displayed for...
Other
National Scholastic Press Association
If you are involved in any way with a school newspaper, yearbook or other school publication, you should be familiar with the national Scholastic Press Association. Teachers or students with an interest in design, article ideas, or legal...
Read Works
Read Works: Passages: A New Letter for the Alphabet
[Free Registration/Login Required] Students read a nonfiction text about a man who is trying to add a letter to the alphabet and answer questions about comprehension, supporting details, vocabulary, transitions, and more. A paired text...
Read Works
Read Works: Passages: Learning to Skateboard
[Free Registration/Login Required] Students read a literary text about the relationship between a brother and a sister and answer questions on comprehension, main idea, text evidence, and more. Links to a paired text and paired text...
Media Smarts
Media Awareness Network: Lesson Plan: How to Analyze the News [Pdf]
Lesson plan focusing on the importance of understanding how the news is a product with a specific scope, structure, slant and style at the forefront of its production.
Education Development Center
Tv411: Reading: Parts of a Newspaper: Activity 2 of 3
This newspaper activity requires students to read eight headlines and then select what each would be about from the options given. When answers are submitted, an explanation is also given.
Sophia Learning
Sophia: Common Themes in Literature
This tutorial focuses on common themes in literature, beginning with a slide show discussing 11 different, common themes and literary examples. This is followed by a 11-minute YouTube video with students acting out common themes in...
Education Development Center
Tv411: Reading: Parts of a Newspaper: Activity 3 of 3
This newspaper activity is to look at the pictures provided, read what the stories are about, and select captions that would fit both the stories and the pictures.
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: Write an Expository And/or Procedural Text
[Accessible by TX Educators. Free Registration/Login Required] You will learn how to write an expository/procedural text that synthesizes ideas from several sources.
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: Themes in Literary Texts (English 6 Reading)
Learn how to infer the implicit theme in a work of fiction, distinguish theme from topic, and make complex inferences using textual evidence.
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: Synthesize Ideas in Informational/expository Texts
[Accessible by TX Educators. Free Registration/Login Required] Learn how to synthesize and make logical connections between ideas within a text and across two or three texts representing similar or different genres (including literary...
Other
Freeology: Journal Topics
Encourage students to write in their journals with this extensive selection of journal topics.
CommonLit
Common Lit: Where Did I Come From
CommonLit.org is a wonderful resource to use in a Language Arts classroom. Each story or article is accompanied by guided reading questions, assessment questions, and discussion questions. In addition, students can click on words to see...
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: Evaluating and Interpreting Media
[Accessible by TX Educators. Free Registration/Login Required] When people talk about media literacy, they are talking about learning to understand what these messages really mean. This lesson will help you take a closer look at a few...
A to Z Teacher Stuff
Ato Zteacherstuff: Report Writing in Primary Grades
This is a fun, hands-on lesson from AtoZteacherstuff! Students go through a study of frogs while learning how to interpret and restate factual information.