Polk Bros Foundation
Picture the Main Idea
Invite your learners to represent the central idea of a text visually. Individuals note down the main idea and then have the opportunity to draw four pictures that show the idea. Consider working out the main idea together and then...
Polk Bros Foundation
I Can Analyze a Story or History Completely and Carefully
Start off analysis of a text with a worksheet that asks pupils to complete several tasks. Class members note down a couple of characters or people and their distinguishing traits, describe the most important event, summarize the text...
Polk Bros Foundation
I Can Comprehend a Paragraph, then a Page/Section in a Text
Help your class tackle chunks of text with a simple graphic organizer. Pupils read three paragraphs and, as they read, draw pictures in the provided boxes that demonstrate what each paragraph says. There are three boxes on the page and...
Polk Bros Foundation
A Way to Analyze Paragraphs to Figure Out the Main Idea of a Nonfiction Text
Shrink up a section by asking pupils to write down the main idea for each of seven paragraphs. There is a space provided for each main idea. When students have completed this portion, they write down what they think to be the central...
Polk Bros Foundation
Collect Evidence to Support an Idea
In order to support an idea, writers must use evidence. Your class members can prepare their evidence with this basic worksheet. Writers note down the topic they are learning about and their own idea. Next, they come up with information...
Polk Bros Foundation
Main Idea Analyzer
Show the connection between the main idea and supporting details with a graphic organizer. Pupils fill in the main idea of a text in the circle and the supporting ideas in the boxes connected to the circle.
California Academy of Science
Guess That Spice
From medical treatments to cooking, people have been using herbs and spices for thousands of years. Perform a blind smell test of household herbs and spices to engage students in learning about ancient spice trading. Research the history...
Common Sense Media
Cyberbullying: Be Upstanding
Peers discuss cyberbullying and how they can defend their friends that may be bullied online and offline. They discover the value in showing empathy for those who have been cyberbullied. Class members then generate multiple...
Common Sense Media
Identifying High-Quality Sites
Use a Huffington Post article focused on false pictures of Hurricane Sandy to launch a discussion about the reliability of online information. Groups compare and contrast how print and broadcast media regulate...
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Walmart Middle School Litercy Initiative
Interactive, student-paced lessons on such literacy skills as categorizing, comparing and contrasting, summarizing, evaluating, determining cause and effect, using text features, connecting, inferring, sequencing, understanding problems...
E Reading Worksheets
E Reading Worksheets: Text Structure Practice 1
This interactive instructional activity provides 10 questions: each includes a reading passage which students read and select the patterns of organization used in each passage. RI.11-12.3 Text development
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University
De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: Nonfict Readers Analyze Structure/views[pdf]
This graphic organizer contains questions for students as they analyze any nonfiction text. Students will read closely to determine the text's structure, viewpoint, and tone. This graphic organizer is a copyrighted material that may be...
ReadWriteThink
Read Write Think: Using Thieves to Preview Nonfiction Texts
Contains plans for three lessons that introduce a nonfiction prereading strategy with the acronym THIEVES, which stands for Title, Headings, Introduction, Every first sentence, Visuals and vocabulary, End Questions, and Summary. In...
ReadWriteThink
Read Write Think: Playing With Genre Through Newspapers and Short Stories
Contains plans for three lessons that ask students to compare narrative writing (short stories) to expository writing (news articles) in order to understand what makes each genre unique. In addition to objectives and standards, this...
Other
Academic Reading: Sample Task [Pdf]
This Academic Reading task provides a practice assessment for identifying headings and subheadings. In the task, students must read the selection and then determine the best subheading for each of the sections.
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University
Depaul University: Center for Urban Education: Guide Nonfiction Reading
This site contains 17 nonfiction articles that are appropriate for students with a 6th grade reading level, as measured by the Fry Formula. Questions for each passage are provided. These graphic organizers are copyrighted and may be used...
ReadWriteThink
Read Write Think: Scaffolding Summarization With Fishbone Mapping
Lesson that teaches students how to find important and significant information while reading text. After locating information through strategies, students learn how to summarize content-area text. A downloadable fishbone template is linked.
TES Global
Blendspace: Questioning Nonfiction Text Oil Spills
An eight-part learning module with links to texts, videos, and websites to use while improving informational text skills through the topic of oil spills. The print materials have directed exercises for text analysis by students.
Read Works
Read Works: Passages: Predicting the Future
[Free Registration/Login Required] Students read an informational text about the predictions of a futurist and answer questions on comprehension, text support, main idea, vocabulary, and more. Links to a paired text and paired text...
Read Works
Read Works: Passages: Vanquishing the Gooples
[Free Registration/Login Required] Students read a story about a girl named Melissa and her adventure at a Renaissance Faire and answer questions in comprehension, setting, characterization, main idea, inference, transitions, and more. A...
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University
De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: Comprehensive Assessment: Nonfiction [Pdf]
Questions are provided to help students determine the main idea, topic, purpose, and opinion of a piece of nonfiction. Students are prompted to write a summary of the informational text.
International Reading Association
Reading Online: Teaching Vocabulary to Adolescents to Improve Comprehension
An article highlighting the improvements of middle and high school students' reading comprehension through a sixteen-week program. Includes introduction, overview of the intervention, course structure, sample activities, assessments, and...
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: Summarize Informational/expository Text (English 6 Reading)
[Accessible by TX Educators. Free Registration/Login Required] Learn how to summarize the main ideas and supporting details in text and understand that a summary does not include opinions.
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: Synthesize Ideas in Informational/expository Text
[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 and support with...