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 data gathering with the...
Curated OER
Circles in the Landscape: Irrigating Oklahoma Crops
How do you grow crops in a area with insufficient rainfall? Why you irrigate, of course. Class members investigate irrigation systems by designing a system of their own. After examining irrigation related concepts, vocabulary terms, and...
![De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: How Does Writer Organize Nonfiction Text?[pdf] Graphic](https://d15y2dacu3jp90.cloudfront.net/images/attachment_defaults/resource/large/FPO-knovation.png "De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: How Does Writer Organize Nonfiction Text?[pdf] Graphic")
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University
De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: How Does Writer Organize Nonfiction Text?[pdf]
This poster contains writing craft questions for students to ask when reading nonfiction. This graphic organizer is a copyrighted material that may be used for educational purposes.
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University
De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: Prose Constructed Response Organizer [Pdf]
This Center for Urban Education resource provides a downloadable graphic organizer designed for comparing two nonfiction texts and a video. After completing the graphic organizer, students will use its contents to write a constructed...
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...
George Mason University
George Mason University: Writing Across the Curriculum: Teaching With Writing
Find a rationale, practices and strategies, and resources for incorporating writing in all areas of the curriculum. Learn how to write clear assignments and some methods to make grading of writing more efficient and effective....
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...
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University
Depaul University: Center for Urban Education: Guide/assess Nonfiction Reading
This site contains 47 one-page guided writing and reading guides and assessments.The reproducibles are copyrighted materials but may be copied and used for educational purposes.
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...
Annenberg Foundation
Annenberg Learner: Conversations in Literature
A research based workshop by Judith Langer on bringing the joy of reading literature to your class. An excellent professional development resource, with eight videos on demand. Topics include Responding as Readers, Objectifying the Text,...
Annenberg Foundation
Annenberg Learner: Literature: Describing Setting
Short explanation of setting as a literary term. Written in the context of "What makes a good short story?" A link at the bottom of the page leads to additional information about setting.
Other
Lexile: The Lexile Framework for Reading: Find a Book
Students use the "Find A Book" tool to build a custom book list based on their Lexile measure and interests. Book summaries and cover illustrations are included, as well as links to assist in locating the books on the list.
Other
Asle: Association for the Study of Literature and Environment
This site provides links to literature about the environment. They offer publications, programs, conferences, and events that explore the topic of literature and environment.
University of North Carolina
Writing Center: Handouts and Links
Resources for the writer of academic papers, with specific guidance about the mechanics of writing, citations, and effective expression. Lots of detail and lots of examples.
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway:analyze (Describe) Point of View in Literary Texts/fiction
In this learning module, students will learn to analyze fiction told from the first-person, third-person limited, and third-person omniscient points of view.
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: Analyze the Central Characters in Literary Text/fiction
In this lesson, students will learn some ways that writers reveal the complexity of their characters. By closely analyzing one author's characters, they will come to see how their words, actions, and interactions with one another can...
Other
Hong Kong Polytech: Functions in Academic Writing
Provides a wealth of interactive exercises dealing mainly with the structuring of sentences in different kinds of academic writing.
Department of Defense
Do Dea: English 4; Utopia
A learning module asking students to analyze different types of texts, connect literature to events and experiences, use various writing skills, deconstruct media, practice grammar and vocabulary skills, and analyze point of view,...
Other
Carson Newman College: Close Reading of a Literary Passage [Pdf]
Provides a number of questions that students can ask themselves about a literary passage when doing a "Close Reading" and following this with an organized piece of writing. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.5
Better Lesson
Better Lesson: Audience, Tone, and Style in Informative Text
Students will read samples of informative writing and highlight examples of how tone and style are used by the authors. Students will then apply this knowledge by writing their own informative text. Multiple examples of student work and...
Better Lesson
Better Lesson: Analyzing Text Complexity of Non Fiction Sources
This lesson plan will help middle schoolers read and comprehend nonfiction, specifically biographies, through determining criteria for text complexity. Included is a PDF and Smart Notebook titled Determining Text Complexity, and an...
Better Lesson
Better Lesson: Collaborative Booktalk: Sharing and Writing Development
Are dark themes in young adult novels harmful or helpful to teens? Students will explore this question and will create an argumentative writing piece based on textual evidence. Videos of the lesson in action, examples of student work,...
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: Literary Nonfiction
[Accessible by TX Educators. Free Registration/Login Required] In this lesson, you will learn how to analyze literary nonfiction, especially speeches, by making inferences and drawing conclusions based on evidence in the text. The...
Other
Read Print Publishing: Full Text Literature
Full text and free online versions of plays, essays, fiction, nonfiction, poetry and short stories. Search by favorite author or title and immediately find your text of choice.