Read Works
Read Works: Passages: The Process of Acting
[Free Registration/Login Required] Students read a nonfiction text about what it takes to be an actor and answer questions about comprehension, main idea, supporting details, vocabulary, transitions, and more. Links to a paired text and...
Stanford University
Sheg: Document Based History: Reading Like a Historian: Historical Thinking
[Free Registration/Login Required] This chart elaborates on the historical reading skills of sourcing, corroboration, contextualization, and close reading. In addition to questions that relate to each skill, the chart includes...
Stanford University
Sheg: Document Based History: Reading Like a Historian: Snapshot Autobiography
[Free Registration/Login Required] What is history? And why do historical accounts differ? In this lesson, students create brief autobiographies and then reflect on the process to better understand how history is written. Exploring these...
Sophia Learning
Sophia: Reading Comprehension and Classroom Discussions
This tutorial focuses on active reading comprehension strategies including reading aloud, taking notes, summarizing, and writing in the margins of books to improve retention and class discussion. It includes two Flickr videos on active...
University of North Carolina
Documenting the American South (Doc South)
Provides primary sources for the study of southern history, culture and literature. DocSouth includes sixteen thematic collections of books, diaries, posters, artifacts, letters, oral history interviews, and songs.
Washington State University
Washington State University: Brief Timeline of American Literature and Events
A timeline of the social, political, historical, and literary history of America from the 1500s to the 1920s. It offers links to primary sources including historical and literary works including the original U.S. Constitution. RL.11-12.9...
CommonLit
Common Lit: "Sometimes, History Is Sadness" by David White
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...
CommonLit
Common Lit: Financial Literacy
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...
CommonLit
Common Lit: Egyptian Social Structure
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...
Huntington Library
Huntington Library: The Widening World of Books and Readers [Pdf]
In this lesson, 7th graders examine the widespread impact of the printing press on promoting literacy and spreading ideas across societies and between countries.
Huntington Library
Huntington Library: The Development of Writing and Books: Part Ii [Pdf]
In this lesson, learners examine early civilizations and the evolution of written language, at different early methods used to record information in writing, how these methods evolved, and at the impact of books on societies.
EL Education
El Education: This Is Why I Cry
Students gain a deeper understanding of slavery by creating an accurate portrayal of a character from history. Each historical character file they create contains a portrait, a biographical narrative, a character map, a bibliography, and...
CommonLit
Common Lit: "Emmett Till" by Jessica Mc Birney
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...
Department of Defense
Do Dea: English 4; Order and Chaos
A learning module asking students to analyze different types of texts, use literary terms, write a persuasive essay, and practice grammar and vocabulary skills all within themes related to order and chaos or war and peace.
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
Association for Supervision and Curriculum Development (ASCD)
Ascd: Building Literacy in Social Studies: Ch 1: Reading Social Studies Texts
Article provides excellent tips and strategies for building comprehension and critical thinking skills in Social Studies. It describes some of the challenges students have with reading and understanding their textbooks.
Other
Reading Quest: Making Sense of Social Studies
Teaching students to read well in areas other than language arts requires teaching and reinforcing the kinds of reading strategies taught here. There are 27 strategies, ranging from brainstorming to word mapping. The site includes PDF...
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: Cities in Mesopotamia: Understanding a Complex Text
In this lesson, 6th graders use details from a nonfiction article to create a visual representation and then, from that visual, provide evidence that demonstrates their understanding of the text. Includes samples of student work and lots...
CommonLit
Common Lit: "On Tragedy" by Aristotle
In this chapter from "Poetics", Aristotle seeks to define "tragedy" as it relates to literature and human emotion. A specific purpose for reading and vocabulary notes are provided. This site offers links to paired texts, questions and...
Other
City College: Skills for Life: Reading for a Purpose
This resource offers 11 exercises with variety of everyday reading passages such as letters, recipes, classified ads, etc. Students read the passage and answer multiple choice questions about its purpose.
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.
The Newberry Library
Newberry Library: Daily Life in Early Modern France
Primary source documents are used in the exploration of the written word asks how handwritten documents shaped life in the early modern period and what can they tell us about the experiences of early modern people.