Curated OER
Cultivate Active Reading Skills
Have class members try out these strategies to improve comprehension and engagement.
Penguin Books
Teacher’s Guide: Of Mice and Men by John Steinbeck
A 10-page guide to John Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men includes a brief plot summary, information about preparing readers for the language in the novel, pre-reading, during reading, and post-reading questions, essay prompts, and project...
Curated OER
Parrot in the Oven: Word Tree - Bonsai or Banyan
What fun! As part of a vocabulary exercise designed for Victor Martinez's Parrot in the Oven: Mi Vida readers create word trees with the trunk representing the root word and the branches representing prefixes that can be added to the...
The New York Times
Crossing the Line Online: Sexual Harassment and Violence in the Age of Social Media - NYTimes.com
Sexual harassment and sexual violence are by no means new issues. What has changed is the role of social media in these issues. This powerful and troubling lesson uses a specific rape case to launch research into a discussion of the...
Curated OER
Using the Question Matrix
Students analyze and develop questions about a text. In this asking questions lesson, students read an article and analyze the information within the text. Students then form and answer questions about the text.
Curated OER
House 2: Answering Questions in Complete Sentences
For this ESL question answering worksheet, students examine the 7 pictures of household objects and read the question, "What is this?" Students answer each question in a complete sentence on the line.
Curated OER
The Outsiders: Directed Reading Thinking Activity
It can be difficult to begin a novel when you don't know what it's about. Take the opportunity to begin S.E. Hinton's The Outsiders slowly, making predictions and answering questions about the book's first nine pages.
Curated OER
The Front Page: Asking Geographic Questions
Students examine how to ask geographic questions. They read an article with details omitted, list possible geographic questions, and write a summary of the article.
Syracuse City School District
Reading Comprehension Unit Plan
A unit plan uses short texts to teach literary elements such as theme and characterization. Included are passages by authors such as Walter Dean Myers and Sandra Cisneros. Activities include quick writes, filling in graphic organizers,...
Curated OER
Forming Open-Ended Questions
Help readers learn to create their own open-ended questions for any text you are working with. Using Bloom's Taxonomy, learners begin on the lower levels and work their way up to form questions that focus on synthesis instead of simple...
Novelinks
Man's Search for Meaning: ReQuest Procedure Questioning Strategy
As part of a study of Viktor Frankl's Man's Search for Meaning, class members respond to, and craft, higher-level comprehension questions based on passages from the text.
Curated OER
Walk Two Moons: Question Answer Relationship Strategy
Middle schoolers develop a strategy as they read excerpts from Walk Two Moons. Using question and answer relationship strategies class members bolster their reading comprehension as they appropriately identify and create...
K5 Learning
The Astronomy Project
A passage about an astronomy lesson may leave readers starstruck. Fifth graders read about a class's exploration into the makeup of the galaxy and its constellations before answering six questions about the terms and vocabulary...
Curated OER
The Old Man and the Sea: Directed Reading Thinking Activity
Can you find the themes from Ernest Hemingway's The Old Man and the Sea in other books? What about picture books? Compare the novel to a picture book with a activity about making predictions and finding textual evidence.
Curated OER
Parrot in the Oven: Pair Reading
After reading and discussing chapter 10 of Victor Martinez's Parrot in the Oven: Mi Vida with a partner, individuals write about a time they had to exhibit real courage.
K5 Learning
Pretty Fish
John caught a trout, but will he release it or eat it? After reading the passage, young readers respond to four comprehension questions about the story.
Novelinks
The Chosen: QAR
Question the text with a reading comprehension activity based on Chaim Potok's The Chosen. Learners read four passages from the book and decide if the question after each passage is between the reader and the author, for the reader...
Institute for Humane Education
Not So Fair and Balanced: Analyzing Bias in the Media
Life is not always fair. Who's heard that before? This same concept moves to a larger scale using prejudice and bias. Pupils discuss where prejudice attitudes derive and how they develop throughout life. Reading comprehension...
Curated OER
Grade A: The Market for a Yale Woman's Eggs by Jessica Cohen
What would it be like to sell your eggs to a couple who can't have children on their own? Could you even imagine it? As most of us have never been in this position, this descriptive essay is really quite interesting. The reading itself...
Curated OER
My Antonia: During Reading Strategy
Home in on the quote on this page to explore setting, the author's and character's voices, and plot in Willa Cather's My Antonia. Pupils draw a picture of what is described in the quote, discuss the content, and make connections to their...
K5 Learning
Alex and Amanda's First Concert
Going to your first concert is an unforgettable experience. Read about two sisters making plans to attend their first concert with a reading passage and multiple-choice questions.
Curated OER
The Grapes of Wrath: QAR--Question/Answer Relationship
Chapter nine of John Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath provides the text for an exercise that asks readers to think deeply about the items the Joads left behind and what these items might represent.
Curated OER
The Monster in the Barn
What could that scary sound be? Join Bobby and his dad in a search for a screeching monster with a short reading passage. In addition, learners show their understanding with a series of comprehension questions and a lesson extension.
EngageNY
Posing Statistical Questions
Is this a statistical question? The opening lesson plan in a series of 22 introduces the concept of statistical questions. Class members discuss different questions and determine whether they are statistical or not, then they sort the...