New York City Department of Education
Grade 3 Literacy: Investigating Sharks
Shark! Scholars read about sharks in Facts about Sharks by Susanna Batchelor. They then pretend they are shark scientists and choose a shark they want to study. Learners research their sharks and record information in graphic organizers...
EngageNY
Analyzing Author’s Point of View: Chapter 5 of World without Fish
That's an interesting perspective. Scholars read chapter five of World without Fish and use an Author’s Point of View graphic organizer to determine the author's perspective. In triads, they highlight words that support the author's...
EngageNY
Analyzing Point of View and Figurative Language: Noah’s Point of View of the Coral Queen and Dusty Muleman
Literally, what's the meaning? Scholars read pages seven through nine of Flush and discuss literal and nonliteral meaning with figurative language. Learners work in triads to identify and define unfamiliar words. They then complete a...
EngageNY
Carl Hiaasen’s Perspective of Florida: Part 3
What is your perspective? Scholars read Florida: A Paradise of Scandals Excerpt 2 and look for unfamiliar words. They determine author perspective by completing Gathering Evidence of Hiaasen’s
Perspective: Part three graphic organizer...
EngageNY
Making Inferences: What Motivated Philo Farnsworth?
Turn on the tube. Learners take a look at pages 10-13 of The Boy Who Invented TV. They work in groups and complete a first read to determine the gist of the section. They then reread the pages to make and revise previous inferences and...
EngageNY
Determining Main Ideas and Supporting Details and Summarizing: “Clothing”
Surviving winter. Pupils begin reading on page 18 of The Inuit Thought of It: Amazing Arctic Inventions and sketch how the people used animal skin clothing to survive the winter. Readers complete a main idea graphic organizer with...
Curated OER
Mini-Lesson Planning for Inferences
Making inferences and drawing conclusions is a key component to successful active reading. Encourage your class to use context clues and prior knowledge to infer different elements of a story, including the setting, plot, and character...
The Alamo
A Teacher’s Guide to Lorenzo De Zavala
Who was Lorenzo de Zavala to the Texas Revolution, and how did he change the Alamo? Find out using an educational resource that asks learners to fill out graphic organizers and respond to short-answer questions to further solidify their...
Turabian Teacher Collaborative
Parts of Argument II: Article Critique
Break down the parts of argumentative writing with a critical thinking activity. High schoolers read an article of your (or their choice), and use a graphic organizer to delineate the ways the author structures his or her arguments.
Literacy Design Collaborative
Exploring Character Development in The Watsons Go to Birmingham - 1963
How did the Civil Rights Movement affect young people in the United States? Scholars read Christopher Paul Curtis' novel, The Watsons go to Birmingham - 1963. Next, they write compare and contrast essays showing how the main characters...
ReadWriteThink
A High-Interest Novel Helps Struggling Readers Confront Bullying in Schools
Paul Langan's novel The Bully is the core text in a six-session unit plan that engages high schoolers in an in-depth examination of bullying and its effects on bullies, victims, and bystanders. The richly textured and carefully...
McGraw Hill
Phonics Teachers Resource Book
Looking to improve your classes literacy program? Then look no further. This comprehensive collection of resources includes worksheets and activities covering everything from r-controlled vowels and consonant digraphs, to the different...
Curated OER
Intermediate Guided Reading Lesson Plan for: Corn is Maize The Gift of the Indians
A lovely guided reading lesson awaits you and your students. They read the book,Corn is Maize: The Gift of the Indians, by Aliki, summarize the important events of the story, and describe how corn has helped develop culture in America.
Curated OER
Using Details from the Text
Explore non-fiction comprehension strategies with your class. They will visualize daily activities and label a 4 circle Venn diagram with related phrases. They must identify the overlapping sections as "main ideas," then complete a...
Curated OER
A Graphic Scene
Third graders discuss the advantages of using various graphic organizers including Venn Diagrams and T-charts. They use the organizers to compare and contrast different versions of classic mythological stories.
Curated OER
Graphic Organizer: Story Pyramid
In this graphic organizer: story pyramid worksheet, students analyze 6 components of the story (exposition, conflict, rising action, climax, falling action, resolution) and write the details in the boxes.
Curated OER
Story Pyramid
In this pyramid graphic organizer worksheet,students use the story organizer to sequence the events in a story. Students describe the five parts of the story.
Curated OER
Poetry Reading for ELL Beginners
Bring the imagery of the desert to your classroom with this ELL lesson plan. After reading Madeleine Dunphy’s Here in the Southwestern Desert, learners complete a graphic organizer about the features and images of the poem. The...
Curated OER
Finding the Main Idea: Little Women
Whether or not your class is reading Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women, you can use this exercise as the basis of a mini-lesson on how to determine the main idea of a passage or as a pre-test to assess mastery of the skill. A graphic...
Curated OER
Reading and Responding -- Lesson 16
Fourth graders work independently or in a small group to (1) read a nonfiction selection, (2) identify the author's purpose, (3) distinguish informational text from narrative text, (4) skim and scan for facts, and (5) complete a graphic...
Curated OER
Guided Reading: " A River Ran Wild"
Students answer "essential questions" to establish background and prior knowledge of the book, "A River Ran Wild." In this language arts lesson, 3rd graders complete a graphic organizer of vocabulary words and read and take notes at...
Channel Islands Film
Magic Isle: Lesson Plan 4
After watching West of the West's documentary on Catalina Island, The Magic Isle, class members research how Walt Disney's and William Wrigley's different visions impacted the island.
Curated OER
The Time Machine
Challenge your class with this lesson! Learners read The Time Machine by H.G. Wells, discuss context clues, identify main ideas and details, and analyze story elements. Discussion questions and activities are broken down for each chapter...
EngageNY
Grade 9 ELA Module 1, Unit 1, Lesson 5
Finding the central idea in a text is equally important in fiction and nonfiction. Work on analyzing a piece of writing for the central idea with Karen Russell's "St. Lucy's Home for Girls Raised by Wolves," complete with supporting...