Curated OER
Guided Reading with Jazz Baby
Jazz music and musicians are the focus of this language arts lesson. Young readers independently read the book Jazz Baby. To build fluency and independence they read silently, but are guided by directive comments from the teacher. They...
Curated OER
Reading Meet Writing
Thinking about introducing your middle schoolers to reading log journals? Try the approach suggested by this resource. After reading to the class an article or portion of a novel, demonstrate a Think Aloud and then model how to transform...
Curated OER
Shining The Love on Reading!
Students enjoy reading independently. In this independent reading concept, students are given a finger flashlight to make silently reading a book at their instructional level more enjoyable.
Curated OER
Guided Reading Lesson Plan
The students will be invoived in a guided reading exercise. The lesson is performed in a small group setting. The monitoring of reading is done by the teacher and scaffolding can also be provided as necessary.
Curated OER
Third Grade Fluency Lesson
Third graders read passages of text in an effort to improve their fluency and reading comprehension. In this language arts lesson, 3rd graders read passages that are at their reading level, and attempt to increase their number of words...
Curated OER
Implementing Reader's Workshop in the Primary Classroom
Basic guidelines and lesson ideas for introducing this reading strategy.
Novelinks
Words by Heart: Question Answer Relationship
Even though readers investigate matters of the heart, this activity promotes the inner workings of learners' brains. The fifth lesson of six has the teacher first model the strategy to the class before having small groups practice. To...
Curated OER
Elizabeti's Series--Classroom Guide
Second graders explore the books in the Elizabeti Series. In this reading comprehension lesson, young readers discuss pre-reading focus questions about their feelings on the first day of school. They investigate the book and describe the...
Curated OER
Guided Reading: Asking Questions
Here is a reading strategies lesson in which learners use post it notes to create a bulletin board. They post their new questions on the bulletin board and look back at questions they have already learned the answer to. A great idea,...
Curated OER
To Kill a Mockingbird Reading Guide
Provided here are dozens of questions to guide readers through reading all 31 chapters of To Kill a Mockingbird. Suggested answers are included. Most of the questions focus on plot recall, although some do require deeper-level thinking.
Virginia Department of Education
Identifying the Main Idea in Fiction
Discovering the main idea in fiction is like uncovering buried treasure; one must persevere to locate it, and the reward is priceless. Scholars delve deep into leveled stories using three questions to aid in identifying the main idea.
Curated OER
DR-TA Reading Strategy
Foster critical thinking skills by using the DR-TA Strategy with Jonathan Swift’s “A Modest Proposal.” Class members read portions of the essay, stop and discuss what is happening, make predictions based on evidence from the text, and...
Curated OER
The Outsiders: Anticipation Guide
The Outsiders by S.E. Hinton is always a favorite for middle and high school readers because it addresses issues that hit home to them, decades after the book is set. Have learners fill out an anticipation guide that encourages them to...
Novelinks
The Dark Is Rising: Guided Imagery
To launch a reading of The Dark is Rising, the second novel in Susan Cooper's award winning contemporary fantasy novel sequence for young adults, class members engage in a guided imagery exercise that asks them to visualize the setting...
Curated OER
The Pearl: Directed Reading Thinking Activity
Guide readers to think about what they are reading with a comprehension activity. Using John Steinbeck's The Pearl, learners predict what is coming, verify and judge their predictions, and analyze what they are reading more closely.
PBS
Reading Adventure Pack: Birds
A Reading Adventure Pack takes a close look at birds. After reading a fiction and nonfiction book, scholars craft a thaumatrope, begin a birding journal using their sense of sight and hearing, and build a model bird using supplies from...
K5 Learning
The Three Billy Goats Gruff
Guide kids as they trip trap over their bridge of reading with an activity focused on The Three Billy Goats Gruff. First graders read the classic story before answering a few reading comprehension questions about the events and...
PBS
Reading Adventure Pack: Robots
Two activities work with a fiction and nonfiction book about robots‚—Robot Dreams by Sara Varon and Robot by Roger Bridgman. Scholars read each story, then build a robot out of found objects, examine robot sensors, and search for...
E Reading Worksheets
Context Clues Vocabulary Builder Activity
Reading comprehension improves when you can use context clues to define unfamiliar words. Help your kids practice using context clues with a worksheet that provides space for seven sentences with new words, as well as a place for kids to...
Curated OER
Much Ado About Nothing: Guided Imagery Exercise
“Be glad that all things sort so well.” To make text-to-self connections to Shakespeare’s play, class members engage in a guided imagery exercise prior to reading Act IV, scene i of Much Ado About Nothing (the wedding of Claudio and...
Novelinks
The Devil’s Arithmetic: Anticipation Guide
Do you need to learn about someone's past before you can understand that person's behavior? Use an anticipation guide to think about the literary themes of Jane Yolen's The Devil's Arithmetic before you begin the novel.
Penguin Books
A Teacher's Guide to William Shakespeare's Hamlet
Should Hamlet avenge his father's death? Is the ghost telling the truth or is it trying to trick Hamlet? Is Hamlet's inconsistent behavior a ploy or is he really insane? Something really is rotten in Denmark, and with the help of the...
Achieve3000
Oral Reading Fluency
Accuracy, phrasing, flow, and pace, the four traits of of oral reading fluency, are the focus of a series of exercises that are designed to help readers develop these comprehension and literacy skills.
Curated OER
Educator's Guide: Holes
You'll be a star at your next grade level meeting with an educational unit on Louis Sachar's Holes. Based on both the novel and film, the lessons include applications to language arts with character studies and movie reviews; social...