Curated OER
Holes Comprehension Companion
Here is a one-stop planning resource for Louis Sachar's Newbery Award-winning book Holes. You'll find 21 links to worksheets and various activities designed to span the entire book. Learners draw to help analyze settings and make...
Curated OER
Sequence, Predict, Infer: Pink and Say
Practice sequencing with your 2nd graders via Patricia Polacco's Civil War book Pink and Say. Begin with a blindfold and a bag of mystery items. Connect their use of clues to identify what they can't see with the skill of making...
Curated OER
Let's Put You in a Louisiana University
Considering a college search project? After picking a possible career choice, and determining if that career needs a technical college or university education, individuals examine a wide variety of sources and select three schools that...
Curated OER
Note-Taking: K.I.S.S. "Keep It Short and Simple"
Note-taking is an essential study skill, and it needs to be taught! In the context of a research project on energy sources, learners find multiple sources, evaluating, paraphrasing, and citing them correctly. Two lists with note-taking...
Curated OER
Unwind: Directed Reading Thinking Activity
To generate interest in reading Neal Shusterman's young adult science fiction novel Unwind, class members engage in a Directed Reading-Thinking Activity (DRTA) that asks them to examine the front and back covers, the blurbs, and "The...
Curated OER
"Rikki-tikki-tavi"
“Rikki-tikki-tavi” provides an opportunity to model for readers how to use background information to enrich understanding of a story. Class members observe animal behavior, listen to biographical background on Rudyard Kipling, study...
Curated OER
Maus: After Reading Strategy Instructional Routine
Class members create literary mandalas for two characters from Maus, Art Spiegelman’s graphic novel about his father’s experiences with the Holocaust. After finding quotes that reveal three good traits and three bad traits of each...
Louisiana Department of Education
Essential Elements Cards
Use essential elements cards to help lesson plan! Each card contains an informational text common core standard for grade levels six through eight and suggestions for activities and supports. Cards address skills such as citing textual...
Shmoop
ELA.CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RL.9-10.1
Does your ELA class need some practice with the specific skills outlined in the Common Core standards? Then this is the perfect resource for you! One in a series of connected lessons that cover the standards for reading literature,...
Curated OER
Heartsongs Poetry by Mattie Stepanek
Use Mattie Stepanek’s Heartsongs book of poetry to inspire young poets to write about their own lives, experiences, and feelings. After reading the introduction to Mattie’s book, in which he talks about himself and his reasons for...
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Songwriting Skill - Choosing a Tone: Jordan Pruitt - “One Love”
"Tone means attitude." Or so says this resource that uses Jordan Pruitt's "One Love" to model for songwriters how to develop an attitude in their lyrics. Class members engage in a number of exercises designed to give them direct and...
Curated OER
Checking Sources For Accuracy
Middle schoolers will paraphrase a resource without plagiarizing. Then rewrite after reading text. They then evaluate the site or reference they are using for accuracy. In the end, they complete a note-taking organizer.
Curated OER
Analyzing Two or More Nonfiction Texts
How does recognizing the author's purpose help you draw conclusions about a topic? Using two articles (both are attached), learners brainstorm why each author wrote each article. Are their purposes similar or different? Learners use a...
Curated OER
De-Mystifying Poetry: Understanding Narrative Poetry
Tenth graders explore narrative poetry. They analyze sections of a poem and present to groups. They compose their own narrative poems using pictures as prompts. They exchange their poems and analyze their classmate's poem.
National Endowment for the Humanities
Tales of the Supernatural
Scary stuff! Whether approached as the first horror story or a "serious imaginative exploration of the human condition," Frankenstein continues to engage readers. Here's a packet of activities that uses Mary Shelley's gothic novel to...
Curated OER
Strategies Used During Reading
Students try a variety of reading strategies. In this reading strategy lesson, students read a nonfiction passage and put Post -Its to mark the spots where they are using a reading strategy. They focus on inferring, predicting,...
Curated OER
Stones, Bones & Telephones: Analyzing Artifacts Using Bloom's Taxonomy
Seventh graders define metacognition, Bloom's Taxonomy, and artifacts. They, in groups, try to identify a mystery artifact using the Artifact Analysis sheet. They present their findings to the class.
Curated OER
A Siouan Village
Fourth graders examine the artifacts obtained from an excavated Siouan village site. They make inferences about the people who once lived there based on the artifacts and complete a Research Team Report.
Curated OER
The Diary of Anne Frank
Eighth graders read the Diary of Anne Frank. In this novel reading instructional activity, 8th graders read and analyze the story. Students do online activities and create a newspaper giving a summary of three major events in the story....
Curated OER
Motel of Mysteries
Students determine that even though inferences are based on observations that does not mean they are always true or correct. They pull the topics and main ideas out of a piece of difficult text.
Curated OER
Tomas and the Library Lady
Students practice read aloud comprehension strategies. In this literacy comprehension lesson plan, students listen to Tomas and the Library Lady, stopping to discuss with a partner aspects of the story suggested by the teacher. Students...
Curated OER
African American Experiences: Window to the Past
Learners examine African life during slavery on the Internet. In this slavery lesson, students use the Internet to research slavery and create a scrapbook. Learners review pictures of slavery and label them as primary or secondary sources.
Curated OER
The Gingerbread Boy Comes Alive
Students make cut-out gingerbread cookies. After reading "The Gingerbread Boy", their cookies "disappear" and students must make predictions and draw conclusions about what happened to their cookies.
Curated OER
Clouds as Art: Torn Paper Landscape
Students create a torn paper landscape and use it to study clouds. In this cloud study and art lesson, students make a background art image from torn paper. Students create a torn paper landscape and use cotton balls to illustrate...