Student Achievement Partners
"The Glorious Whitewasher" from The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain with Mini-Assessment
It's the classic scene: Tom Sawyer is whitewashing a fence. Expose your learners to Mark Twain's humor while reinforcing reading comprehension. Eighth graders are encouraged to read and reread, achieving as much exposure to the text...
Scholastic
Citing Text Evidence
Could you go without your cell phone for 48 hours? Pose this question to your class and then read the article provided here. Pupils mark the text and and complete a graphic organizer that requires the use of textual evidence.
Worksheet Web
Analyzing the Text
Practice analyzing informational text with a reading passage that details the Great Depression. Scholars read about the impacts of World War I, the Roaring Twenties, and the Depression, then answer 10 true or false questions.
San José State University
The Quotation Mark
Review where quotation marks belong and what they are used to indicate. From direct speech to in-text citations, young writers will find this worksheet quite useful. Several exercises at the bottom, along with a key, give learners...
K20 Learn
Annotating a Text: Style and Syntax
If you have a favorite author, you probably recognize their style. Conduct a close read of the text, marking it up as they go. Collaborative sharing time and a summary writing prompt follow the main activity.
EngageNY
Identifying How Text Features Support Arguments: “The Exterminator"
Half and half. Split the class in half to gain a full understanding of sidebars. Pupils work in groups to discuss sidebars in text. Half of the groups read Seriously Sick, and the other half reads Killer Genes. They read using...
Curated OER
Who is Mark Zuckerberg?: Reading Informational Text
This New York Times "Learning Network" exercise provides 10 questions that apply to an article about Mark Zuckerberg. It poses key journalistic questions like, who, what, why, where, how, and when. This resource provides a nice, short...
Curated OER
Reading Comprehension: History of the Periodic Table
Although the article that launches this lesson is about the history of the Periodic Table, the objective is reading comprehension. Using the eight-page informational text, learners answer five comprehension questions and craft one essay....
EngageNY
End of Unit Assessment: Analyzing an Informational Text
Scholars wrap up the unit by taking an assessment and reading the informational text "You Trouble" by Justin O'Neill. As they read, they answer multiple-choice questions and complete charts to analyze the main idea and supporting details...
Curated OER
Instill Inherent Reading Strategies
Marking the text can help transform novice readers into experts and enrich the reading experience
National Endowment for the Humanities
Mark Twain and American Humor
“The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County” is famous, in part, because it established a uniquely American form of humor. For this famous story, Mark Twain combines the tall-tale, the dialect story, and satire. Here is a resource...
Curated OER
Rewriting a Dialogue (removing quotes)
This is a great activity! Upper elementary learners read a dialogue-driven passage. Then, they rewrite lines of dialogue by removing the quotation marks and shifting the verb tense to past. Grammar and great writing skills all in one. An...
EngageNY
Reading for Gist and Answering Text-Dependent Questions: Chapter 5 of World without Fish
Discover the rules of fishing. Pupils read chapter five of World without Fish to discover ideas about the rules and laws of fishing. They use sticky notes to annotate text as they read about fishing in other countries. They focus on...
EngageNY
Engaging the Reader: Close Reading Part 1 of “Shrouded in Myth”
Read and reread for better understanding. Scholars listen to a read aloud of Shrouded in Myth. They talk with a partner about the things they noticed and wondered about the text. They then listen to the text a second time to focus...
EngageNY
Determining Main Idea Using Text and Illustrations: Accessing Books Around the World
Ease into informational text with the instructional activity suggested here. Part of a unit series, the instructional activity draws from previous lessons and acts as a natural moment to add in informational text. Class members read one...
Open Oregon Educational Resources
Oregon Writes Open Writing Text
Are some resource books more confusing than helpful? The creator of Oregon Writes Open Writing Text thinks so. That is why the text remains a living document with input from teachers, librarians, and scholars. The eBook begins with...
Florida Center for Reading Research
Fluency: Chunked Text, Reading Chunks
The activity focuses on reading chunked text. Peers grouped by specific ability levels take turns reading a text with proper intonation, expression, and phrasing.
Simon & Schuster
Classroom Activities for The Adventures of Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
A 16-page packet includes three activities for a unit study of Mark Twain's The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. Before beginning the novel, class members identify the factors in their lives that helped create their frame of reference,...
Florida Center for Reading Research
Fluency: Connected Text, Repeated Timed Reading
There are many different ways to build accuracy and fluency when reading. This exercise employs repetition and timed drills to get the job done. Learners time each other as they read a passage, recording each other's time and accuracy.
EngageNY
Mid-Unit 2 Assessment: Research Task: Comparing and Contrasting Texts
It's the half-way mark! Pupils demonstrate understanding of unit standards by completing a mid-unit assessment. After reading an informational article about water management strategies, scholars complete a graphic organizer to identify...
Curated OER
Cooperative Classroom Text Features Activities
Fifth graders examine text features and create a PowerPoint presentation. In this text features lesson, 5th graders go over Kagan Cooperative Learning Structures and text features before they choose one to include in a book and...
Curated OER
Using Comic Strips to Teach the Use of Quotation Marks
Students identify when and why quotations are used. Using comic strips and speech bubbles, they read and discuss examples of quotation marks, and in pairs write text for a cartoon on a piece of paper using quotation marks around the...
Curated OER
Unit Plan for Mark Twain and American Humor
Students create brochures about the humor of Mark Twain. In this literature-analysis lesson plan, students read "The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County" and other short stories by Twain. Students write analytical paragraphs and...
Curated OER
Writing Conversation: Using Quotation Marks
In this language arts worksheet, students learn to use quotation marks in written conversation. Students proofread 5 sentences and add the necessary punctuation. Then students write a conversation, starting a new line and indenting with...