Read Works
Read Works: Cause and Effect 3rd Grade Unit
[Free Registration/Login Required] A three-lesson unit on cause and effect. Learners learn to use signal words to identify cause and effect relationships and to describe possible effects when given a cause in fiction. Students also learn...
Read Works
Read Works: Read Aloud Lesson: Digging Up Dinosaurs
[Free Registration/Login Required] Teachers will read "Digging Up Dinosaurs" using the close reading technique. Students will use graphic organizers to summarize the steps necessary to collect, study, and build a dinosaur skeleton.
Read Works
Read Works: Fact and Opinion 1st Grade Unit
[Free Registration/Login Required] A three-lesson unit on fact and opinion through which students learn how to identify opinions through signal words, identify facts in a non-fiction text, and use facts to help them formulate opinions of...
Read Works
Read Works: Debate a Moment of Silence, Please
[Free Registration/Login Required] An informational text debating the topic of starting each school day with a moment of silence. A question sheet is available to help students build skills in reading comprehension.
ReadWriteThink
Read Write Think: Text Features: Non Fiction [Pdf]
Compare the printed page to an electronic web page and use this activity to discuss the similarities and differences. A cross-curricular tie-in with ecosystems. Could easily be adapted to another subject area.
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University
De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: Animal Studies [Pdf]
"Animal Studies" is a one page, non-fiction, reading passage about studying the behaviors of animals including the sawfly and the poppy-bee. They learn about animals by observing them. It is followed by constructed-response questions...
CommonLit
Common Lit: Units: Teaching Units
Complete teaching units (12) by grade level. CommonLit units are crafted to be both engaging and rigorous, featuring a variety of literary and informational texts from diverse sources. Reading, writing, and discussion are prioritized in...
ReadWriteThink
Read Write Think: Abc Bookmaking Builds Vocabulary in the Content Areas
Six 50-minute lessons build vocabulary through the content areas by making an ABC book. It can become a classroom resource. Links include a non-fiction book list, checklist, word list, rubric, and a storyboard chart. There is also a link...
Read Works
Read Works: Paired Text Questions: "We Are Americans" and "Whoever You Are"
Students will compare information from the non-fiction book "We are Americans" and the book "Whoever You Are" to write or speak more knowledgeably about what large groups of people have in common.
AdLit
Ad lit.org: Hooking Struggling Readers: Using Books They Can and Want to Read
One of the keys to helping struggling readers is to provide them with books that they can and want to read. Fiction for struggling readers must have realistic characters, readable and convincing text, and a sense of the readers'...
ReadWriteThink
Read Write Think: Nonfiction Pyramid
A printable pyramid for use with nonfiction texts while students identify the main ideas and supporting details within a text. Students also determine author's purpose and key vocabulary words. Directions on how to use this type of...
CommonLit
Common Lit: "Diary of a Teenage Refugee" by Amira
CommonLit.org is a wonderful resource to use in a Language Arts classroom. Each story or article is accompanied by guided reading questions, assessment questions, and discussion questions. In addition, students can click on words to see...
Yale University
Biographies for Change in a Time of Conformity
Reading non-fiction and perhaps particularly biography is a skill that must be taught. This unit uses the lives of three icons: Elvis Presley, Malcolm X and Rachel Carson to develop this skills. Extensive bibliography for the teacher,...
PBS
Pbs Learning Media: Pbs Learning Media Presents Pov Watch Club
PBS LearningMedia Presents POV Watch Club. Free to educators each month. Let's watch and learn together! Join the Watch Club: Since February 2021 PBS has teamed up with POV to bring a documentary from television's longest-running...
Colorado State University
Colorado State University: Writing @ Csu Writing Guides
This is a fairly sophisticated series of writing guides. It assumes that users already have a solid grasp of spelling, grammar and mechanics, so it focuses more on organization and types of presentation than on more basic skills....
CommonLit
Common Lit: Excerpt From My Mother's Voice: The Proclamation
CommonLit.org is a wonderful resource to use in a Language Arts classroom. Each story or article is accompanied by guided reading questions, assessment questions, and discussion questions. In addition, students can click on words to see...
ReadWriteThink
Read Write Think: Question and Answer Books From Genre Study to Report Writing
Contains plans for eight lessons that explore Question and Answer Books and ask students to do research in order to write their own. In addition to objectives and standards, these instructional plans contain links to sites used in the...
Scholastic
Scholastic: Teaching With Nonfiction: Teach Text Features
A brief lesson plan, this site offers an example of non-fiction text and a graphic organizer to help orient students to the features they need to use when reading for information.
TES Global
Blendspace: Nonfiction 2014 2015
A learning module with twenty-one links to images, websites, texts, slideshows, and videos about nonfiction and informational text reading skills.
Other
Lib.ru: Classic Russian Literature
Great resource for finding online text for classic Russian literature in Russian. Features the most popular writers and their works. Valuable resource for students studying Russian. Russian-speaking ELL students might translate passages...
Texas Education Agency
Texas Gateway: Asking and Answering Questions Professional Development
Asking and Answering Questions Professional Development provides strategies to teach students how to ask and answer questions more effectively to improve comprehension in the classroom and on standardized assessments. It containing 9...
Better Lesson
Better Lesson: Unit: The Author's Point Is
Middle schoolers will focus on Main Idea, Author's Purpose, Identifying supporting details and Organizing details. Students will read a variety of Informational Text (non-fiction) to understand how stated and implied main idea effect the...