National Endowment for the Humanities
Faulkner's As I Lay Dying: Images of Faulkner and the South
Learners research one aspect of the life of Faulkner and the culture of the South. In this As I Lay Dying instructional activity, learners explore a webpage on Faulkner and write a summary. Learners analyze the images and consider the...
Curated OER
Children's Literature Across the Curriculum Ideas-Stone Fox
Students read and complete a variety of cross-curricular activities surrounding the novel, Stone Fox by John Reynolds Gardiner. Included are reading, math, science, writing, social studies, and library connections. A vocabulary/spelling...
Curated OER
Literature Study
Students create a PowerPoint presentation about a chapter book that they have read. They include what the book is about, they include characters, and a brief summary about the book.
Curated OER
The Pigman
In this language arts worksheet, high schoolers read through the summaries of the eighteen chapters from this book study of The Pigman.
Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History
Slave Narratives: Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs, and the Columbian Orator
Young historians practice in-depth, quality analysis of primary source texts in this three-lesson unit, which examines excerpts from the slave narratives of Frederick Douglass, Harriet Jacobs, and Caleb Bingham.
Curated OER
Hatchet: Concept Analysis
Take an in-depth look into Gary Paulsen's Hatchet with a concept guide. With a list and explanation of thematic motifs, types of conflicts, and vocabulary in the novel, learners will engage with the text in a whole new way.
Polk County Public Schools
Suffragists
The Women's Rights movement is the focus of an engaging and collaborative exercise, in which young historians use information found in textbooks, class notes, and the provided documents to craft a DBQ essay.
American Chemical Society
Does Temperature Affect Dissolving?
When making sweet tea, why do people dissolve the sugar in hot tea instead of cold tea? The class discusses the previous lab and builds upon it. Working in groups, they design an experiment to determine how temperature affects the...
Curated OER
Unit Plan for The Catcher in the Rye —A “Place-Based” Approach
"People never notice anything." As part of their study of The Catcher in the Rye, class members adopt Holden Caulfield's approach and spend time as quiet observers of their surrounding, recording their observations/reflections in a...
Utah Education Network (UEN)
Decision Making
Making decisions, while maybe scary, is a skill that can be learned. Introduce teens to a five-step decision-making process that makes what may seem overwhelming possible. Pupils learn the steps and practice them by playing games,...
Curated OER
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory
Fourth graders research and write an author report on Roald Dahl, including books written by him, birthplace, family life, and other information on his writing. Students read aloud chapters in the book. Students create a newspaper...
Curated OER
"Afternoon on the Amazon" by Mary Pope Osborne
Students read and complete activities dealing with the book "Afternoon on the Amazon". They create webs of words used in the book and write about what they have read.
Curated OER
Summarizing to Understand!
Students review the concept of silent reading. Through modeling and guided practice, they follow six given steps in summarizing a written passage. Then they read a passage independently and follow the same steps in summarizing the...
Curated OER
Beehive Award Nominees for Children's Fiction 2005-06
Students visit links about Utah's Beehive Award. They investigate which books received nominations and read reviews about them. They explore other sites to participate in various games and activities.
Curated OER
The Sign of the Beaver
Fourth graders read the book "The Sign of the Beaver". As a class, they identify the problems in the story and predicting what they think is going to happen next. Individually, they examine the cause and effect relationships and...
Curated OER
Summarizing
Fifth graders write summaries. In this summarizing instructional activity students decide which events of a chapter in a book are important to summarizing. Students also create a title for the chapter based upon the contents of the...
Curated OER
Summarizing is Fun with Flat Stanley!
Students read the book "Flat Stanley" by Jeff Brown. Through modeling and guided practice, as a class, they complete a story map and 1-paragraph summary of the first chapter in the book. Then, in groups, they follow the same procedure...
Curated OER
The Map of Summarization
Learners review the concept of silent reading. Through modeling and guided practice, they follow six given steps in summarizing a chapter from "Charlotte's Web." Then they follow the same steps in summarizing the next chapter on their own.
Curated OER
Missing May
Students listen to the first couple chapters in the book, Missing May by Cynthia Rylant and then sketch or write about a character or the setting, using words and phrases from the book as guides. They then discuss the chapters using the...
Curated OER
JIP: His Story
Students are provided with a three-column chart about a fictional character named Jip: looks, personality, and situation. After chapter 1 and chapter 2, students make notes on the charts and share that information with one other. They...
Curated OER
Life Cycle Literature Briefs
Literature containing life cycle information is available from many sources. Several examples of this type of literature are listed below with a synopsis and sample questions for each. These examples have been taken from a variety of...
Curated OER
Let's Put It in a Nutshell
Students practice summarizing things they have read. After reviewing the steps for reading silently and summarization, they read a chapter in the book Tuck Everlasting. Working in groups, they summarize what they have read and present...
Curated OER
Sarah, Plain and Tall
Pupils read Sarah, Plain and Tall, and they write a journal entry for each chapter. They can write about anything that come to mind as you read the story. Students are able to draw in the journal. They write down key words or phrases...
Curated OER
Summarizing Puts the Pieces Together
Pupils summarize a piece of fiction. After reviewing the correct way to read and summarize, students work in groups to summarize a piece of text assigned by the instructor. They write a summary paragraph by creating a story map and using...