Fairfax Public Schools
Walter Dean Myers
If you are reading works by Walter Dean Myers in your class, this resource might be worth a look. Included here are activities and discussion questions for Malcolm X: By Any Means Necessary, Somewhere in the Darkness, Scorpions, Fallen...
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To Sum It All Up...
Students one main goal when reading is to comprehend, and one strategy to improve reading comprehension is summarization. As students begin reading expository texts, it is vital for them to be able to pick out and summarize the main...
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I'm Thinking Of A Story
In this literature lesson, pupils listen to folk tales and then discuss the main ideas and plot of the story. Additionally, students guess what story is being talked about when their teacher describes the main idea and plot. Good...
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The 5 Paragraph Essay
The value in this PowerPoint about the five-paragraph expository essay comes from the clear explanations and specific examples provided to illustrate each aspect; however, a complete, model essay is not included. Beware the typos!
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Plot the Oysters' Peril!
Use comic strips to teach sequencing in narrative poetry. As homework, each class member selects a comic strip with 4-8 frames, cuts the frames apart, places the pieces in an envelope, and brings the envelope to class. Class members swap...
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Listening Positions, Please
Fourth graders practice using effective listening skills as they listen to oral poetry readings.
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Comprehension: Create a Summary from a Narrative Text
If your class can sequence events in a story, are pretty good at retell, and can identify the main point, they are probably ready for reading comprehension through summarizing. This lesson provides a teacher's script that facilitates...
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Keywords: A Memorization Strategy
Here is a fabulous, five-page lesson plan on how keywords can help a reader with his/her reading comprehension. After a teacher-led discussion, pupils pair off with each other and work together to identify the main idea in a passage of...
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Puberty/Adolescence, Day 5: "What Will I Decide About Touch?"
Day 5 of the puberty/adolescence lessons is about touch: sexual, affectionate, nurturing, and violent. There are many activities and scenarios to write about, talk about, and discuss. The main idea behind this topic on decision making is...
Mary Pope Osborne, Classroom Adventures Program
The Backpack Travel Journals
Strap on those backpacks, it's time to travel through history with this literature unit based on the first four books of The Magic Tree House series. While reading through these fun stories, children create story maps, record interesting...
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What's the Point?
Students identify the components of a political cartoon and formulate the main ideas.
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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.
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News View
Students read and analyze three different news sources that describe the same event. They compare/contrast the similarities and differences of the news sources, and write an essay describing the main event.
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What's My Job?: comprehension skills
In this comprehension skills instructional activity, 2nd graders read the book What's My Job? and complete comprehension activities. Students complete 5 activities including setting, character traits, summarizing, main idea/details, and...
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Let's sum it all up!
Students identify that comprehension is the main goal in reading. Then they read the words in a text, but also draw information from what they read. Students also identify and practice summarization. They read a piece of text and...
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The Juicy Stuff Matters
Young scholars explore and practice the strategy of summarization and scaffolding while mastering how to recap the details from a story and/or singling out what is important to recall from a story. They summarize the book, "How the...
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Reading the Newspaper
Students read the newspaper. In this newspaper lesson, students become familiar with the various parts of a newspaper. They read specific parts, highlight important information and summarize what they read.
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Short and Sweet
Students explore how to summarize a text while reading. They discuss what it means to summarize. Students read a non-fiction text and practice summarizing the pages they read. They highlight the main ideas and important details within...
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Summarizing and Mapping for Comprehension
Learners practice summarization in order to increase their comprehension of non-fiction text. They read and summarize passages by finding the main ideas in passages from a Social Studies textbook. After silently reading the passage they...
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It's Raining Meatballs
Students observe and demonstrate the process of summarization using the book "Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs" by Judi Barrett. They silently read the story, and as a class discuss the five W's. Students then write a short summary of...
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Successful Summarizers
Students review the concept of silent reading. Through modeling and guided practice, they explore six steps/rules of summarizing. In groups, they read a short book and then, using the summarization rules and skills, write an effective...
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"Beary" Super Summarizing!
Young scholars practice the the strategy steps of summarization to assist them in remembering what they've read. They read and analyze a copy of the article "Hey, Bear' Beware" from Ranger Rick Magazine for content and important details.
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Simply Summarize
Students review the concept of silent reading. Through modeling and guided practice, they follow five given steps in summarizing a written passage. Then they read a passage independently and follow the same steps in summarizing the...
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Stonehenge Summarizations
Students encounter the tools they need to begin their journey of reading. They must realize that they must gain comprehension skills to comprehend the meaning behind what is being read. Students use this strategy to pull out key...