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Someone is Summarizing
Young scholars practice summarizing text using James E. Knight's, "Boston Tea Party, Rebellion in the Colonies." They read the story silently before summarizing it using main ideas and supporting details and deciding what type of...
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Social Studies
Students, when researching a space topic in connection to Indiana, find six events related to the topic with a 100% accuracy. They place the six events in chronological order, create a time line, and then make a layered book out of them...
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Mardi Gras Madness
CStudents create a sensory chart in on the topic of Mardi Gras. They design a brainstorm web using Inspiration and complete creative writing assignment. Students write a poem about Mardi Gras that is presented to the class at the final...
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Research/Technical Writing: Paraphrasing
Students work in groups to paraphrase an article. In this paraphrasing lesson, each group is assigned a paragraph to paraphrase in one sentence. Other groups critique the sentences to make sure each is effective. When the sentences...
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Quick Writes
Students write on a variety of topics, maximize creative and expository writing skills, develop focused writing, organize ideas, incorporate detail in writing, and exhibit varied and precise word choice.
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Reading Discovery
Students investigate literature to discover details and focus upon the main idea to analyze it. They use reading comprehension skills to interpret passages of choice based upon literary importance to the overall meaning. While evaluating...
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General to Specific
Students revise a recent draft of writing to make the content more specific. They trace their hands on a large sheet of paper. Students, in the palms of their traced hand print, write in the general topic of the writing draft. On the...
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Interesting Beginnings: An Autobiographical Sketch
Students discuss the characteristics of an autobiography. Individually, they complete a graphic organizer and a timeline of events about their life. In groups, students brainstorm ideas for an interesting sentence and write an...
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Connecting Characters and Themes in Julius Caesar
Fourth graders prepare for the literary analysis. They locate, interpret, evaluate and analyze the relationship between a character and the theme. After a lecture/demo, 4th graders write topic and detail sentences, then correctly put...
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Writing Lesson 9
Fourth graders explore the writing process by responding to a writing prompt. They practice responding to a given writing prompt. Students write about a daydream. They write two or three paragraphs about the topic.
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"Thunder Butte"
Sixth graders review as a class the story "Thunder Butte". Together they write an outline of the story following the sample and then pick four main parts of the story giving supporting details for each one. They compare Sarah's view with...
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Meet the Press
Students give their book reports as oral "Meet the Press" type interviews. They team up with another student "reporter" and answer questions about main idea, details, and the point of view.
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Lesson Five: Introduction to Auxiliary Verbs
If you are interested, you could try out this lesson on auxiliary verbs. Class members get the chance to discuss the difference between can and could in-depth before viewing a presentation that breaks down several auxiliary verbs. After...
Syracuse City School District
Reading Comprehension Unit Plan
A unit plan uses short texts to teach literary elements such as theme and characterization. Included are passages by authors such as Walter Dean Myers and Sandra Cisneros. Activities include quick writes, filling in graphic organizers,...
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McLean Train Yard
Young scholars conduct online research and incorporate graphics and maps into a Powerpoint presentation that details life at the McLean train yard in its heyday.
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Look What I Found Out!
Students attend a field trip. Upon their return to the classroom, students write unanswered questions related to the field trip. Using the internet and other resources, students find answers to their questions. They write their...
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Nudging Questions
Students choose one topic to write about. They brainstorm ideas about their topic or incident. They use sensory details to visualize their topic. They answer a variety of teacher directored nudging question to help them describe their...
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Let's Sum It Up
Students summarize a selected piece of nonfiction text as a group. After reviewing the instructors preferred method for summarizing information by identifying the main idea and supporting details, groups write a summary paragraph of a...
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Enhancing Writing Through Technology
Students participate in a class survey of their favorite activity to do in the snow and organize the results in a graph. They write a paragraph about the graph using language from a class-developed word web and include both an opening...
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Summing It All Up
Learners read articles and summarize the main points in this lesson. Students read a provided article from National Geographic Kids and create a web detailing the main points. They then use a six step process to write a summary of the...
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Civil War Museum Exhibit
Fourth graders summarize the participation of Indiana citizens in the Civil War. They research an assigned topic and build a museum exhibit that displays at least five points of information relating to the topic. Students write a...
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Proofreading: Lesson 9
Eighth graders participate in writing a descriptive paragraph with a main idea and supporting details. They generate correct mechanics and spelling while writing this paragraph. When finished, they complete a rubric (that is included...
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Small Group Shared Writing
Students discuss elements of effective writing in small groups. They work together to critique individual and group writing focusing on including supporting details.
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Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs
Second graders respond to Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs by Judi Barrett by illustrating a slide for a class slide show and writing a sentence to go with the illustration. Weather terminology are used in the sentences.