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Read to Learn
Prepare for a research project or just use this learning exercise on its own. Class members choose a topic, write a big question about it, and note down information they find about it. The final product is a longer written assignment in...
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Meet the Nonfiction Main Idea Challenge
Help your class develop the ability to determine a main idea with a packet of materials that you can introduce and use over a period of time. The packet includes some information for the teacher and rationale for the exercises. There are...
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I Can Infer Motives
Why did they do it? Get to the bottom of complex characters and people by analyzing their motivation. Learners select an action and take a close look at that action in order to infer motive. They then explain why they determined that...
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I Can Identify and Support the Main Idea in Non-Ficiton
Analyze a historical or scientific informational text by determining the main idea and supporting details. This graphic organizer allows pupils to write down the main idea and four details.
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I Can Infer the Main Idea When I Read
While reading any text, ask your pupils to keep this graphic organizer on hand. They can note down the main idea and three supporting details during or after reading. The instructions allow for individuals to use words or images to...
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I Can Locate and Classify Information About a Topic
After reading a text, ask your pupils to recall and organize what they've just learned into a blank three-column chart. Class members write the topic and fill in the columns with information. The sheet also prompts students to write a...
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I Can Identify a Nonfiction Writer's Main Idea and Supporting Examples
Use this page to quickly identify the central idea of a text and organize ideas for writing an informational or explanatory text. The worksheet is split into two parts. In the first part, pupils note down the main idea and supporting...
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Show, Then Write What You Learn
After reading a text or covering a new topic, have class members fill out the four boxes on this page with facts. Individuals can use words or drawings to represent the facts.
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Illustration Planner
One way to help your pupils more fully understand an idea from the text they are reading is to require them to draw or sketch the concept. This page provides some space to plan the details your students want to include in their...
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I Can Classify Facts and Opinions
Telling fact from opinion can be tricky. Direct your class to practice their reading and comprehension skills by taking notes on the facts and opinions in a text. Pupils fill out a two-column chart and write down how they know a...
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Organize an Argument
Prepare your pupils for a debate or argumentative writing assignment. Students can use the two columns here to take notes on two different arguments about the same topics. They then note down their own positions and briefly explain their...
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Picture the Main Idea
Invite your learners to represent the central idea of a text visually. Individuals note down the main idea and then have the opportunity to draw four pictures that show the idea. Consider working out the main idea together and then...
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I Can Identify/Infer Motive
Why do people and characters act as they do? Require your class figure out the motivation of two people or characters they read about in a given text. In the short charts, pupils note down who, what they do, and why they do it. After...
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Punctuation Signals
Choose any passage that uses punctuation effectively and analyze it with your class. Learners read the passage out loud once, ignoring the punctuation. Then they read it again, but this time paying attention to all of the punctuation....
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How to Summarize an Event in History or Today - or a Story
Ask your class to write a quick summary of a historical or current event. The worksheet offers a place to note down important details about the event, such as time, place, people, how it started, and how it ended. Pupils then take this...
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I Can Sequence Important Events
After reading any short informational or fictional text, ask your class to analyze the important events. They note down three important events on a short timeline, describing the events with either words or drawings. After this, pupils...
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I Can Analyze a Story or History Completely and Carefully
Start off analysis of a text with a worksheet that asks pupils to complete several tasks. Class members note down a couple of characters or people and their distinguishing traits, describe the most important event, summarize the text...
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I Can Comprehend a Paragraph, then a Page/Section in a Text
Help your class tackle chunks of text with a simple graphic organizer. Pupils read three paragraphs and, as they read, draw pictures in the provided boxes that demonstrate what each paragraph says. There are three boxes on the page and...
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I Can Analyze Cause and Effect
Examine cause and effect by asking pupils to fill out a basic graphic organizer. The template is for any story or event and provides a line for writing in the story or event title. Pupils write in two causes in the circles and the change...
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I Can Compare and Contrast
Work with your class to fill out this Venn diagram. Pupils can compare and contrast any two things and then write a short paragraph about the relationship demonstrated in their diagram.
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Evaluate Decisions
When people and characters make choices, there are positive and negative consequences. Focus on a situation in a text your class is reading and analyze the characters' decisions. There is space in the graphic organizer to write about...
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I Can Infer the Meaning of a Word in Context
Work on developing strategies for determining the meaning of unknown words and phrases with a quick context clues exercise. Class members choose two words from their reading and write down what they think they mean and why. See the...
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A Way to Analyze Paragraphs to Figure Out the Main Idea of a Nonfiction Text
Shrink up a section by asking pupils to write down the main idea for each of seven paragraphs. There is a space provided for each main idea. When students have completed this portion, they write down what they think to be the central...
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Collect Evidence to Support an Idea
In order to support an idea, writers must use evidence. Your class members can prepare their evidence with this basic worksheet. Writers note down the topic they are learning about and their own idea. Next, they come up with information...