Let me check my schedule! Scholars set up discussion appointments with five classmates to discuss Shirley Chisholm's speech "Equal Rights for Women." Readers then use their Note Catcher guides to analyze the text of the speech more...

Scholars delve into an informational text with the help of four pages that focus on the author's purpose, vocabulary words, summarization, and main idea.

A three-part assessment promotes reading comprehension skills. Class members read literary texts and take notes to discuss their findings, answer comprehension questions, write summaries, and complete charts. 

What's the difference between summarizing and paraphrasing? Show class members how to find the main ideas from informational text and condense it, restate it, or quote it directly with a series of educational activities based...

Scholars explore an expository text to answer questions about its structure.

Use a performance task to assess third graders' ability to read informational text. After they plan a lemonade stand business, young entrepreneurs implement that plan through informational writing. The task assumes learners can...

What are some universal aspects of refugees' experiences worldwide and throughout history? Scholars read the text "Refugees: Who, Where, Why" and create two class anchor charts. Finally, they each write a paragraph that provides an...

Put on a happy face. Using an interesting resource, pupils read an informational text about Hawaii's endangered Happy Face Spider. Next, they participate in a jigsaw discussion to find the gist of the article. 

William Shakespeare: a writer, a poet, a fake? For their mid-unit assessments, scholars read an excerpt from the article "The Top Ten Reasons Shakespeare Did Not Write Shakespeare" by Keir Cutler. Next, they analyze the author's argument...

Scholars use the Narrative Structure graphic organizer to analyze the structure of the smaller stories within To Kill a Mockingbird. They talk with a partner to discuss how the structure adds meaning.

A three-part assessment challenges scholars to write opinion essays covering the topic of the student council. After reading three passages, writers complete a chart, work with peers to complete a mini-research project, answer...

What's the story? Learners create the first of four storyboards about the invention of the television, incorporating narrative techniques and descriptive details. Next, they offer and receive feedback by participating in a peer critique...

Video games may not be so bad after all. As scholars read the text "The Many Benefits, for Kids, of Playing Video Games," they summarize the gist in their researchers' notebooks. Next, pupils draft supporting research questions based on...

Support all young learners on their journey to literacy with this five-lesson reading intervention unit. Following a clearly outlined format, each lesson first engages children in practicing their phonemic awareness and phonics...

Have you ever heard someone say the movie is not like the book? Scholars complete a mid-unit assessment to compare scenes from the novel To Kill a Mockingbird to the movie version. The assessment contains short answers, multiple choice,...

Voices from the past. Young scholars listen to a podcast interview with a historical re-enactor as they continue their research in the eleventh instructional activity of this unit on colonial trade. Applying their close reading skills,...

Let's take a walk! Scholars participate in a gallery walk to view images and text about athletes Althea Gibson and Roberto Clemente. After summarizing the information they've learned, pupils choose which athlete they are interested in...

What was Shakespeare's youth like? Virginia Woolf considers the question in her nonfiction text, A Room of One's Own. Scholars begin reading Woolf's work before analyzing some of the text. Next, they write an objective summary and...

That's all, folks! Scholars work with their group members to create conclusions for their To Kill A Mockingbird reader's theater scripts. They use a criteria list to help guide their conclusion writing and discuss how the conclusions...

Scholars read "Doc-Lap at Last" and participate in a Three Threes in a Row activity in which they answer three questions about the text in their rows. They then discuss the central idea of the text. Readers finish the lesson plan with a...

Can people live forever? Scholars ponder the answer as they analyze an excerpt from The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. As readers discover Lacks' immortal cells, they discuss how the author carefully sequences, connects and unfolds...

Pupils explore the narrative structure of a piece of literary text, mapping out the plot structure of the Greek myth "Pyramus and Thisbe." Next, they use their completed graphic organizers to write story summaries.

What are some of the advantages and disadvantages of having siblings? Pupils explore this topic with the Beezus and Ramona novel study. Additionally, scholars answer questions about chapter one of the time-honored book by Beverly Cleary...

Equality for all? Scholars talk with partners to predict Shirley Chisholm's stand in her speech "Equal Rights for Women." They then read the speech and circle unfamiliar words to understand the meaning better. Readers go on to answer...