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.

Readers learn how to summarize scientific text and evaluate the advantages, disadvantages, and challenges in writing summaries. They select science-related articles you've pulled and collected from the New York Times and, with a partner,...

After analyzing and evaluating news summaries found in the New York Times "Week in Review" section, middle schoolers study the steps for summarizing a news article briefly and accurately. They write two news summaries: one on a newspaper...

How did the ancient people of Egypt preserve their dead so well that their bodies are still recognizable today? Learn the painstakingly complex process they used for preservation. Young scholars read and summarize a narrative detailing...

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...

Imagine the surprise when small groups present their Evidence Charts to the class and discover that each group has studied a different version of the Cinderella story. Irish, Ojibwa, Egyptian, Chinese, Korean, Persian, Mexican, and...

Lesson 10 in a series of human rights lessons focuses on the skills of finding evidence and summarizing. Your young readers work to compare the two texts they have read in this unit: the Universal Declaration of Human Rights...

Introduce young readers to informational texts with a well-designed, ready-to-use, and Common Core-aligned unit. Young readers learn a variety of skills while studying the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR). As the first...

Give me more details. Scholars complete an end of unit assessment by creating an information text box to go with their field journal entries about howler monkeys. Learners use the class time to work independently.

Learners determine the main idea of a timeline on pages eight and nine of the text Promises to Keep. They use the timeline to complete a Main Idea and Details note catcher and then share their thoughts with the class. To finish,...

Teamwork makes the dream work! Learners work in groups to analyze pages 2-9 of The Boy Who Invented TV, The Story of Philo Farnsworth. They complete a first read to determine the gist and a second read to identify main idea and...

Let's work together! Using the collaborative resource, scholars work in triads to begin section two of their storyboards about Philo Farnsworth, the inventor of the television. They then practice using linking words and phrases to...

How did the television change people's lives? Learners consider the question as they complete their storyboards about the invention of the TV, adding visual elements along the way. Then, they participate in a peer review to offer and...

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...

Did you the message? Scholars listen to a read aloud of The Wings of the Butterfly to summarize and determine the message of the text. They discuss the folktale and vocabulary in groups, then use a double bubble map to compare the story...

What does it mean to say that a right is unalienable? How did the founding fathers convey this revolutionary concept in the Declaration of Independence? Engage in a close reading and analysis of the Declaration of Independence, and...

Caption this. Readers look at the text features in Promises to Keep and pay special attention to the photographs and captions before adding to the Features of Informational Text anchor chart. Learners then answer questions about life in...

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...

Put it in your own words. Scholars complete a mini instructional activity about paraphrasing then complete a note catcher using the text A Limited Supply. They continue studying Canada's natural resources by analyzing the graph...

Fourth graders work in small groups to become experts on different colonial trades in the eighth instructional activity of this unit. Working toward the long-term goal of writing a piece of historical fiction, young scholars read...

Not all sources are created equal, so how do you evaluate them? Writers learn how to evaluate print sources based on elements such as audience, tone, and argument in the sixth handout of 24 in the Writing the Paper series from the...

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...

Speak up and listen up. Scholars participate in a speaking and listening mid-unit oral assessment. They discuss whether their rules to live by should be a personal choice or made into a law, and then they complete an exit ticket to...

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,...