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Lesson Plan Index
Sort ReadWriteThink Lessons by Title, Grade, or Date by clicking on the appropriate header. You may also use the Lesson Plan Selector above.
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| TITLE | ABSTRACT | GRADE | DATE |
“America the Beautiful”: Using Music and Art to Develop Vocabulary |
Students learn the song “America the Beautiful” and the meanings of its words through shared reading, context clues, images, and a mural project. | K-2 | 10/8/09 |
3, 2, 1...Blast Off! Vocabulary Instruction Using a Virtual Trip to the Moon |
Capture the qualities of field-trip learning in the classroom. Working independently and in groups students learn vocabulary about the moon; however, the activities can be applied to any content area topic. | K-2 | 11/21/08 |
A “Brief, Urgent Message”: Theme in Slaughterhouse-Five |
As a culminating activity for Slaughterhouse-Five, students make a compilation album (a CD with 6–8 tracks) that reflects their analysis, understanding, and reaction to the ideas in Slaughterhouse-Five. Based on discussions of the “Tralfamadorian” view of literature, each song on the compilation is approached as a “brief, urgent message” about the work. | 9-12 | 5/1/09 |
A Bad Case of Bullying: Using Literature Response Groups With Students |
In this lesson, students make personal connections to a humorous back-to-school story (A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon) by writing in their journals and discussing the story in literature response groups. Students also explore the central theme of bullying in the story. | 3-5 | 11/19/08 |
A Daily DEAR Program: Drop Everything, and Read! |
The teacher shouts, "Drop Everything and Read!" and students settle into their seats to read books they've selected. This independent reading program is much more than a just-sit-there-and-read experience—it's a program that helps students build the habit of lifelong reading for the love of it. | 3-5 | 11/20/08 |
A Directed Listening–Thinking Activity for The Tell-Tale Heart |
In this lesson, students participate in a Directed Listening–Thinking Activity (DLTA) to improve their listening comprehension and prediction skills. At the end of the lesson, students compose a written response to the story in the form of either an acrostic poem or comic strip. | 6-8 | 2/12/09 |
A Genre Study of Letters With The Jolly Postman |
In The Jolly Postman, a postman rides his bicycle delivering letters. To whom? Storybook and nursery rhyme characters! After reading The Jolly Postman, the students will learn the attributes of different types of mail. Then, the students will categorize the letters from the book, and finally their own mail. | 3-5 | 11/19/08 |
A Harlem Renaissance Retrospective: Connecting Art, Music, Dance, and Poetry |
The Harlem Renaissance was a vibrant time that was characterized by innovations in art, literature, music, poetry, and dance. In this lesson, students work in collaborative groups to conduct Internet research and create a museum exhibit that highlights the work of selected artists, musicians, and poets of the Harlem Renaissance. | 9-12 | 5/1/09 |
A High-Interest Novel Helps Struggling Readers Confront Bullying in Schools |
Reading The Bully—a novel that should be especially appealing to struggling or reluctant readers—students will better understand the bully, the bullied, and the bystander. Students will use reading strategies such as literary analysis, T-charts, Readers Theatre, and reflective journals to help improve fluency and comprehension. | 9-12 | 10/14/09 |
A Schema-Building Study With Patricia Polacco |
Help second- through fourth-grade students learn vocabulary and comprehension skills with Chicken Sunday and Rechenka’s Eggs by Patricia Polacco. Students study vocabulary in these books; they then deepen their understanding by making text-to-self and text-to-text connections and by using the vocabulary words to write about the characters and the author. | 3-5 | 4/14/09 |
A–Z: Learning About the Alphabet Book Genre |
Using a collection of alphabet books and websites, this lesson for second graders builds and extends students’ knowledge of alphabet books. After the class generates a sample book together, students work in flexible groups to write their own alphabet books and share them with an audience. | K-2 | 2/25/09 |
ABC Bookmaking Builds Vocabulary in the Content Areas |
Are you looking for a fun, new way to teach content area vocabulary to your students? How about having them create ABC books? Bookmaking allows students to pinpoint for themselves the words they don't know and to use their own descriptions and illustrations to create an appropriate context for new vocabulary. | 6-8 | 7/21/04 |
Acquiring New Vocabulary Through Book Discussion Groups |
This lesson presents a whole-language approach to a social studies topic (i.e., the Civil War) using the trade book Pink and Say by Patricia Polacco. The approach combines reading comprehension with vocabulary development. The lesson can be extended, modified, and reused for other topics at the teacher's discretion. | 3-5 | 11/7/08 |
Action ABC's: Learning Vocabulary With Verbs |
Having a well-developed vocabulary is important to help students become successful speakers, readers, and writers. This lesson guides students in exploring and learning about verbs, culminating in the creation of an Action Alphabet book. Each page includes a word and sentence describing an illustration of the verb. | K-2 | 11/18/08 |
Action Is Character: Exploring Character Traits with Adjectives |
In this activity, students "become" one of the major characters in a book and describe themselves and other characters, using Internet reference tools to compile lists of accurate, powerful adjectives. In class discussion, students support their lists with details from the novel. | 6-8 | 2/15/08 |
Active Reading Using The Enormous Watermelon |
Students engage in word recognition activities using character names and high-frequency words from the predictable texts of rebus versions of nursery rhymes online and the Big Book The Enormous Watermelon. Students also identify the main characters in these texts. | K-2 | 9/17/09 |
Alaska Native Stories: Using Narrative to Introduce Expository Text |
This lesson introduces students to comparing and contrasting fiction and nonfiction texts, and provides integration of literature into content area instruction. Students listen to a Yu'pik tale told by a Native person living in Alaska, reflect on it, and then use expository text to find facts about an animal in the Arctic. | 3-5 | 6/26/07 |
All About Alliteration: Responding to Literature Through a Poetry Link |
This lesson for third and fourth grade students uses a read-aloud to teach about alliteration. It then has students brainstorm alliterative word lists using a variety or print and online resources. Students create and illustrate a poem using the poetry they have read as a framework for their writing. | 3-5 | 9/17/09 |
Alliteration All Around |
Beginning with Pamela Duncan Edwards' award-winning picture books, students identify the meaning of alliteration. They then put alliteration into practice by creating acrostic poems, tongue twisters, alphabet books, and number books. ReadWriteThink's Acrostic Poems interactive tool and Bruce Lansky's Giggle Poetry article add a technology component to the lesson. | 3-5 | 2/12/09 |
Alliteration in Headline Poems |
Students will be introduced to the term alliteration. They will be given examples of alliteration and asked to create their own examples of alliteration. As a project, students will be asked to create a headline poem consisting of 25 words that contain at least three examples of alliteration. | 6-8 | 2/23/06 |
Alphabetizing With Original Stories |
Students familiarize themselves with alphabetical order while writing original stories, which can then be showcased in the classroom. Following a brainstorming session, students are challenged with the task of making books solely composed of words in alphabetical order. | K-2 | 2/12/09 |
Alphabiography Project: Totally You |
Instead of writing their life stories in a linear fashion, students write their biographies from A to Z in this nontraditional autobiography activity, which was inspired by the book Totally Joe by James Howe. After the entry for each letter in their alphabiographies, students sum up the stories and vignettes by recording the life lessons they learned from the events. | 6-8 | 9/16/09 |
An Exploration of Text Sets: Supporting All Readers |
Text sets focus on one concept, and include books, Web sites, maps, pamphlets, poetry, photographs, almanacs or encyclopedias. In this lesson, students create text set collections on topics of keen interest. They will explore the texts using three reading strategies. Research strategies from your own repertoire can extend the lesson. | 6-8 | 11/19/08 |
An Introduction to Beowulf: Language and Poetics |
While Beowulf is generally considered the earliest major work of English poetry, it is almost always taught in translation and its verse form and poetic techniques are often unfamiliar. This lesson provides an introduction to the language and poetics of the poem. | 9-12 | 11/20/08 |
Analyzing Character Development in Three Short Stories About Women |
While reading about women who break from their traditional roles, students use comprehension tools to analyze similarities and differences among characters in three different short stories. This lesson fosters critical thinking and discussions about the influence of society’s expectations on a writer’s character development. | 9-12 | 2/25/09 |
Analyzing Grammar Pet Peeves |
This lesson uses a Dear Abby column to help students analyze a “grammar rant.” Through their analysis of Dear Abby’s grammar pet peeves, students become aware of the ranter’s language biases and gain an understanding of how race, class, and audience’s expectations help determine what is considered acceptable language use. | 9-12 | 12/8/08 |
Analyzing the Purpose and Meaning of Political Cartoons |
This lesson invites students in grades 9–12 to evaluate political cartoons for their meaning, message, and persuasiveness. | 9-12 | 9/23/09 |
And I Quote: A Punctuation Proofreading Mini-lesson |
This lesson plan reviews the basic conventions for using quotations from works of literature or references from a research project, focusing on accurate punctuation and page layout. After discussing the rules and analyzing their use in sample passages, students apply the conventions to their texts. | 9-12 | 3/9/09 |
And the Question Is... Writing Good Survey Questions |
Students are introduced to asking questions as a vital part of the research process and everyday life. They practice this skill through a group-based activity in which they analyze and create questions for a survey on reading habits. | 9-12 | 8/8/07 |
Applying Question–Answer Relationships to Pictures |
In this lesson, teacher modeling is provided in applying question-answer relationships (QARs) to pictures, with an opportunity for students to then work independently. The lesson is designed for third- or fourth-grade students who have not previously used the QAR strategy or who have reading difficulties. | 3-5 | 4/14/09 |
As Slippery as an Eel: An Ocean Unit Exploring Simile and Metaphor |
After reading ocean-themed books, students examine the ways that the books use simile and metaphor, creating their own names and definitions of these figures of speech. Using the picture books as framing texts, students then revise a piece of their own writing, to increase its use of figurative language. | K-2 | 1/31/08 |
Audience, Purpose, and Language Use in Electronic Messages |
With the increasing popularity of e-mail and online instant messaging among today’s teens, a recognizable change has occurred in the language that students use in their writing. This lesson explores the language of electronic messages and how it affects other writing. Furthermore, it explores the freedom and creativity for using Internet abbreviations for specific purposes and examines the importance of a more formal style of writing based on audience. | 6-8 | 4/17/08 |
Author Study: Improving Reading Comprehension Using Inference and Comparison |
Fourth- and fifth-grade students read picture books by an author/illustrator, make inferences about the author based on the works, compare two biographies of the author finding discrepancies between them, study the work of another author/illustrator, and compose their own brief author biography. | 3-5 | 2/12/09 |
Avalanche, Aztek, or Bravada? A Connotation Mini-Lesson |
Would you rather drive an Avalanche, an Aztek, a Bravada, a Suburban or a Vue? In this mini-lesson, students examine familiar car names for underlying connotations then proceed through a series of steps, increasing their control over language, until they select words with powerful connotations in their own writing. | 6-8 | 9/16/09 |
Become a Character: Adjectives, Character Traits, and Perspective |
In this activity, students "become" one of the major characters in a book and describe themselves and other characters, using Internet reference tools to compile lists of accurate, powerful adjectives. In class discussion, students support their lists with details from the novel. | 9-12 | 2/15/08 |
Becoming History Detectives Using Shakespeare’s Secret |
Students read the contemporary mystery Shakespeare’s Secret by Elise Broach and discover how the author’s liberal use of historical details enhances the story and can inspire further exploration of historical facts and the creation of a short dramatic skit. | 6-8 | 2/25/09 |
Behind the Masks: Exploring Culture and Self Through Art and Poetry |
In this integrated unit of study, a teacher librarian pairs with an art teacher to introduce high school students to mask making around the world. Students research various cultures, make cultural and personal masks, and compose poetry to reveal the meaning behind their masks. | 9-12 | 2/12/09 |
Behind the Scenes With Cinderella |
This lesson invites students to explore two different versions of Cinderella and to make connections between story background elements (e.g., setting) and cross-curricular topics (e.g., geography and science). Students use literature and the Internet to research and create a variety of language arts activities to showcase their knowledge. | 3-5 | 10/13/09 |
Between the Lions: Exploring Short-Vowel Sounds |
Not only is "Between the Lions" an exciting, educational television program by PBS, it also has a captivating website with a variety of activities that students will enjoy. This lesson provides examples of how the "Between the Lions" website can be used by a first-grade class studying short-vowel sounds. | K-2 | 6/26/07 |
Bingo! Using Environmental Print to Practice Reading |
This lesson assumes that students have some practice reading and writing environmental print and encourages them to use the things they have learned to create Bingo cards and play environmental print Bingo. | K-2 | 2/25/09 |
Bio-graph: Graphing Life Events |
This writing activity integrates mathematical graphing with writing and can be used to generate a number of different kinds of writing activities, but lends itself well to biographical and narrative writing. Students interview other students, choose significant life events, rate them, graph them, and write about one or more. | 9-12 | 3/20/07 |
BioBags: Linking Literature and Life |
In this lesson, which is also appropriate for older students, each student creates a BioBag, a collection of texts that mark special times in his or her life. BioBags provide a unique way for students to share memorable events—and a variety of texts—with one another. | 3-5 | 4/12/07 |
Biography Project: Research and Class Presentation |
Students improve their comprehension in this biography project through the use of graphic organizers, rubrics, and cooperative learning. They each research a famous person, make a graphic organizer (a web), present main aspects of the person's life to the class, and give feedback to one another throughout the project. | 6-8 | 2/6/09 |
Blending Fiction and Nonfiction to Improve Comprehension and Writing Skills |
This innovative writing lesson integrates fiction and nonfiction to create a blended genre that improves students' critical comprehension and writing skills. Students learn about a content area topic through a text set and Internet research, then blend elements of fiction and nonfiction to create an original piece that demonstrates new knowledge. | 3-5 | 11/18/08 |
Blogging With Photovoice: Sharing Pictures in an Integrated Classroom |
Make the most of your students’ diverse ability levels and experience in a prewriting activity that has them describe an abstract idea using blogging technology and photographs that they have taken. | 9-12 | 2/13/09 |
Book Report Alternative: A Character’s Letter to the Editor |
Students assume the persona of a character from a book that they have read and write a persuasive letter to the editor of a newspaper from that character’s perspective, focusing on a specific issue or situation explored in the novel. | 6-8 | 11/19/08 |
Book Report Alternative: Character and Author Business Cards |
When students make business cards for characters in books they've read or for the authors of those books, they're forced to think symbolically in order to create a short, simple text that represents the target appropriately—providing a title, relevant images, and other pertinent information. | 6-8 | 9/21/04 |
Book Report Alternative: Comic Strips and Cartoon Squares |
Students tire of responding to novels in the same ways. They want new ways to think about a work of literature and new ways to dig into it. By creating comic strips or cartoon squares featuring characters in books, they're encouraged to think analytically about the characters, events, and themes they've explored in ways that expand their critical thinking by focusing on crystallizing the significant points of the book in a few short scenes. | 6-8 | 3/16/09 |
Book Report Alternative: Examining Story Elements Using Story Map Comic Strips |
Comic frames are traditionally used to illustrate a story in a short, concise format. In this lesson, students use a six-paneled comic strip frame to create a story map, summarizing a book or story that they've read. Each panel retells a particular detail or explains a literary element (such as setting or character) from the story. | 3-5 | 7/15/08 |
Book Report Alternative: Summary, Symbol, and Analysis in Bookmarks |
Students love to make bookmarks on the computer because they get to share their ideas with other readers at their school. Teachers love the project because it gives students practice in summarizing, recognizing symbols, and writing reviews—all while writing for an authentic audience. | 6-8 | 9/15/05 |
Book Sorting: Using Observation and Comprehension to Categorize Books |
This sorting lesson supports the development of critical-thinking and vocabulary skills through observation and discussion of text illustrations and content. With the whole group and then in pairs, students sort books into three or more groups using their own criteria, then explain in writing how they sorted the books. | K-2 | 11/19/08 |
BOOKMATCH: Scaffolding Independent Book Selection |
By asking themselves a series of questions, middle school students become aware of their own reading preferences, and learn how to match themselves to just-right books for independent reading. | 6-8 | 7/16/09 |
Boys Read: Considering Courage in Novels |
Engaging stories featuring acts of courage can inspire boys to read and discuss literature with their peers. In this lesson, boys select, read, and discuss a novel with a male protagonist and write a persuasive essay addressing the ways in which the protagonist showed courage. | 6-8 | 2/25/09 |
Brave New Words: Novice Lexicography and the Oxford English Dictionary |
Students will become novice lexicographers as they explore recent new entries to the dictionary, learn the process of writing entries for the Oxford English Dictionary, and write a new entry themselves. | 9-12 | 9/11/09 |
Brochures: Writing for Audience and Purpose |
Using this lesson plan, students create informative brochures that combine visual and verbal texts effectively, improving their ability to interpret other texts they encounter that combine graphics with writing. Additionally, students learn strategies for addressing audience and purpose that transfer into writing for other purposes and audiences. | 9-12 | 11/18/08 |
Building Classroom Community Through the Exploration of Acrostic Poetry |
This lesson explores the genre of acrostic poetry and reinforces positive community practices in the classroom. After looking at various acrostic poetry websites, students participate in a shared writing experience. Students then write an acrostic poem about one of their peers using online resources such as thesauri and an interactive writing tool. | 3-5 | 2/12/09 |
Building Reading Comprehension Through Think-Alouds |
This lesson shows teachers how to use think-alouds in the classroom for improved understanding of texts and as an assessment of reading performance. | 6-8 | 5/16/05 |
Buzz! Whiz! Bang! Using Comic Books to Teach Onomatopoeia |
Comic books are one of the tools found in popular culture that can successfully engage children in literacy. This lesson uses comics to teach onomatopoetic vocabulary words and to develop this literary device with students learning to use language. | 3-5 | 2/12/09 |
Can You Convince Me? Developing Persuasive Writing |
This lesson teaches elementary students to write persuasive arguments. Within the context of a game, students are made aware of their inherent knowledge of how to persuade. The lesson then extends their understanding of oral argument into the written word. | 3-5 | 4/14/09 |
Casting Shadows Across Literacy and Science |
As they read about shadows in fiction, informational text, and poetry, students bring their own background knowledge and experiences to the text and extend their understanding of concepts. Lesson activities encourage students to use their observational skills, both in science and in literature, and to create their own shadow poetry. | K-2 | 2/25/09 |
Catching the Bug for Reading Through Interactive Read-Alouds |
Interactive read-alouds can help beginning readers learn good reading strategies. By listening to, discussing, and analyzing Miss Bindergarten Stays Home from Kindergarten by Joseph Slate, students construct meaning and explore the reading process. As an added bonus, they also learn how to prevent the spread of germs in the classroom. | K-2 | 3/8/06 |
Character Clash: A Mini-Lesson on Paragraphing and Dialogue |
When writers include dialogue in their stories, one of the questions that frequently comes up is how to structure texts that have changing speakers or thinkers. This lesson helps students identify the structures that will clarify their text by using colored markers or online resources. | 6-8 | 11/19/08 |
Charlotte is Wise, Patient, and Caring: Adjectives and Character Traits |
In this activity, students define the characteristics of adjectives and find examples of the part of speech in a shared reading. Then students "become" one of the major characters in a book and describe themselves and other characters, using Internet reference tools to compile lists of accurate, powerful adjectives. In class discussion, students support their lists with details from the reading. | 3-5 | 4/10/06 |
Charting Characters for a More Complete Understanding of the Story |
Character Perspective Charting allows students to compare characters and their goals. Students learn to fully understand a story by noticing how characters' goals differ and how problems arise as a result. Setting, problems, goals, and intentions are explored in this lesson. | 3-5 | 6/26/07 |
Child Labor: Giving Voice to Child Laborers Through Monologues |
Students explore child labor conditions during the Industrial Revolution in England and the United States and around the world today. Researching relevant websites, each student prepares and delivers a monologue in the "voice" of someone who lived during the Industrial Revolution. Students compare past and current child labor using an online Venn diagram. | 6-8 | 4/14/09 |
Choose, Select, Opt, or Settle: Exploring Word Choice in Poetry |
Students use an online tool to investigate the effects of word choice in Robert Frost’s “Choose Something Like a Star.” The results of the investigation allow them to construct a more sophisticated understanding of speaker, subject, and tone. | 9-12 | 8/30/09 |
Choosing Clear and Varied Dialogue Tags: A Mini-Lesson |
In this mini-lesson, students explore the use of dialogue tags such as “he said” or “she answered” in picture books and novels, discussing their purpose, form, and style. Students identify dialogue tags in stories, collaboratively revise a passage from a novel to add more variety to the tags, and then apply the text structure to stories that they have written. | 3-5 | 8/17/09 |
Choosing One Word: Summarizing Shel Silverstein’s “Sick” |
After reading a text in the classroom, students work together to determine the one word that summarizes that text. This comprehension activity requires students to work together and highlights their ability to justify their word choice. | K-2 | 2/13/09 |
Choosing the Best Verb: An Active and Passive Voice Mini-Lesson |
For most students, speech and informal writing flow naturally. When it comes to more formal writing, however, students frequently choose passive voice constructions because to them, the verbs sound more academic or more formal. This mini-lesson explores verb choice in a variety of online resources then encourages students to draw conclusions about verb use which they can apply to their own writing. | 9-12 | 12/8/08 |
Choosing, Chatting, and Collecting: Vocabulary Self-Collection Strategy |
Students self-select new vocabulary and apply context, experience, and conversation to help them understand the meanings and uses of the words. This strategy can be used with any content area, but in this lesson, an online script from Shakespeare is provided as an example. | 6-8 | 9/14/07 |
Click, Clack, Moo: Reading Word Family Words |
The Caldecott-winner Click, Clack, Moo: Cows That Type by Doreen Cronin provides practice with and a purpose for learning word identification strategies. Using the notes from Farmer Brown and the animals as shared readings, first-grade students learn word families and how to decode new words in a word family. | K-2 | 10/15/09 |
Collaborating on a Class Book: Exploring Before-During-After Sequences |
In this classroom project, students and the teacher produce a class book through a group-writing activity, focusing on a basic before-during-after sequence of events. In this case, the book focuses on the carving of the class jack-o-lantern, though the lesson plan could be customized for explorations of other items in the classroom. | K-2 | 10/23/07 |
Collaborating, Writing, Linking: Using Wikis to Tell Stories Online |
This lesson engages students in the creation and publication of online stories, taking full advantage of the online environment to encourage creativity, connections, and collaboration. Students use wiki technology, which allows users to publish online without specialized skills. | 6-8 | 11/6/07 |
Color of Silence: Sensory Imagery in Pat Mora’s Poem “Echoes” |
Moving from personal experience to practical application, students use their senses to discover new ways to read and write. Pat Mora’s poem “Echoes” is used to demonstrate that our senses are powerful tools for literary analysis and comprehension.
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6-8 | 11/18/08 |
Color Poems—Using the Five Senses to Guide Prewriting |
As JoAnn Portalupi tells us, “Learning to ‘see’ means stretching to use all five senses.” By asking students to avoid visual metaphors, this activity taps students’ memories for images, sounds, and other sensory perceptions as they compose original color poems. This process not only stretches students’ ability to see but also encourages creative development and intellectual growth. | 3-5 | 11/19/08 |
Combining Read-Alouds With Economics in the Primary Grades |
This lesson combines the benefits of reading aloud to children with exposure to economic concepts. After hearing two storybooks read aloud, students compare them and discuss the economic terms natural resource and producer. This lesson also helps students relate stories to the world around them. | K-2 | 8/29/07 |
Comics in the Classroom as an Introduction to Narrative Structure |
A strong plot is a basic requirement of any narrative. Students are sometimes confused, however, by the difference between a series of events that happen in a story and the plot elements, or the events that are significant to the story. This lesson uses comic strip frames to define plot and reinforce the structure that underlies a narrative, as students write their own original narratives. | 3-5 | 11/19/08 |
Communicating on Local Issues: Exploring Audience in Persuasive Letter Writing |
Students will research a local issue of personal concern to them then write letters to two different audiences that ask readers to take a related action or adopt a specific position on the issue. | 9-12 | 3/30/06 |
Compare and Contrast Electronic Text With Traditionally Printed Text |
The purpose of this lesson is to familiarize students with the similarities and differences between electronic text and traditionally printed text. Students examine the textual aids included in a textbook and compare them to the textual aids included in an educational website. | 6-8 | 2/6/09 |
Comparing a Literary Work to Its Film Interpretation |
Students read an original piece of literature and view its film interpretation to compare the two works. They then write a persuasive essay about the validity of the adaptation. | 9-12 | 2/13/07 |
Comparing and Contrasting: Picturing an Organizational Pattern |
Using picture books as mentor texts, students learn effective strategies for organizing information that compares and contrasts. Students can then apply appropriate organizational strategies to their own papers. | 6-8 | 6/20/07 |
Comparing Electronic and Print Texts About the Civil War Soldier |
To complete research for any kind of writing project, students need effective comprehension strategies for both print and online text. This lesson has students practice these strategies and compare the similarities and differences in text conventions in print and online texts about the Civil War soldier’s camp life. | 6-8 | 11/21/08 |
Compiling Poetry Collections and a Working Definition of Poetry |
Students will explore a variety of poems about familiar topics and themes using poetry collections and anthologies. They will further learn about poetry craft elements. Using this as a model and inspiration, students will then create a poetry collection, using already published poems, and creating their own definitions of poetry. | 3-5 | 2/27/09 |
Completing the Circle: The Craft of Circular Plot Structure |
After exploring the organizing structure and writer’s craft of picture books, students identify, explore and apply the elements of circle plot structures to their own stories. Students use graphic organizers, read and write stories, and use checklists to assess their work. | K-2 | 2/13/09 |
Composing Cinquain Poems with Basic Parts of Speech |
Cinquain (pronounced "cin-kain") is a five-line form, using a wavelike syllable count of two-four-six-eight-two. In this lesson, students learn about cinquain and write simple cinquain of their own. | 3-5 | 1/26/09 |
Composing Cinquain Poems: A Quick-Writing Activity |
Cinquain (pronounced "cin-kain") is a five-line poetic form, using a wavelike syllable count of two-four-six-eight-two. In this lesson, students write simple cinquain of their own as a follow-up to a subject they have been exploring in class (for instance, units on animals, community, rainforest, or on a particular picture book, such as Amazing Grace). | K-2 | 5/1/09 |
Connect With Low-Literate Families: A Three-Tiered Approach |
Teachers working in schools with a high proportion of at-risk children may send home family literacy activities that are inaccessible to parents and caregivers who struggle with their own literacy skills. This lesson plan suggests a three-tier scaffolding model to help overcome this problem. | K-2 | 2/12/09 |
Connotation, Character, and Color Imagery in The Great Gatsby |
Students explore the connotations of the colors associated with the characters in F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby by tracking color imagery in the novel and then writing a character analysis based on their findings. The lesson includes a discussion of connotation and denotation as well as discussion of cultural influences on connotation. | 9-12 | 7/16/09 |
Constructing New Understanding Through Choral Readings of Shakespeare |
After reading The Tempest or any other play by William Shakespeare, students work in small groups to plan, compose, and perform a choral reading based on a character or theme. | 9-12 | 3/9/09 |
Creating a Class Pattern Book With Popular Culture Characters |
As a class, students create a digital pattern book by first taking pictures of popular culture characters in various situations throughout their school and then writing accompanying text about them in a pattern book structure. | K-2 | 2/25/09 |
Creating a Classroom Newspaper |
Students love to share their writing. What better way for them to share than by creating a classroom newspaper? This lesson focuses on the newspaper genre of writing. Through the use of the interactive Printing Press or Microsoft Publisher (or another similar software package), students will develop a classroom newspaper while incorporating ICT (Information Communication Technology) into their learning. | 3-5 | 11/14/08 |
Creating a Persuasive Podcast |
In this lesson, students create and share short podcasts detailing their views on a current event that affects their lives. Students develop the skill of persuasion while practicing critical thinking and improving media literacy. | 6-8 | 7/16/09 |
Creating Better Presentation Slides through Glance Media and Billboard Design |
This lesson introduces the concept of “glance media” through an analysis of billboards. Students apply design concepts by creating a slide presentation to accompany an existing historical speech. | 9-12 | 6/10/09 |
Creating Character Blogs |
Character blogs give students the opportunity to combine their creativity, analytical prowess, and love for the Internet. In this lesson, students learn what goes into building a good blog and then create one for a fictional character. | 9-12 | 7/16/09 |
Creating Family Timelines: Graphing Family Memories and Significant Events |
In this lesson plan, students interview their parents and other family members to gather family stories and event information, using questions from a brainstormed list. They create a family-event timeline based on the information from their interviews and display their information using a graphic map. | 3-5 | 3/31/08 |
Creative Problem-Solving with Ezra Jack Keats |
Students explore problem-solving in this lesson, which explores the challenges faced by characters in Ezra Jack Keats’ picture books. After reading a variety of Keats’ books, students explore the problems that the characters face and solutions that they choose through classroom discussion, story mapping, and comparison and contrast of several Keats’ books. | K-2 | 12/8/08 |
Creative Writing Through Wordless Picture Books |
In this lesson, students develop their own story lines for wordless picture books. Students explore a variety of wordless picture books, develop story lines both orally and in writing, and share their stories with others. Students use an online, interactive Story Map to assist in the development of story lines. | 6-8 | 11/7/08 |
Critical Literacy in Action: Multimodal Texts on Global Warming |
Students use comprehension strategies to understand and interrogate various representations of the effects and possible causes of global warming. They then discuss and evaluate the credibility of different positions on the issue. | 6-8 | 9/30/08 |
Critical Literacy: Point of View |
By the sixth grade, most students are able to identify point of view in texts by recognizing writing in the first person, second person, and third person. In this lesson, students learn to look at texts from different viewpoints. Was the "big bad wolf" really bad? Throughout the lesson, students are encouraged to view texts from different angles. | 6-8 | 10/18/06 |
Critical Literacy: Women in 19th-Century Literature |
Thoughtful exploration of two short 19th-century texts introduces questions of critical literacy: What is the position of the writer and what is the intended audience for a literary work? | 9-12 | 8/17/09 |
Critical Perspectives: Reading and Writing About Slavery |
Through reading fiction and nonfiction children’s literature about the Underground Railroad, students critically explore the moral issues of slavery and the perspectives held by slaves and slave owners. They then use online, interactive tools to extend their understanding through creative writing projects. | 3-5 | 7/1/08 |
Critical Reading: Two Stories, Two Authors, Same Plot? |
In this lesson, students read two short stories with the same title ("The Luncheon") that have been written by two famous authors. Students compare and analyze both stories to find differences and similarities among the characters and the plot and draw conclusions as literary critics. | 9-12 | 6/26/07 |
Cultural Connections and Writing for Change |
While reading a story set in Palestine, students “meet” an Arab family, analyze book illustrations, and note cultural contrasts. They then collaborate to identify a social issue of concern and take action by writing and mailing a letter to an appropriate official. | 3-5 | 10/30/08 |
Cyberspace Explorer: Getting to Know Christopher Columbus |
Assisting young students in Web research is vital to their literacy development and gives them confidence as they approach digital text. In this lesson, based on the teaching strategies of Sutherland-Smith, teacher modeling and step-by-step handouts guide young explorers through a cyber scavenger hunt. | 3-5 | 8/17/09 |
Dancing Minds and Shouting Smiles: Teaching Personification Through Poetry |
In this lesson, students reflect on the use of personification in three classic poems, comparing and contrasting how each poet uses it. Students then complete a prewriting exercise before writing their own poems using personification. | 3-5 | 2/12/09 |
Defining Literacy in a Digital World |
Through listing and observation, students identify the many texts that they read and compose —including books and magazines, television shows, movies, audio broadcasts, hypertexts, and animations. By creating an inventory of personal texts, students begin to consciously recognize the many literacy demands in contemporary society. With this start, they create a working definition of literacy that they refine and explore further as the term continues. | 9-12 | 3/16/09 |
Delicious, Tasty, Yummy: Enriching Writing with Adjectives and Synonyms |
This lesson for students in grades 3 and 4 teaches them about adjectives and synonyms. Students work in small groups using webs and form poems as their primary tools for developing adjectives and synonyms to describe everyday items. Thesauri, webbing tools, alphabet organizers, and picture books are used to help students identify, organize, and modify descriptors. | 3-5 | 2/12/09 |
Demonstrating Comprehension Through Journal Writing |
The use of interesting and appropriate literature can capture and ignite students' interest in a story, thereby increasing overall comprehension. This lesson requires students to respond to journal questions by demonstrating comprehension of and personal connections to the story's plot, characters, setting, and details. | 3-5 | 7/1/08 |
Describe That Face: An Interactive Writing Game |
Students create vivid character descriptions, which are posted on the wall interspersed with pictures that match the descriptions. Then they walk around and take notes on their classmates’ descriptive phrases, similes, and metaphors, picking one description–picture set to share with the class. |
6-8 | 6/18/08 |
Descriptive Video: Using Media Technology to Enhance Writing |
Grab a pencil, turn on a movie, and introduce your students to a new technology! Descriptive Video can build vocabulary and enhance descriptive writing. During this lesson, students watch a described segment of The Lion King and write an enhanced description. |
3-5 | 3/28/08 |
Developing Inferential Comprehension Through DL-TA and Discussion Webs |
This lesson uses the narrative text Granddaddy's Gift by Margaree King Mitchell to promote inferential comprehension and prediction in reading instruction. The Directed Listening-Thinking Activity (DL-TA) and Discussion Web are used to encourage students to form, state, support, discuss, and adjust their individual interpretations of the story before, during, and after reading. | 3-5 | 11/15/07 |
Developing Searching, Skimming, and Scanning Skills With Internet Bingo |
Students gain the media literacy skills of skimming and scanning text and selecting key terms for Internet searches. The teacher introduces these strategies using a think-aloud approach, and students practice them by searching a website to fill in a Bingo board. | 6-8 | 2/27/07 |
Developing Story Structure With Paper-Bag Skits |
This lesson engages students in an interactive, dramatic activity to enhance their understanding of story structure and story elements. Using paper bags containing props, cooperative groups create semi-impromptu skits. Students use online tools as they develop the story elements in their skits. | 6-8 | 2/25/09 |
Developing Students' Critical Thinking Skills Through Whole-Class Dialogue |
This lesson uses the book My Freedom Trip to engage students in conversations that promote critical thinking. The lesson uses a technique called the Dialogical-Thinking Reading Lesson, which requires each student to take a position on a story-specific issue, then identify and articulate supporting reasons for his or her position. | 3-5 | 9/14/07 |
Diagram It! Identifying, Comparing, and Writing About Nonfiction Texts |
This lesson introduces second-grade students to nonfiction by focusing on the differences between fiction and nonfiction and by looking at distinctions among three types of nonfiction. Students create Venn diagrams to categorize the types of nonfiction and compare their characteristics. | K-2 | 2/12/09 |
Digging Deeper: Developing Comprehension Using Thank You, Mr. Falker |
Good readers demonstrate deep comprehension of text using a wide variety of strategies. In this lesson, a read-aloud of a story (Thank You, Mr. Falker by Patricia Polacco) helps promote deeper comprehension through teacher modeling of questioning to achieve personal connection and discussions of character and theme. | K-2 | 2/12/09 |
Dr. Seuss’s Sound Words: Playing with Phonics and Spelling |
Boom! Br-r-ring! Cluck! Moo!—you are bound to find exciting sounds everywhere. Whether you visit online sites that play sounds or take a sound hike, ask your students to notice the sounds they hear then write their own poems, using sound words, based on Dr. Seuss's Mr. Brown Can MOO! Can You? | K-2 | 2/19/09 |
Draft Letters: Improving Student Writing through Critical Thinking |
Draft letters asks students to think critically about their writing on a specific assignment before submitting their work to a reader. This lesson explains the strategy and provides models for the project, which can be adapted for any grade level and any writing project. | 9-12 | 3/8/06 |
Draw a Math Story: From the Concrete to the Symbolic |
When students draw first, write second, and then use equations to symbolize their stories, they start from the concrete and move to the symbolic, helping to improve reading comprehension as well as mathematical understanding. Students' higher-level thinking skills are developed by comparing, sequencing, writing and drawing to support their reading, and using symbols to represent meaning. | K-2 | 3/21/07 |
Draw a Story: Stepping from Pictures to Writing |
Students draw a series of pictures that tell a simple story that includes character action, problem and solution. They ‘read’ their story to others, transcribe it into writing, and create an accordion book with the drawings and writing. The activity supports the transition from oral to written storytelling. | K-2 | 11/14/06 |
Dynamic Duo Text Talks: Examining the Content of Internet Sites |
This introductory lesson exposes students to a variety of online texts about Anne Frank and the Holocaust prior to more extensive study of these topics. Students are encouraged to cooperatively examine Internet sites as a primary source of information, and then share their impressions and opinions of the various sites. | 6-8 | 6/25/07 |
Dynamite Diamante Poetry |
This lesson combines grammar and spelling instruction with creative writing. Students review nouns, adjectives, and verbs and are introduced to gerunds. They then write and revise diamante poems using these types of words. | 3-5 | 2/12/09 |
E-pals Around the World |
This lesson provides teachers and students with an exciting way to build literacy skills in the classroom. Students learn appropriate formats for writing friendly letters and e-mail messages. Not only will students develop their reading and writing abilities, but they will also learn about other cultures, languages, and geographic areas. | 6-8 | 11/21/08 |
Earth Verse: Using Science in Poetry |
Jon Scieszka and Lane Smith's picture book, Science Verse, serves as a model for students to use poetry to improve content area knowledge, vocabulary, and comprehension—in this case, for the science curriculum. |
3-5 | 10/15/08 |
Empowered Fiction Writers: Generating and Organizing Ideas for Story Writing |
Prewriting strategies can help students overcome stumbling blocks on the path to written expression. Some students encounter difficulties when attempting to generate ideas for a story; others can produce the ideas but struggle with organization. This lesson provides students with strategies for both generating and organizing narrative writing. | 6-8 | 2/25/09 |
Engaging Students in Read-Alouds Using Fractured Texas Tales |
This lesson involves read-alouds of traditional fairy tales and their Wild West counterparts to engage students in reading responses. Each session also includes suggestions for supporting English-language learners. | K-2 | 4/14/09 |
Entering History: Nikki Giovanni and Martin Luther King, Jr. |
Nikki Giovanni’s poem “The Funeral of Martin Luther King, Jr.” is paired with Dr. King’s “I Have a Dream” speech, taking students on a quest through time to the civil rights movement. After completing student-centered vocabulary activities, students perform the speech readers’ theater style and synthesize their learning by writing reflections. | 6-8 | 1/27/09 |
Escaping Slavery: Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt |
This lesson uses the picture book Sweet Clara and the Freedom Quilt by Deborah Hopkinson and an interactive website to enhance third- through fifth-grade students' understanding of the Underground Railroad and slavery, development of reading comprehension skills, and application of mapping skills. | 3-5 | 11/19/08 |
Every Punctuation Mark Matters: A Mini-Lesson on Semicolons |
Martin Luther King, Jr.'s "Letter from Birmingham Jail" demonstrates that even the smallest punctuation mark signals a stylistic decision, distinguishing one writer from another and enabling an author to move an audience. In this mini-lesson, students first explore Dr. King's use of semicolons and their rhetorical significance then apply the lesson to their own writing by searching for ways to follow Dr. King's model and use the punctuation mark in their own writing. | 6-8 | 7/16/09 |
Everyone Loves a Mystery: A Genre Study |
In this lesson, students read short mystery stories and use Internet resources to examine characteristic of the genre, such as vocabulary and story elements. Students then write their own mystery stories and publish them electronically. | 6-8 | 2/12/09 |
Examining Island of the Blue Dolphins through a Literary Lens |
This lesson invites students at all English proficiency levels, including English Language Learners (ELLs), to read, discuss, and react to Scott O’Dell’s Island of the Blue Dolphins. Students examine Karana’s character development after discussing personal experiences with courage and adversity. Students then look for examples of courage in their community. | 6-8 | 5/1/07 |
Exchanging Ideas by Sharing Journals: Interactive Response in the Classroom |
Pairs of students alternately respond to literature in literature journals, developing ongoing written dialogues that include making connections and predictions, stating opinions, asking and answering each others’ questions, and enhancing responses with drawings. The lesson works well with independent reading and/or literature group structures. | 3-5 | 3/6/07 |
Exploring Audience and Purpose with a Single Issue |
Students explore the rhetorical concept of audience and purpose by focusing on an issue that divided Americans in 1925, the debate of evolution versus creationism raised by the Scopes Monkey Trial. Students analyze the audience and purpose of at least one resource on the debate and then consider how audience and purpose might shape other communication on the issue. | 9-12 | 10/14/09 |
Exploring Author's Voice Using Jane Addams Award-Winning Books |
This lesson uses Jane Addams Award-winning books to explore author's voice. After reading and examining The Yellow Star by Carmen Agra Deedy, a Jane Addams Honor Book in 2001, students choose another Jane Addams Award-winning book for personal investigation. | 6-8 | 2/27/09 |
Exploring Careers Using the Internet |
Students use current Web technologies to investigate various occupations and share their findings on a class blog. Lesson activities help students develop critical writing skills and further content area learning. | 6-8 | 7/1/09 |
Exploring Cause and Effect Using Expository Texts About Natural Disasters |
Understanding the structure of expository texts is an essential aspect of literacy. Students should therefore be introduced to these texts at an early age. By guiding elementary-age students to discover cause-and-effect relationships in books about natural disasters, this lesson helps improve overall comprehension. | 3-5 | 10/14/09 |
Exploring Compare and Contrast Structure in Expository Texts |
Students explore the concept of compare and contrast using expository texts. They learn clue words that signal a compare and contrast structure and how to use Venn diagrams for note-taking and representing new information learned from texts. | 3-5 | 8/17/09 |
Exploring Consumerism Where Ads and Art Intersect |
Advertisements and art send both implicit and explicit messages to their viewers. This lesson encourages middle and high school students to become critical readers of visual texts through observation, discussion, and the creation of their own artwork. | 9-12 | 7/1/08 |
Exploring Cost and Savings Using Children's Literature |
Help students learn the value of saving money. In this lesson students read, discuss, and evaluate A Chair for My Mother by Vera B. Williams. They then explore the concept of saving for a self-selected item. | 3-5 | 5/15/08 |
Exploring Cross-Age Tutoring Activities With Lewis and Clark |
In this lesson, cross-age tutoring is a catalyst for interaction between high school and elementary students as they explore the journey of Lewis and Clark. Using the book How We Crossed the West and online interactive activities, students synthesize knowledge from collaborative sessions to write and share adventure stories. | 9-12 | 7/19/07 |
Exploring Disability Using Multimedia and the B-D-A Reading Strategy |
In this lesson, students apply the B-D-A (before-during-after) reading comprehension strategy as they explore varied aspects of disability by investigating rich, interactive multimedia resources. Students participate in prereading, during reading, and postreading comprehension monitoring activities as they make predictions, take notes, summarize, and state main ideas. | 9-12 | 7/10/08 |
Exploring Friendship With Bridge to Terabithia |
In this lesson, which is also appropriate for sixth-grade students, Bridge to Terabithia is used to explore the value of friendship. Students explore the main characters’ relationship and use this inquiry to help develop an appreciation of the many facets of friendship and relate the work to their own experiences. | 3-5 | 2/25/09 |
Exploring How Section Headings Support Understanding of Expository Texts |
We cannot assume that students understand how section headings can help them organize and understand content-specific information in expository texts. This lesson provides a model, practice, and assessment in the sorting and categorizing of main concepts through the awareness and understanding of section headings. Connections to the outline format are made through extension activities. | 3-5 | 6/25/07 |
Exploring Language and Identity: Amy Tan’s “Mother Tongue” and Beyond |
The interrelationship of language, identity, and power opens up discussions that are important to both the individual and the larger community. By exploring the relationship between language and identity in Amy Tan’s essay, students increase their awareness of language in their family, home, peer, and work communities. Students explore fiction and nonfiction texts and write literacy narratives as a part of their exploration. | 9-12 | 5/1/09 |
Exploring Literacy in Cyberspace |
This lesson introduces students to the concept of intermediality—the ability to critically read and write across varied symbol systems—to help them broaden their notions of texts and literacies. Students will read print articles and online texts, and record their active reading responses to reflect their different reading experiences. | 9-12 | 9/27/07 |
Exploring Sets through Math-Related Book Pairs |
After reading and discussing a book pair of two math-related books, students investigate their home and school environments to find examples of objects that come in sets of twos, threes, fours, fives and sixes. Working either collaboratively or individually, students then create their own books on sets, highlighting their inquiry study. | K-2 | 10/21/05 |
Exploring the Subtext Strategy: Thinking Beyond the Text |
This lesson, recommended for grades 2–4, allows students to explore the feelings, motivations, and thoughts of the characters in Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. Students use the illustrations in the story to interpret the characters' thoughts and then act out their subtext. | 3-5 | 9/14/07 |
Expository Escapade—Detective’s Handbook |
Students will combine reading in the detective fiction genre with expository writing. Embedded in this unit are reading and writing skills such as defining, editing, explaining, illustrating, justifying, revising, supporting, and validating. | 6-8 | 3/14/05 |
Fact or Fiction: Learning About Worms Using Diary of a Worm |
This lesson uses the text Diary of a Worm by Doreen Cronin to introduce effective reading comprehension strategies. Students learn strategies to help them differentiate fact from fiction while reading. | K-2 | 2/12/09 |
Fairy Tale Autobiographies |
Students read and analyze fairy tales from several cultural backgrounds, identifying common elements. Choosing common situations and working in small groups, students write original fairy tales, following a process method that includes peer review and encourages using picture books as models. | 6-8 | 1/26/09 |
Fairy Tales from Life |
Students read and analyze fairy tales from several cultural backgrounds, identifying common elements. Choosing common situations and working in small groups, students write original fairy tales, following a process method that includes peer review and encourages using picture books as models. The project concludes with class presentations. | 3-5 | 4/14/09 |
Family Memoir: Getting Acquainted With Generations Before Us |
Creating a memoir of a family member who is at least a generation older than they are allows students both to learn more about their own backgrounds and to learn the power of storytellers. After all, memoirs are at least as much about the writer as they are about the subject. | 9-12 | 11/9/06 |
Family Message Journals Teach Many Purposes for Writing |
Family Message Journals are tools for learning, thinking, and self-expression. By writing several messages with varied purposes, students begin to experience that journal writing can serve many purposes—it can help them remember; make sense of new information and ideas; and recognize, develop, and share personal thoughts and reactions. | K-2 | 9/22/04 |
Family Ties: Making Connections to Improve Reading Comprehension |
Build a connection! The strategy of making connections can improve reading comprehension. Students listen to three realistic picture books, Bigmama’s by Donald Crews, The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats, and The Relatives Came by Cynthia Rylant, and make text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world connections. | K-2 | 5/15/07 |
Females in the Spotlight: Strong Characters in Picture Books |
Students read and discuss quality literature featuring strong females as the main characters, then focus on rich vocabulary as they use the online Character Trading Cards tool to describe the traits of one of these characters. A class discussion encourages critical thinking and enhances students’ experiences with the text. | 3-5 | 2/25/09 |
Ferocious Fighting Fish: An Ocean Unit Exploring Beginning Word Sounds |
Focus students’ attention on alliteration, or repeated beginning word sounds, in this unit which explores an ocean theme. Students explore alliteration in framing texts then compose their own class book to explore figurative language in their own writing. The lesson includes a revision worksheet to apply the technique to another piece of writing. | K-2 | 2/13/09 |
Fighting Injustice by Studying Lessons of the Past |
This lesson engages students in a study of social injustice using the Holocaust, the Trail of Tears, and the Japanese–American Internment during World War II. Students debate and discuss their responses to assigned readings. | 6-8 | 7/1/09 |
Figurative Language: Teaching Idioms |
This lesson focuses on introducing idioms to students in the language arts classroom. Through direct instruction of idioms, students gain an in-depth understanding of this form of figurative language. Idioms are presented through read-alouds, literal representations, and the Internet. | 3-5 | 8/2/07 |
Finding Common Ground: Using Logical, Audience-Specific Arguments |
Using a hypothetical situation, students generate arguments from opposing points of view, discover areas of commonality through the use of Venn diagrams, and construct logical, audience-specific arguments in order to persuade their opponents. Students also have an opportunity to role-play with classmates in order to refine their arguments. | 9-12 | 3/1/06 |
Finding Figurative Language in The Phantom Tollbooth |
This lesson is an exploration of figurative language using the novel The Phantom Tollbooth and various Web resources. Students examine figurative language in the story and create a chart representing the literal and figurative meanings of words and phrases. | 6-8 | 11/20/08 |
Finding the Science Behind Science Fiction through Paired Readings |
Science fiction offers students opportunities to discuss the “what ifs” within the context of scientific principles. This lesson plan invites students to read science fiction texts and then use nonfiction texts to extrapolate the scientific principles presented. | 6-8 | 12/9/08 |
Fishing for Readers: Identifying and Writing Effective Opening “Hooks” |
Students collect and categorize effective introductions in a variety of children’s books. They share and rate their favorite “hooks,” compiling a menu of strategies for their own writing. Students write several alternative hooks for a single story topic and use the Flip Book program to publish them. | 3-5 | 2/25/09 |
Flip-a-Chip: Examining Affixes and Roots to Build Vocabulary |
Flip-a-Chip is a novel approach to word study that promotes vocabulary development. The activity provides hands-on practice with affixes and roots and promotes comprehension through structural analysis and vocabulary in context. | 6-8 | 9/16/09 |
Flying to Freedom: Tar Beach and The People Could Fly |
Reading with an awareness of intertextuality helps students respond in a dynamic manner to multicultural literature. Students explore themes of liberation and racism as they examine the connections, as well as the disjunctions, between two award-winning children's books. | 3-5 | 6/21/07 |
Focus on First Lines: Increasing Comprehension through Prediction Strategies |
At the beginning of a course or unit, students examine opening sentences from texts that they will read completely in later sessions. Students make predictions about the texts then return to their predictions throughout the course or unit to talk about the prediction strategy and to increase reading comprehension. | 9-12 | 3/20/07 |
From Fact to Fiction: Drawing and Writing Stories |
Involving students in drawing activities prior to writing helps them to visualize what they want to express in their writing. Drawing before writing makes writing an easier process. In this lesson, students learn story elements, use graphic organizers, and access the Internet to gather factual information about frogs and toads. | K-2 | 6/25/07 |
From Little House to My House: Exploring History and Family Roles |
This lesson introduces first- and second-grade students to the Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder, using a story adapted from Little House in the Big Woods. A read-aloud followed by questions helps students explore the book. Students then use a graphic organizer to connect the characters and events to their own lives. | K-2 | 2/12/09 |
From Stop Signs to the Golden Arches: Environmental Print |
Teachers have long surrounded young students with a print-rich environment within the classroom, but the purpose of this lesson is to bring the print-rich environment of the community into the classroom through the use of environmental print, enabling emergent readers to delight in the realization that they are indeed readers. | K-2 | 9/24/07 |
Gabbing About Garfield: Conversing About Texts With Comic Creator |
While critiquing Garfield comics, students search for conventions specific to the comic strip genre. Using the interactive Comic Creator, they record their own written conversations, incorporating elements of the comic strip genre. | 3-5 | 3/21/07 |
Generating Rhymes: Developing Phonemic Awareness |
Phonemic awareness instruction is an integral part of any early reading program. This lesson incorporates song and poetry to help students recognize and generate simple rhymes. | K-2 | 4/25/08 |
Genre Study: A Collaborative Approach |
Encourage your students to explore elements of common literary genres, not only as a way to appreciate the wealth of literature available to them, but also to expand their models for effective writing. Using a customized bookmark, students will learn and document characteristics of chosen genres. | 3-5 | 11/19/08 |
Getting the ig in Pig: Helping Children Discover Onset and Rime |
This phonics lesson offers a clear instructional format for teaching onset and rime. The ig rime is demonstrated through the use of literature, independent and cooperative learning, critical thinking, and hands-on activities. Instruction is conducted in both an explicit and implicit manner. | K-2 | 4/25/08 |
Getting to Know You: Developing Short Biographies to Build Community |
Learning thrives when we develop classroom communities in which students feel understood, respected, and free to take risks. In this lesson, designed for the beginning of the school year, students will learn about each other’s lives and interests by conducting interviews and developing simple biographies using the interactive Bio-Cube. | 3-5 | 2/25/09 |
Girls Read: Online Literature Circles |
Girls develop skills in reading, analysis, and written expression as they share their thoughts about literature with e-mail pen pals and in classroom literature circles. They also explore a larger literacy community when they visit and contribute to a website devoted to adolescent literature. | 6-8 | 2/25/09 |
GIST: A Summarizing Strategy for Use in Any Content Area |
GIST is a summarizing technique for use in any content area. This series of lessons guides students through learning and applying the strategy in a format that facilitates transfer. It engages learners through online research and writing activities based on topical news stories. | 6-8 | 9/13/07 |
Giving Voice to Students Through “This I Believe” Podcasts |
Have students explore what is most important to them using the format of the popular National Public Radio “This I Believe” series. Designed specifically for disabled students but easily modified for use in inclusive classrooms, this lesson has students create essays that they post as podcasts on a class webpage. | 9-12 | 11/18/08 |
Going on a Shape Hunt: Integrating Math and Literacy |
After a read-aloud session with a geometry-themed book, students participate in a scavenger hunt for shapes in their school environment. Reading, writing, and discussion encourage literacy and verbal skills; the search for shapes integrates mathematics. | K-2 | 2/12/09 |
Great American Inventors: Using Nonfiction to Learn About Technology Inventions |
In this lesson, students read several biographies focusing on American inventors who made significant contributions to the development of technology. They then collaborate, research, and develop presentations that highlight how these inventions from the past impacted the future. | 3-5 | 2/25/09 |
Growing Readers and Writers with Help from Mother Goose |
Children can learn rhythm and rhyme from nursery rhymes. But those same poems can be used to help young students make connections to letters, sounds, and word chunks. Let Mother Goose help children grow as readers and writers! | K-2 | 7/13/07 |
Guided Comprehension in Action: Teaching Summarizing With the Bio-Cube |
Biographies can engage and motivate students in the classroom, helping them make personal connections to figures both past and present. They can also be used to teach students information about research and summarizing. In this lesson, students use websites to research self-chosen biography subjects and complete an online summarizing tool. | 6-8 | 2/25/09 |
Guided Comprehension: Evaluating Using the Meeting of the Minds Technique |
This lesson uses the Guided Comprehension Model developed by Maureen McLaughlin and Mary Beth Allen to introduce the comprehension strategy of evaluating using the meeting of the minds technique. Students read The True Story of the 3 Little Pigs by Jon Scieszka and learn how to evaluate and debate information from texts. | 3-5 | 7/16/09 |
Guided Comprehension: Knowing How Words Work Using Semantic Feature Analysis |
This lesson uses the Guided Comprehension Model developed by Maureen McLaughlin and Mary Beth Allen to introduce the comprehension strategy of knowing how words work using semantic feature analysis. The lesson teaches students how to analyze the characteristics of folktales, myths, and fables to gain a better understanding of these genres. | 3-5 | 7/16/09 |
Guided Comprehension: Making Connections Using a Double-Entry Journal |
This lesson uses the Guided Comprehension Model developed by Maureen McLaughlin and Mary Beth Allen to introduce the comprehension strategy of making connections using a double-entry journal. Students use the book Harvesting Hope by Kathleen Krull to make text-to-self, text-to-text, and text-to-world connections. | 3-5 | 7/23/07 |
Guided Comprehension: Monitoring Using the INSERT Technique |
This lesson uses the Guided Comprehension Model developed by Maureen McLaughlin and Mary Beth Allen to introduce the comprehension strategy of monitoring using the INSERT technique. The lesson teaches students how to monitor their understanding and thought processes to gain a better understanding of texts. | 3-5 | 7/23/07 |
Guided Comprehension: Previewing Using an Anticipation Guide |
This lesson uses the Guided Comprehension Model developed by Maureen McLaughlin and Mary Beth Allen to introduce the comprehension strategy of previewing using an anticipation guide. Students use the book Teammates by Peter Golenbock, which describes the friendship between Jackie Robinson and Pee Wee Reese, to preview and anticipate elements of the story. | 3-5 | 7/23/07 |
Guided Comprehension: Self-Questioning Using Question-Answer Relationships |
This lesson uses the Guided Comprehension Model developed by Maureen McLaughlin and Mary Beth Allen to introduce the comprehension strategy of self-questioning using question-answer relationships (QARs). Students use the book The Story of Ruby Bridges by Robert Coles to learn the different question types and how to identify the answers. | 3-5 | 7/23/07 |
Guided Comprehension: Summarizing Using the QuIP Strategy |
This lesson uses the Guided Comprehension Model developed by Maureen McLaughlin and Mary Beth Allen to introduce the comprehension strategy of summarizing using the QuIP (questions into paragraphs) strategy. Students have the opportunity to read about the Underground Railroad and summarize information both orally and in writing. | 3-5 | 7/23/07 |
Guided Comprehension: Visualizing Using the Sketch-to-Stretch Strategy |
This lesson uses the Guided Comprehension Model developed by Maureen McLaughlin and Mary Beth Allen to introduce the comprehension strategy of visualizing using sketch-to-stretch. While reading the books Freedom Summer by Deborah Wiles and The Other Side by Jacqueline Woodson, students visualize their thoughts and ideas about the texts through drawings. | 3-5 | 10/14/09 |
Having My Say: A Multigenre Autobiography Project |
Students will read Having Our Say, the autobiography of two African-American women who lived through most of the twentieth century. Using this text as a model, students will produce a multigenre project that includes an autobiographical essay and an informational piece that provides historical, familial, or cultural context for their story. | 9-12 | 5/9/08 |
Help Wanted: Writing Professional Resumes |
Learning how to list one’s experiences on paper is only part of creating a resume. Students also need to see the resume as a professional document that follows certain rhetorical and format conventions. In this lesson, students will learn to create a beginning resume that represents their current work experience and demonstrates their knowledge of rhetorical situations for professional writing. | 9-12 | 8/3/09 |
Heroes Around Us |
In this lesson, students collaboratively define heroism and discover that heroes can be everyday people who perform brave and noble deeds, often in service to others. Readings and reports on the lives of those honored as heroes reinforce the concept that anyone can become a hero. | 6-8 | 7/12/07 |
Hey Diddle, Diddle! Generating Rhymes for Analogy-Based Phonics Instruction |
First-grade teachers can use analogy-based phonics (i.e., learning words based on word families) before other phonological skills, such as rhyme, are in place. This lesson focuses on an informal assessment of students' identification of rhyme in the context of a poem and manipulation of online picture cards. | K-2 | 4/25/08 |
Historical Fiction: Using Literature to Learn About the Civil War |
In this lesson, fourth and fifth grade students integrate art and writing while developing comprehension of a historical fiction text. Inferential comprehension and visualization are discussed as students use the think-aloud questioning strategy to develop a deeper understanding of the historical time period. | 3-5 | 2/12/09 |
History Comes Alive: Using Social Studies to Improve Fluency and Comprehension |
The goal of this lesson, which is also appropriate for second-grade students, is to integrate social studies with literacy. Students research a topic, write a script for a play, and perform the play before an audience. The lesson consists of several stages, each focusing on different skills. | 3-5 | 2/25/09 |
Hoax or No Hoax? Strategies for Online Comprehension and Evaluation |
Using research-based online reading comprehension strategies and website evaluation tools, students explore hoax websites to determine their validity. Students then outline their own hoax websites. | 9-12 | 7/1/09 |
Honoring Our Veterans Through Poetry Prewriting |
This lesson uses the informational power of the Internet for a prewriting activity. Through various Internet sites, students gather information about the history and celebration practices associated with Veterans Day. Following the prewriting activity, students write content-rich poems that honor our veterans. | 6-8 | 11/6/06 |
How-To Writing: Motivating Students to Write for a Real Purpose |
Students are more motivated to write when their writing serves a definite purpose. In this lesson, students write how-to essays about how to succeed in the fourth grade. The essays are then shared with the next year's fourth graders at the beginning of the school year. | 3-5 | 2/12/09 |
I Know That Word! Teaching Reading With Environmental Print |
Signs and labels provide even the youngest students with reading opportunities. In this lesson, students practice reading various types of print, starting with contextualized logos and moving on to words with no color or graphics. Students are encouraged to move from whole-word identification to alphabetic decoding. | K-2 | 2/25/09 |
I Remember That Book: Rereading as a Critical Investigation |
Secondary students often resist reading assignments or don’t read with the verve their teachers might wish for. One way to confront this resistance to reading is to draw it out in the open and explore students’ histories as readers. | 9-12 | 11/26/08 |
I Used My Own Words! Paraphrasing Informational Texts |
Paraphrasing is a powerful strategy to monitor comprehension and integrate new information with old. This lesson demonstrates how to teach students to use this comprehension strategy with informational texts. | 3-5 | 9/16/09 |
I Wonder: Writing Scientific Explanations With Students |
Students ask questions all the time. This lesson takes advantage of students' natural curiosity, encouraging them to research a scientific question and write an answer. Second-grade students will learn to research, sort and classify information, and collaborate to write a class scientific explanation. | K-2 | 2/12/09 |
I've Got It Covered! Creating Magazine Covers to Summarize Texts |
In this lesson, students identify main ideas in textbook chapters and create magazine covers that express those ideas in words and pictures. | 6-8 | 10/31/07 |
I've Got the Literacy Blues |
In this lesson, students read "The Gift of the Magi" by O. Henry and explore the story's themes using blues music, creative writing, and media study. They then create a graphic organizer, write blues poetry, and create a mural to showcase what they have learned. | 9-12 | 11/16/06 |
Identifying and Classifying Verbs in Context |
This lesson focuses on having students identify and classify the three kinds of verbs—action verbs, state-of-being or linking verbs, and helping verbs. | 3-5 | 2/12/09 |
Imagine That! Playing with Genre through Newspapers and Short Stories |
Students identify genre characteristics for narrative short stories and journalistic newspaper articles then practice both genres by turning a short story into a news article and an article into a short story. | 6-8 | 5/1/09 |
Improve Comprehension Using a Word Card Game With Root Words and Affixes |
This lesson, which is quick, focused, and engaging, has students study common root words and affixes and learn how to improve comprehension and spelling with their new knowledge. Working in small groups, students make and play a card game in which the challenge is to form words with a prefix, root word, and suffix. | 6-8 | 2/26/09 |
Improve Students’ Writing Using Online Workshops |
Students read a picture book full of fantastical if statements before writing their own. They then conduct an online writer’s workshop focusing on peer review and revision. When their statements are final, students create a page for a class book. | 6-8 | 11/18/08 |
Improving Fluency through Group Literary Performance |
Repeated readings and literary performances help students with their reading accuracy, expression, and rate. In this lesson, students participate in shared reading, choral reading, and readers theater, focusing their exploration on picture books by Bill Martin, Jr. | K-2 | 11/20/08 |
In Literature, Interpretation is the Thing |
"I disagree, that was terrible!" How often have you heard a similar statement from students about a play, poem, or novel? By examining critical material and authorial intent, students can move beyond such subjective comments into deeper understanding and reflection about literature, even that which is culturally and historically distant. | 9-12 | 2/12/09 |
In the Poet's Shoes: Performing Poetry and Building Meaning |
In this lesson, students analyze a variety of poets and their poetry by reading and listening to their work. Students then use information gathered from Internet resources to select a favorite poet and perform one of their poems for the class. | 6-8 | 4/14/09 |
In the Style of Ernie Pyle: Reporting on World War II |
This lesson has high school students use the Internet to enhance their study of World War II and encourages them to model their writing on that of Ernie Pyle, a respected war reporter from that era. | 9-12 | 11/21/08 |
Inferring How and Why Characters Change |
One way that readers construct meaning from text is by developing a deep understanding of characters. In this lesson, a short narrative text is used to model strategies for inferring how and why characters change. Students read short stories in small groups and independently to apply these strategies. | 3-5 | 2/12/09 |
Inside or Outside? A Mini-Lesson on Quotation Marks and More |
Does that period go inside the quotation marks or outside them? When a writing activity includes dialogue, you're guaranteed to hear that question more than once. This lesson helps students identify the conventions and apply them to their text. | 6-8 | 9/23/04 |
Integrating Language Arts Using If You Give a Mouse a Cookie |
This lesson integrates reading, writing, listening, and speaking to boost students' comprehension skills. Students explore Laura Joffe Numeroff 's If You Give a Mouse a Cookie using a variety of techniques, beginning with a picture walk and ending with the creation and publication of their own versions of the text. | K-2 | 3/6/09 |
Integrating Literacy Into the Study of the Earth's Surface |
Move beyond textbooks to encourage simultaneous science and literacy learning. In this lesson third through fifth graders learn about the features of the Earth's bodies of water using a variety of literacy genres, culminating with a Readers Theatre performance. | 3-5 | 2/12/09 |
Internalization of Vocabulary Through the Use of a Word Map |
Middle school students can internalize vocabulary through the use of a concrete and sequential word map. This multisensory method, which incorporates sketching, is intended as one method that students can choose to increase their personal vocabularies. | 6-8 | 9/14/07 |
Introducing Shakespeare: Character Journals and Point of View |
Students develop insight into character motivations and personality by writing a journal from the point of view of a specific Shakespeare character. They also explore how personal and cultural preconceptions shape our interpretation of characters and events. | 6-8 | 2/25/09 |
Introducing Shakespeare: The Bard's English |
Students are introduced to concepts of language change as they examine how words are borrowed or created and how vocabulary shifts. After exploring the vocabulary of Shakespeare's time and reading scenes from a Shakespeare play, students create original written and spoken dialogue incorporating Elizabethan words and phrases. | 6-8 | 2/25/09 |
Investigating Junk Mail: Negotiating Critical Literacy at the Mailbox |
By investigating junk mail, students learn to think about and question texts in ways that develop their analytical capacities and critical reading practices. | 3-5 | 4/14/09 |
Is Superman Really All That Super? Critically Exploring Superheroes |
This lesson teaches fourth- and fifth-grade students how to critically analyze superhero characters portrayed in popular culture texts and children’s books. Students identify, compare, and discuss the character traits of superheroes, looking at how perspective or point of view influences their understanding of these characters. | 3-5 | 2/25/09 |
Is This the Right Book for Me? Strategies for Beginning Readers |
In this lesson students are introduced to the idea of making purposeful choices when selecting reading material. They learn to take their reason for reading into account and how to use some beginning strategies to match the book to their abilities. | K-2 | 2/12/09 |
It Doesn’t Have to End That Way: Using Prediction Strategies with Literature |
After listening to the beginning of a story, students use details in the text, personal experience, and prior knowledge to predict the way the story will end. Students create illustrations of the story’s ending that reflects their predictions. | K-2 | 5/8/07 |
It's Okay to Be Different: Teaching Diversity With Todd Parr |
This lesson for first- and second-grade students uses Todd Parr's book It's Okay to Be Different to introduce the topic of diversity. Students participate in discussions designed to encourage empathy and explore the idea of what makes us diverse. They then create books that are meant to help educate their peers. | K-2 | 2/12/09 |
It's Too Loud in Here! Teamwork in the Classroom |
This lesson meets first- and second-grade students' natural need to socialize when creating meaning about the world. The cooperative learning activities allow students to collaborate and develop an understanding of teamwork while developing classroom rules. It's okay to be LOUD in this lesson! | K-2 | 7/24/07 |
Keywords: Learning to Focus Internet Research |
Today’s students need to be prepared for the new literacies that are central to the use of information technology and the acquisition of knowledge in a digital environment. This lesson focuses on effective strategies for searching for information on the Internet. | 6-8 | 5/29/08 |
Language and Power in The Handmaid’s Tale and the World |
Students work in small groups to examine Margaret Atwood’s use of and observations about language in The Handmaid’s Tale. Through this activity, students discover and articulate overarching thematic trends in the book and then can extend their observations about official or political language to examples from their own world. | 9-12 | 5/5/09 |
Latino Poetry Blog: Blogging as a Forum for Open Discussion |
Using a blog as a forum for open discussion, students engage in online interaction about Latino poetry. Students spend time analyzing their poem and then post their analyses to a class blog. They then comment on each other’s posts, reinforcing literacy skills such as reading, writing, and critical thinking. | 9-12 | 4/14/09 |
Leading to Great Places in the Elementary Classroom |
A story’s lead begins the reader’s adventure; yet it can just as likely end that odyssey if those opening words do not immediately entrance the reader. This mini-lesson examines types of leads in prominent children's literature and asks students to try their own hand at writing leads. | 3-5 | 12/12/06 |
Leading to Great Places in the Middle School Classroom |
Tapping existing texts for models is one of the best strategies for writer’s workshop. This mini-lesson examines types of leads in prominent young adult literature and asks students to search for great leads and then try their own hand at writing leads. | 6-8 | 10/23/08 |
Learning to Learn with Miss Alaineus: A Vocabulary Disaster |
After reading the picture book Miss Alaineus: A Vocabulary Disaster, students explore vocabulary from a recent unit and create their own vocabulary parade, modeled on the activities in the text. The activity provides a great alternative to testing students on information from a recent unit. | 3-5 | 11/30/07 |
Learning About Research and Writing Using the American Revolution |
In this lesson, students learn note-taking and research skills. They research a figure from the American Revolution, using the Internet, trade books, and encyclopedias to determine the person's significance. They then write an acrostic poem about the person they researched. | 3-5 | 2/12/09 |
Learning Centers: From Shared to Independent Practice |
In this lesson, a number of literacy learning centers are developed within the context of a shared reading experience, allowing students to practice skills at their own level (both in interest and ability), within the authentic context of a rich literacy experience. | K-2 | 11/18/08 |
Learning Clubs: Motivating Middle School Readers and Writers |
Learning clubs draw on strategies and systems common to literature circles and book clubs. They motivate students to engage with multiple types of texts to support learning across content areas. Learning clubs center on locating curricular topics to investigate and encourage students to use literacy as a vehicle for learning. | 6-8 | 5/28/09 |
Learning Vocabulary Down By the Bay |
Students learn high-frequency vocabulary words as they engage in singing and reading the song "Down By the Bay." Activities involve recognizing, reading, and writing the words in the song. | K-2 | 7/9/07 |
Let's Build a Snowman |
Using both fiction and nonfiction books on the same topic can boost students' understanding of the topic and enjoyment for reading. In this lesson, students use both types of texts, the Internet, and a K-W-L chart to learn about how animals survive during the winter. | K-2 | 1/23/07 |
Let's Get Cooking With Words! Creating a Recipe Using Procedural Writing |
This lesson focuses on procedural writing, which relies heavily on the effective use of wide-ranging nouns, verbs, and adjectives. Because word choice is vital to the genre, students explore this writing trait before practicing procedural writing. | 3-5 | 2/25/09 |
Let's Read It Again: Comprehension Strategies for English-Language Learners |
This adaptable lesson for Spanish-speaking second graders learning English uses a bilingual picture book and a variety of reading strategies to help students improve fluency and retain what they have learned. | K-2 | 2/26/09 |
Let's Talk About Stories: Shared Discussion With Amazing Grace |
Make space for critical literacy in your classroom and engage your students in meaningful and thoughtful discussions. This lesson uses Amazing Grace by Mary Hoffman, as an example, to dig deep into themes such as prejudice, courage, and self-confidence. | K-2 | 4/14/09 |
Letters and Learning Genre |
Combining their prior knowledge of letters with several books containing letters, students learn how genres can flex to accomplish different purposes for different contexts. Students show their understanding of genre by rewriting a story and reflecting on how a traditional story differs from a story told in letters. | 6-8 | 11/19/08 |
Lights, Camera, Action...Music: Critiquing Films Using Sight and Sound |
Teaching students to "read" media other than text is an important skill that helps boost their critical thinking. This lesson introduces students to film literacy by asking them to contrast a scene's visual impact with the music that accompanies it and by then writing their own scene outline. | 9-12 | 2/12/09 |
Lights, Camera, Action: Interviewing a Book Character |
After reading a novel as a group, students prepare a television talk show that uses the characters from the story as the acting characters on the show. Students develop interview-style questions and answers for a character in the novel, and then act out the interview in class. | 6-8 | 3/28/07 |
Listen, Look, and Learn: An Information-Gathering Process |
After listening to and discussing the story Score One for the Sloths, primary students will work together as a class group to seek for information on the sloth. This introductory lesson on information gathering features a variety of resources and formats to be used with notes recorded on an information wheel graphic organizer. | K-2 | 10/13/04 |
Literature Circles with Primary Students Using Self-Selected Reading |
After reading self-selected books, students respond to reading in a journal and talk about their books daily in small, heterogeneous groups. The teacher guides and assesses students’ work by rotating among the groups, offering suggested response prompts and writing with them in their dialogue journals. | K-2 | 6/30/05 |
Lonely as a Cloud: Using Poetry to Understand Similes |
Students identify similes in poetry and gain experience in using similes as a poetic device in their own work. By the end of the lesson, students will be able to write similes as quick as a wink! | 6-8 | 2/12/09 |
Looking for the History in Historical Fiction: An Epidemic for Reading |
Historical fiction can provide a powerful way to introduce your students to the large themes of history because of their human approach to the events they cover. In this lesson, students will be reading and responding to historical fiction. Then, they will be using nonfiction sources to verify the “facts” presented in the novels. | 3-5 | 5/13/09 |
Magazine Redux: An Exercise in Critical Literacy |
Teachers can use this activity as part of a larger unit on media literacy to help students understand how and why they read and respond to different media forms. This lesson focuses specifically on analyzing the differences between print and online magazines. | 9-12 | 7/1/09 |
Make a Splash! Using Dramatic Experience to “Explode the Moment” |
In this lesson students learn to elaborate their writing by using descriptive language. They explore models of good writing and engage in shared writing about a surprise dramatic experience. Students complete a graphic organizer to brainstorm sensory details and use the writing process to publish short personal narratives. | 3-5 | 7/1/08 |
Making Connections to Myth and Folktale: The Many Ways to Rainy Mountain |
Following the model of N. Scott Momaday’s The Way To Rainy Mountain, students write three-voice narratives based on Kiowa folktale, an interview with Elder, and personal connection to themes in Momaday’s book or a theme that arises in the folktale or interview. Momaday’s model for remembering and personal involvement in folktales, mythologies, and tales of personal heritage is presented as a key to connecting on a personal level with the stories of one’s past. | 9-12 | 4/14/09 |
Making It Visual for ELL Students: Teaching History Using Maus |
Through the graphic novel Maus, students begin to learn the important historical lessons of the Holocaust. The lesson is appropriate for English-language learners and reluctant readers. | 9-12 | 9/29/09 |
Making Personal and Cultural Connections Using A Girl Named Disaster |
Using A Girl Named Disaster by Nancy Farmer, students learn about Africa, Shona traditions, geography, and society. They also develop critical-thinking skills and self-awareness as they examine cultural similarities and differences and make personal connections to the story. This lesson is most appropriate for middle school students. | 6-8 | 8/17/09 |
Manipulating Sentences to Reinforce Grammar Skills |
This lesson reviews and reinforces basic grammar skills through authentic instruction. Using any reading material (e.g., novels, textbooks, magazines, online texts), students find sentences and manipulate them to either change the meaning or enhance the intended meaning. | 9-12 | 8/2/07 |
Media Literacy: Examining the World of TV Teens |
In this lesson, students compare how characters are portrayed in different forms of media (i.e., books, television shows, and movies) and analyze characters, motivations, problems, and solutions from a television series of their choosing. They then propose a new television series that more realistically portrays teenagers today. | 6-8 | 7/27/09 |
Memories Matter: The Giver and Descriptive Writing Memoirs |
Using The Giver, students will discuss the importance of having a recorded history of humanity. This understanding provides context for descriptive writing of students’ own history in a lesson that integrates personal writing, research, and response to literature. | 6-8 | 3/11/09 |
Mind Pictures: Strategies That Enhance Mental Imagery While Reading |
This lesson involves having students use visual images to build background knowledge and improve reading comprehension. The strategies lead students toward independent use of skills that enable them to construct mental images using content-related picture books, movie clips, and illustrations. | 6-8 | 2/12/09 |
Modeling Academic Writing Through Scholarly Article Presentations |
Through modeling, independent research, and presentation, students will learn and apply critical reading and annotation skills to the genre of the academic essay. In addition to gaining exposure to multiple interpretations of a work, they will embark on a genre study of this advanced essay form. | 9-12 | 3/10/09 |
More than One Way to Create Vivid Verbs |
One way to spice up your verbs is to learn new vocabulary. Or you can just use ordinary verbs in a new way! This lesson teaches students how to use old verbs in a new way, thus creating new and fresh descriptive phrases. | 6-8 | 3/20/09 |
Multimedia Responses to Content Area Topics Using Fact–“Faction”–Fiction |
This lesson focuses on students' development of cooperative learning and inquiry-based skills, as well as the ways that fiction and nonfiction can be blended seamlessly into texts. Students read Diary of a Spider by Doreen Cronin, and then work in cooperative groups to research and synthesize information about spiders. | 3-5 | 4/14/09 |
Multipurpose Poetry: Introducing Science Concepts and Increasing Fluency |
This lesson introduces the study of insects in science by using poetry. Students work in cooperative groups to prepare choral poetry readings and present factual information on an assigned insect to the class. The choral poetry readings also serve to increase fluency in ESL students. | 3-5 | 6/21/07 |
Music and Me: Visual Representations of Lyrics to Popular Music |
In this lesson, students create a photomontage movie of images based on the lyrics of a self-chosen song. After interpreting the lyrics, students choose digital photos to illustrate their interpretation and decide on an order and any special effects they want to use. | 9-12 | 2/25/09 |
My Family Traditions: A Class Book and a Potluck Lunch |
Artistic flare, social skills, and self-esteem are integrated into this lesson that builds awareness of Mexican-American culture in the United States. After a read aloud of Family Pictures/Cuadros de Familia by Carmen Lomas Garza, students write a class book about their family traditions and have a potluck lunch. | 3-5 | 2/12/09 |
My World of Words: Building Vocabulary Lists |
This lesson uses students' areas of interest both in and out of school to generate personalized vocabulary lists. Working in small groups, students select their own vocabulary words and research their meanings. In a culminating activity that uses text and illustration, each student will create a "My World of Words Journal." | 3-5 | 4/21/05 |
Name Talk: Exploring Letter-Sound Knowledge in the Primary Classroom |
Invites primary students to share their letter/sound knowledge in a small group and gives teachers an opportunity to assess knowledge in a meaningful context. Working with name cards, students share observations about their names and the names of their classmates. Extensions are appropriate for a range of primary-aged students. | K-2 | 3/16/07 |
Narrative Structure and Perspectives in Toni Morrison's Beloved |
Using Toni Morrison’s Beloved as a model text of a work with multiple narrative perspectives, students use a visualizing activity and close reading to consider ways in which subjective values shape contradictory representations of a fictional world. | 9-12 | 4/14/09 |
No More Bullying: Understanding the Problem, Building Bully-Free Environments |
In this lesson, students construct an understanding of bullying by focusing on the causes, prevalence, consequences, and reasons it is unacceptable. They examine local incidents of bullying, report their findings, and explore solutions. Students synthesize their knowledge by planning the first steps of a multifaceted Bullying Intervention Campaign. | 6-8 | 8/17/09 |
No Teachers Allowed: Student-Led Book Clubs Using QAR |
Watch out Oprah! Teach your students how to write and discuss meaningful questions using the Question–Answer Relationships (QAR) strategy. In this lesson, which is also appropriate for the sixth grade, students learn to categorize questions and have an insightful, peer-led book discussion. | 3-5 | 2/25/09 |
Once They’re Hooked, Reel Them In: Writing Good Endings |
Effective writing requires a beginning, middle, and end. This lesson provides literary models for effective ending lines and encourages students to plan their own writing to include thoughtful, connected endings. | 3-5 | 2/25/09 |
Once Upon a Fairy Tale: Teaching Revision as a Concept |
Students sometimes have trouble understanding the difference between the global issues of revision and the local ones of editing. In this lesson, students use fractured fairy tales to enhance understanding and then practice revision and editing as separate activities when they write their own versions of other fairy tales. | 6-8 | 8/10/06 |
Once Upon a Link: A PowerPoint Adventure With Fractured Fairy Tales |
Fractured fairy tales with hyperlinks offer multiple pathways to happily ever after. Students use the Fractured Fairy Tales tool and a PowerPoint template to create stories that offer alternate plotlines and endings. In composing and editing these tales, students focus on the six traits of writing. | 3-5 | 2/26/09 |
Onomatopoeia: A Figurative Language Mini-lesson |
In this mini-lesson, students are introduced to the literary device of onomatopoeia and explore how the technique adds to a writer’s message. Students examine Edgar Allan Poe’s poem “The Bells,” looking for examples of these “sound words”; then they apply their knowledge to additional poems, other readings, or their own compositions. | 9-12 | 6/28/07 |
Painting Poetry: Using Visual Representation as a Response to Literature |
This lesson has students read the poem "The Red Wheelbarrow" by William Carlos Williams and respond to the poem's language by creating mixed-media visual representations of its imagery. Students then explain their interpretations in writing and compare them with those of their peers. | 6-8 | 2/12/09 |
Pairing Fiction With Poetry and Performance |
This lesson, which is aimed at second-language learners, improves vocabulary and comprehension using dramatic performances of poetry. Student groups read and discuss novels and poetry before developing a performance poem of their own. On completion, students prepare for a formal presentation. | 9-12 | 2/25/09 |
Paul Revere: American Patriot |
In this lesson that allows curricular integration, students explore the life and legend of Paul Revere. Websites that describe Paul Revere’s life, his well-known ride, and his occupation are investigated and discussed. Information from these sources is then used for center activities and projects. | 3-5 | 11/21/08 |
Peace Poems and Picasso Doves: Literature, Art, Technology, and Poetry |
Students and teachers employ think-aloud strategies as they read literature, compose poems, and create artwork related to the theme of peace. This unit is designed for collaborative teaching among classroom, art, and technology teachers, and school librarians. A single educator can also teach this unit. | 3-5 | 4/14/09 |
Persuading an Audience: Writing Effective Letters to the Editor |
Students write a persuasive letter to the editor of a newspaper, focusing on a current local or national issue and requesting a specific action or response. | 9-12 | 12/9/08 |
Persuading Readers with Endorsement Letters |
Students explore the genre of commercial endorsements and then write letters of endorsement for products or services that they use. | 9-12 | 3/16/09 |
Persuading the Principal: Writing Persuasive Letters About School Issues |
Adolescents love to share their opinions about the way life “should be.” This lesson gives students the opportunity to examine editorials and write their own persuasive letters on issues that are important in their school community. | 6-8 | 10/15/08 |
Persuasive Essay: Environmental Issues |
Critical stance and development of a strong argument are key strategies when writing to convince someone to agree with your position on a topic. This lesson focuses on having students create persuasive essays that address environmental issues that are relevant to their lives. | 6-8 | 9/13/07 |
Persuasive Techniques in Advertising |
This lesson provides an introduction to persuasive techniques used in advertising: pathos, logos, and ethos. Students will analyze advertising in a variety of sources and explore the concepts of demographics, marketing for a specific audience, and dynamic advertising. The lesson will culminate in the production of commercials intended for a specific demographic. | 9-12 | 5/28/09 |
Phoneme Isolation: Building Phonemic Awareness |
Phoneme isolation is an important aspect of phonemic awareness and an essential early reading skill. This lesson helps students isolate beginning and ending sounds and connect them with their written symbol (grapheme) through games and chants. | K-2 | 3/6/09 |
Phonic Generalizations in Chrysanthemum |
Using the book Chrysanthemum, this lesson teaches first- and second-graders the phonic generalizations for ow, aw, and ew. Based on the strategy "Letterbox Lessons" by Murray and Lesniak, students manipulate letters to construct words. Students then apply the strategy by spelling the words, reading the words in selected nursery rhymes, and playing an online, interactive game. | K-2 | 12/18/08 |
Phonics In Context |
Many phonics elements can be introduced and taught using the read-aloud framework and quality children's literature. This lesson introduces and reinforces the letter-sound relationship for the short /u/ sound within a meaningful, familiar context. The lesson can easily be adapted for other phonics elements. | K-2 | 4/25/08 |
Phonics Through Literature: Learning About the Letter M |
With a balance of teacher-directed, student-initiated, and home activities, kindergarten students learn about phonics and the letter m. This lesson uses children's literature, learning centers, and activities that emphasize interactive learning across the curriculum to encourage students to "monkey around" with their knowledge of letters and sounds in a fun, whole-language environment. | K-2 | 4/14/08 |
Picture Books as Framing Texts: Research Paper Strategies for Struggling Writers |
In this lesson, picture books give students frames for structuring research projects, freeing them from the language of their encyclopedia sources and allowing them to focus their attention on the content of their papers. Using picture books as models, students are able to think more about what to say and less about how to say it, which leads to better learning experiences and better writing. | 6-8 | 11/19/08 |
Pictures Tell the Story: Improving Comprehension With Persepolis |
Graphic novels provide a powerful way for students to study history. This lesson has students explore Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi by learning about cartooning techniques and examining how they work to tell the story of both the main character and the Iranian Revolution. | 9-12 | 2/25/09 |
Planning Story Characters Using Interactive Trading Cards |
Writers often make plans for their characters' development before writing stories; trading cards are a popular culture text that appeal to students and can have valuable literacy applications. This lesson introduces students to the idea of understanding and planning characters for a story using an online Character Trading Cards tool. | 3-5 | 2/12/09 |
Playing Name Bingo with Chrysanthemum |
The Name Bingo Game is sure to be popular with your students, whether it's early in year and you're still learning each other's names or you've had a new student join the class. After listening to Kevin Henkes' Chrysanthemum, or a similar book, each child develops a Bingo card and the whole class plays the game, learning one another's names and getting to know on another better. An added plus is this activity can become a reading center for your classroom. | K-2 | 10/8/03 |
Playing with Prepositions through Poetry |
Students play with and explore prepositions first in a picture book and then applying their knowledge about the part of speech by composing and publishing prepositional poems. | 3-5 | 8/17/09 |
Plot Structure: A Literary Elements Mini-Lesson |
Using a triangle-shaped graphic organizer, Freytag’s Pyramid, students explore the basic literary element of plot. The graphic organizer helps students identify narrative structures that are familiar and compare those structures to those that authors use when composing a story. | 6-8 | 11/20/08 |
Plotting a Plan to Improve Writing: Using Plot Scaffolds |
Students use plot scaffolds based upon literary genres, historical events, or popular stories to create written narratives. | 6-8 | 4/21/08 |
Poetry Circles: Generative Writing Loops Help Students Craft Verse |
In this lesson, eleventh- and twelfth-grade students engage in poetry writing by using generative writing loops. A type of poetry circle, these writing groups empower students academically, emotionally, and socially as they interact to learn and apply poetic conventions and forms. | 9-12 | 9/6/07 |
Poetry Portfolios: Using Poetry to Teach Reading and Writing |
Teach your students about sentence structure, rhyming words, sight words, vocabulary, and print concepts using a weekly poem. These important skills for reading and writing are demonstrated in a whole-to-parts approach using engaging poems, shared reading, and independent activities. | K-2 | 3/6/09 |
Poetry: A Feast to Form Fluent Readers |
Students examine elements of fluent reading through oral poetry performance. They use the Internet to identify a poem to prepare and perform for the class. The main objective of this lesson concerns improving fluency. | 3-5 | 10/15/09 |
Poetry: Sound and Sense |
In this lesson, high school students examine selected poetry and focus on the use of sound devices such as assonance, consonance, and alliteration. After discussion and experimentation, students create original poems using the sound devices they have been studying. | 9-12 | 2/12/09 |
Polishing Preposition Skills through Poetry and Publication |
Middle grade students deepen and refine their understanding of prepositions through the authentic model of the literature of Ruth Heller. Students publish a poem using the Multigenre Mapper and refine their understanding of more sophisticated preposition use through a Flip Book project. | 6-8 | 12/3/07 |
Postmodern Picture Books in the Middle School |
Students analyze the structure of a postmodern picture book to uncover how authors form relationships between words and illustrations. An online teacher resource explains the intent of the picture book Black and White and provides background information and suggestions for classroom discussion. | 6-8 | 2/6/09 |
Pourquoi Stories: Creating Tales to Tell Why |
After listening to, reading, and discussing pourquoi stories, which are stories that explain how or why something in nature is the way it is, students work in cooperative groups to create their own stories and then present them to the class. | 3-5 | 4/14/09 |
Predicting and Gathering Information With Nonfiction Texts |
The purpose of this lesson is to introduce second-grade students to nonfiction with an African Savanna theme. The lesson focuses on the purposes of nonfiction texts and how to use them to gather information. | K-2 | 4/14/09 |
Press Conference for Bud, Not Buddy |
This lesson is designed for middle school students reading Bud, Not Buddy, by Christopher Paul Curtis. The lesson encourages students to use higher-level thinking and discussion skills, as well as to take on the perspectives of different characters. The activities are interactive, and focus on comprehension skills. | 6-8 | 9/14/07 |
Promoting Cultural Values Through Alphabet Books |
Students embark on a cultural research project by first reading a variety of alphabet books about world cultures. Groups then self-select a culture and conduct research into the history and symbols of that culture. As a final project, students construct their own cultural alphabet books and share them with an audience. | 3-5 | 8/14/08 |
Prompting Revision through Modeling and Written Conversations |
Students create a checklist outlining what effective writers do after watching online videos of authors Kate DiCamillo and Debra Frasier revise their own work. The teacher then models how to revise his or her own writing using this checklist, and the students read their peers’ work and engage in a written conversation to help one another with the revision process. | 3-5 | 9/29/09 |
Protecting Our Precious Planet: Sharing the Message of Earth Day |
Show students how their ideas can make a difference by having them participate in the Earth Day Groceries Project. Students design grocery bags with environmental messages to distribute in local supermarkets. After completing the project, students can share their work online. | K-2 | 5/1/09 |
Put That on the List: Collaboratively Writing a Catalog Poem |
The list or catalog poem is the quintessential contemporary poem, used by authors ranging from Walt Whitman to Raymond Carver. Using the structure of the list, students combine creative expression with poetic techniques and language exploration in order to write group poems about what really matters in their lives. | 9-12 | 9/30/08 |
Put That on the List: Independently Writing a Catalog Poem |
In this follow-up to writing collaborative catalog poems, students write individual catalog poems about what really matters in their lives, based on Carver’s poem “The Car.” | 9-12 | 4/14/09 |
Q is for Duck: Using Alphabet Books With Struggling Writers |
Think alphabet books are just for kindergarten? Think again! In this lesson, students examine a variety of alphabet books, some with rather complex structures, and are guided through a structured writing lesson using the book Q is for Duck: An Alphabet Guessing Game by Mary Elting and Michael Folsom. | 3-5 | 2/12/09 |
QARs + Tables = Successful Comprehension of Math Word Problems |
In this lesson, students identify the question-answer relationship (QAR) for word problems that relate to a graphic or table. They then use the QAR strategy to determine the mathematical and cognitive actions required to answer the word problem. This activity is particularly appropriate for fourth- and fifth-grade students. | 3-5 | 12/15/06 |
Questioning: A Comprehension Strategy for Small-Group Guided Reading |
In this lesson, students observe the teacher modeling the process of questioning and using webs to organize information from reading. Students then experiment with writing thin (factual) and thick (inferential) questions while listening to read-alouds and when reading in small groups. Students further investigate questions at content-related websites. | 3-5 | 2/12/09 |
Reaching Across Time: Scaffolded Engagements With a 19th-Century Text |
This unit incorporates drama, art, and technology to scaffold students’ reading of Herman Melville’s “Bartleby the Scrivener: A Story of Wall Street.” | 9-12 | 9/29/09 |
Read a Song: Using Song Lyrics for Reading and Writing |
While exploring well-known songs, students learn that they consist of music and lyrics and make the connection between the words that are sung and the words that can be read. | K-2 | 10/14/09 |
Readers Theatre |
Readers Theatre gives students the opportunity to develop fluency and enhance comprehension through expressive readings of a text. Students become more enthusiastic in the classroom as they witness how texts can come alive through participatory readings. | 3-5 | 7/12/07 |
Readers Theatre With Jan Brett |
In this lesson, first- or second-grade students interact with the story Hedgie's Surprise by Jan Brett. They then participate in a Readers Theatre experience that develops oral fluency in English, reading comprehension, and a richer understanding of text structure and literary elements. | K-2 | 11/21/08 |
Reading and Analyzing Multigenre Texts |
In this lesson plan, students develop a definition of multigenre texts by exploring a multigenre picture book, short chapter books, and, if desired, multigenre novels. Students will brainstorm alone and together what they will need as readers to read and understand multigenre texts successfully. The students will share findings and discuss strategies needed to comprehend, and by extension to write, these texts. | 6-8 | 11/19/08 |
Reading and Writing About Pollution to Understand Cause and Effect |
This lesson uses a variety of reading and writing strategies and a hands-on experiment to help third-grade students learn that pollution in our oceans, lakes, rivers, and streams is a very serious problem. | 3-5 | 2/25/09 |
Reading and Writing About Whales Using Fiction and Nonfiction Texts |
This lesson uses fiction and nonfiction texts to teach first- and second-grade students about blue whales and the parts of a letter. Students learn how to formulate research questions and incorporate their questions in the form of a letter. They then send their letters to an online scientist. | K-2 | 7/18/07 |
Reading and Writing Workshop: Freak the Mighty |
This novel study of Freak the Mighty by Rodman Philbrick includes the modeling and practicing of specific reading comprehension strategies, vocabulary and word study, a figurative language activity, and a selection of final projects which can be used for assessment with the accompanying rubric. | 6-8 | 12/8/08 |
Reading Everywhere with Dr. Seuss |
Using Dr. Seuss's Green Eggs and Ham as a model, students create a book and a PowerPoint or HyperStudio slide show to help them see all the wonderful places they can read. Where do you like to read? By the pool? At school? In a car? Beneath a star? Here? There? Everywhere! | K-2 | 3/1/09 |
Reading Informational Texts Using the 3-2-1 Strategy |
This lesson teaches students in grades K–2 how to use the 3-2-1 strategy while reading magazine articles. The 3-2-1 strategy involves writing about three things they discovered, two things they found interesting, and one question they still have. | K-2 | 2/25/09 |
Reading, Writing, Haiku Hiking! A Class Book of Picturesque Poems |
Students make reading and writing connections as they record their observations of their environment, learn about haiku, and write original haiku poems. They work collaboratively to plan and publish a class book of their poetry and related factual notes. | 3-5 | 11/7/08 |
Recording Readers Theatre: Developing Comprehension and Fluency With Audio Texts |
Printed texts are not the only way to share classic literature with students; many websites now include free audio versions as well. What comprehension strategies can be used with audio texts? What makes them interesting? Students investigate these questions as they create Readers Theatre podcasts. | 9-12 | 1/27/09 |
Review Redux: Introducing Literary Criticism Through Reception Moments |
In this lesson, students analyze how societal issues and historic events affect reactions to literature. Students are introduced to literary criticism as one form of reaction and are asked to explore both contemporaneous and current reception of Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun. | 9-12 | 8/17/09 |
Robert Frost Prompts the Poet in You |
After an introduction to three Robert Frost poems, students co-create a poetry prompt. They then use the poetry prompt to write their own poems in the spirit of Frost's poetry. | 6-8 | 2/12/09 |
Rummaging for Fiction: Using Found Photographs and Notes to Spark Story Ideas |
“I don’t know what to write about!” is a complaint students commonly make when they are asked to write a creative piece. In this lesson, students use found notes and photographs as prompts to help them identify subjects, settings, characters, and conflicts for pieces of creative writing. | 9-12 | 3/6/09 |
Scaffolding Comprehension Strategies Using Graphic Organizers |
To facilitate comprehension during and after reading, students apply four reading strategies: preview, click and clunk, get the gist, and wrap-up. Graphic organizers are used for scaffolding of these strategies while students work together in cooperative groups. | 6-8 | 6/21/07 |
Scaffolding Methods for Research Paper Writing |
A research paper scaffold guides students through the process of writing a four- to five-page paper suitable for events such as science or social science fairs. Step-by-step procedures support students as they select a topic using an inquiry-based approach, examine informational text, and practice genre-specific strategies for expository writing. | 6-8 | 2/17/09 |
Scaling Back to Essentials: Scaffolding Summarization With Fishbone Mapping |
This lesson promotes comprehension of content area texts using a fishbone map graphic organizer for summarization. Through teacher modeling and guided practice, students identify main ideas by generalizing from repeated references. Students also make connections among ideas within the text and write summaries in their own words. | 6-8 | 4/14/09 |
Seeing Integration from Different Viewpoints |
In this Directed Reading–Thinking activity, students read about the first black child to attend an all-white school in New Orleans, Louisiana. Students then use a strategy that has them look at issues from a variety of perspectives to explore different ways of thinking about school integration. | 6-8 | 8/17/09 |
Semicolons and Swift: Analyzing Punctuation and Meaning |
Many students see punctuation as only a set of rules, not as a tool that can help them shape meaning in their writing. This lesson encourages students to analyze and use one type of punctuation—semicolons—as a way to enhance meaning. | 9-12 | 10/14/09 |
Sentence Quest: Using Parts of Speech to Write Descriptive Sentences |
Working with class-generated word lists categorized by parts of speech, students learn the criteria for a sentence by manipulating word cards, then collaborate to write and illustrate complete, descriptive sentences. Finally, students work in groups using descriptive words and phrases to try to create the longest sentence they can. | K-2 | 3/1/04 |
Sequencing: A Strategy to Succeed at Reading Comprehension |
Students will strengthen comprehension of the Paul Bunyan tall tale by creating a life-sized timeline. Focusing on the sequence of events in the story, students each write a complete sentence and draw a picture illustrating a certain event and then as a class put these events in sequential order. | 3-5 | 9/14/07 |
Shape Poems: Writing Extraordinary Poems About Ordinary Objects |
In this lesson, students learn the characteristics and format of shape poems and write their own shape poems using an online interactive activity. | 3-5 | 2/12/09 |
Shared Experiences, Individual Impressions: Buddies Create PowerPoint Stories |
This lesson combines the Language Experience Approach with digital features of PowerPoint software. Following a field trip or classroom experience, students respond individually with words and photos. They then create a collaborative timeline online before working with older buddies to organize photos and text into a story on the computer. | K-2 | 7/1/09 |
Shared Poetry Reading: Teaching Print Concepts, Rhyme, and Vocabulary |
This lesson encourages successful reading by introducing kindergarten students to concepts about print, vocabulary acquisition, and rhyme. Students actively engage in a nursery rhyme, pointing out examples of the concepts being taught and following along during several shared readings. | K-2 | 2/12/09 |
Shared Spelling Strategies |
Students increase their spelling accuracy (i.e., standard) and their retention by "constructing" spelling using sound, sight recall, and analyzing strategies, among others, instead of memorizing lists of words. The aim is to deal with spelling during drafting while preserving fluency. | 6-8 | 3/20/07 |
Sharing Favorite Books Using Interactive Character Trading Cards |
Sharing books with friends is a literate behavior we want to encourage. What better way is there to motivate students to make reading recommendations than by using interactive character trading cards? In this lesson, students make and use trading cards to recommend books and make book choices. | 3-5 | 2/25/09 |
She Did What? Revising for Connotation |
Did she walk, skip, amble, dance? In this mini-lesson, students examine the simple sentence "She walked into the room." Students act out ways that the student in the sentence might enter the room, revising the sample sentence to increase the specificity of the word and explore connotation. Students follow this demonstration by selecting words with powerful connotations for their own writing. | 6-8 | 4/14/09 |
Shhh! Bear's Sleeping: Learning About Nonfiction and Fiction Using Read-Alouds |
In this lesson, interactive read-alouds introduce students in grades K–2 to the concept of fiction and nonfiction using the hibernation of bears as a topic. A variety of books and poems engage students who actively participate through songs and finger play. Students then write a class book. | K-2 | 2/12/09 |
Skimming and Scanning: Using Riddles to Practice Fact Finding Online |
Skimming, scanning, and navigating websites are increasingly important media literacy skills. Introduce and demonstrate them using a think-aloud approach. Then ask students to practice using them by solving riddles. | 3-5 | 4/14/09 |
Slipping, Sliding, Tumbling: Reinforcing Cause and Effect Through Diamante Poems |
In this lesson, students practice identifying cause and effect, an important introduction to higher order thinking. Students begin by brainstorming cause and effect statements. They are then introduced to the diamante form of poetry and apply their knowledge by creating cause and effect diamante poems. | 6-8 | 2/25/09 |
Solving the Math Curse: Reading and Writing Math Word Problems |
This lesson integrates math word problems with paragraph writing using the book Math Curse. Students create math word problems, read their problems to the class, and listen to and solve their classmates’ math word problems. |
3-5 | 6/9/08 |
Sonic Patterns: Exploring Poetic Techniques Through Close Reading |
Students will gain a deeper appreciation for the art of poetry as they develop close reading skills connecting sound with sense in the frequently anthologized poem “Those Winter Sundays” and write an original text that reflects their new learning. | 9-12 | 2/27/09 |
Sort, Hunt, Write: A Weekly Spelling Program |
This set of lesson plans provides you with ways to make daily spelling instruction appropriate and engaging. Students will engage in a wide range of activities that will help them deepen their understanding of word patterns. | 3-5 | 9/13/07 |
Spelling Cheerleading: Integrating Movement and Spelling Generalizations |
This lesson teaches the y spelling rule for adding suffixes and reinforces the rule using a multi-sensory approach called "spelling cheerleading." Students learn kinesthetic movements based on the formations of letters and "cheer" the new words. | 3-5 | 7/23/07 |
Spelling in Parts: Learning to Spell, Write, and Read Polysyllabic Words |
Spelling in Parts (SIP) is a strategy that helps students learn to spell polysyllabic words from spelling and vocabulary lists or from environmental print. This lesson can be easily adapted for any grade level. | 3-5 | 3/28/08 |
Spelling Patterns “Go Fish” Card Game |
Students use sets of words that share a spelling pattern to create a card game similar to “Go Fish,” then play the game in small groups. These activities can help students improve their spelling skills by building awareness of some common yet challenging spelling patterns. | 6-8 | 2/26/09 |
STAR Search: How Do I Find the Book I Need? |
STAR Search provides a set of steps and thinking processes for intermediate students to use in finding a library resource relevant to a specific information need. Modeling and presenting the process will assist students in becoming confident, independent library users. | 3-5 | 7/15/04 |
Stop Signs, McDonald’s, and Cheerios: Writing With Environmental Print |
Purposeful instruction with high-profile text can serve as a springboard for literacy instruction. This lesson encourages early readers to look beyond the color and context clues of environmental print to identify individual letters, to read words, and to write them. | K-2 | 2/25/09 |
Story Elements Alive! |
The lesson introduces four story elements—setting, characters, problem/solution, and plot—to students via a purpose-driven read-aloud. The whole class identifies a story element in each book, and then students work independently on a story element activity. | 3-5 | 11/1/07 |
Storytelling in the Social Studies Classroom |
This lesson invites third- to fifth-grade students to explore their personal and cultural histories by becoming super storytellers! Students begin by telling personal stories about themselves and their families before moving on to stories about famous Americans. | 3-5 | 2/12/09 |
Strategic Reading and Writing: Summarizing Antislavery Biographies |
Students discuss the strategy of summarizing and why it is essential for making meaning from text. Using a graphic organizer and the Bio-Cube tool, they read and summarize short biographies about antislavery heroes and then present their heroes in mixed-ability jigsaw groups. | 3-5 | 10/14/09 |
Student Contracting |
This lesson will help your students become more engaged and motivated by developing learning contracts in the classroom. Reading and writing is the focus of the lesson; however, contracts can easily be incorporated into all subject areas for a variety of purposes. | 6-8 | 7/28/05 |
Student of the Day: Create Sound/Letter Understanding With Names |
This lesson uses students' names and other concrete words to teach the conventions and terminology of print. Kindergarten and first-grade students explore each other's names, making comparisons between initial sounds, ending sounds, syllabication, and letter shape. | K-2 | 3/21/07 |
Style: Defining and Exploring an Author’s Stylistic Choices |
Exploring the use of style in literature helps students understand how language conveys mood, images, and meaning. In this activity, students will find examples of specific stylistic devices in sample literary passages then search for additional examples and explore the reasons for the stylistic choices that the author has made. | 9-12 | 8/17/09 |
Style: Translating Stylistic Choices from Hawthorne to Hemingway and Back Again |
In this activity, students work in small groups to explore the stylistic choices an author makes by translating passages of one author into the style of another, then translating fables into the style of one of the authors they have been reading. | 9-12 | 9/16/09 |
Swish! Pow! Whack! Teaching Onomatopoeia Through Sports Poetry |
In this lesson, students will learn about onomatopoeia using the sounds associated with sports. They will read and listen to sports poems, then create their own onomatopoeic sports poems, add illustrations, and compile their work in a flip book. Finally, students will share their flip books with their classmates. | 6-8 | 3/9/09 |
Taking Photos of Curious George: Exploring Character Through Images |
In this lesson for first- through third-grade students, a read-aloud and a graphic organizer help students to explore Curious George’s character. After exploring other books about the funny monkey, they imagine what would happen if George visited their school before creating a digital storybook of his adventures. | K-2 | 2/25/09 |
Talking About Books to Improve Comprehension |
Conversation fosters the acquisition of comprehension from text. In this lesson, students in grades 3–5 learn to develop an idea from text and then deepen their understanding of the text though conversation. Students also learn how to stay on topic and keep a conversation going. | 3-5 | 2/12/09 |
Teaching About Story Structure Using Fairy Tales |
This lesson for second-grade and late first-grade students uses familiar fairy tales and nursery rhymes to teach about story structure. These stories ultimately serve as inspiration for student writing, which is scaffolded through three levels: shared writing, guided writing, and independent writing. | K-2 | 2/12/09 |
Teaching Audience Through Interactive Writing |
This lesson teaches first-grade students how to think about audience when writing. By interacting with one another during the writing process, students create invitations for a genuine purpose. | K-2 | 8/2/07 |
Teaching Language Skills Using the Phone Book |
What literacy skills are needed to use a phone book? Through multiple activities built around an everyday text, students will not only learn how the book is arranged, but what the contents are and also how it is used. In the process, students will be using their research and organizational skills to build their own class phone book. | 3-5 | 6/28/04 |
Teaching Plot Structure through Short Stories |
Beginning with a fairy tale that many students are familiar with, this lesson asks students to analyze the plot structure of “Jack and the Beanstalk.” Students then read short stories as a whole class, in small groups, and, finally, individually, analyzing the plot of three different short stories using an online graphic organizer to diagram the structures. | 9-12 | 12/8/08 |
Teaching Point of View With Two Bad Ants |
In this lesson, students use clues from the illustrations and the text of Two Bad Ants by Chris Van Allsburg to compare the point of view of an ant with that of a person. | 3-5 | 2/12/09 |
Teaching Science Through Picture Books: A Rainforest Lesson |
A study of the tropical rainforest is introduced through the picture book Welcome to the Green House by Jane Yolen. This science lesson, which incorporates reading, writing, and technology, is a template that can be used with other books by Jane Yolen to teach about the desert, the polar ice cap, and the Everglades. | 3-5 | 11/18/08 |
Teaching Shapes Using Read-Alouds, Visualization, and Sketch to Stretch |
This lesson helps students learn about the math concepts of shape and pattern using a combination of strategies including interactive read-alouds of books centered on a winter theme, visualization, and sketch to stretch. | K-2 | 2/12/09 |
Teaching Short-Vowel Discrimination Using Dr. Seuss Rhymes |
Students develop phonemic and phonetic awareness through word study of common short-vowel word families. Students will use Dr. Seuss rhymes to discover and explore the sounds and spellings of different short vowel word families. | K-2 | 12/16/08 |
Teaching Student Annotation: Constructing Meaning Through Connections |
Believing that the meaning of text lies in the teacher's notes, not within themselves, students often fail to realize that their experiences and understandings are just as important in constructing meaning. Through annotations, students begin to find ways to make personal connections with text and grow in confidence as they work with text. | 9-12 | 3/19/09 |
Teaching the Compare and Contrast Essay through Modeling |
This lesson uses brainstorming and modeling to encourage young writers to create their own texts. The teacher demonstrates the process of writing a comparison and contrast paper for the class, inviting them to collaborate in the process. Students continue the process of writing the essay on their own. | 3-5 | 6/20/07 |
Tell and Show: Writing With Words and Video |
Written text can enhance—and be enhanced—by adding visuals such as video footage. In this lesson students explore how written and spoken narration enhances video footage, ultimately writing an essay that becomes a series of captions for a teacher-created video. | 6-8 | 12/11/07 |
Telling a Story About Me: Young Children Write Autobiographies |
Drawing inspiration from personal photographs, students write and publish autobiographies to share with the class and their families. First and second graders practice sentence composition, writing, and group work. | K-2 | 2/12/09 |
Tenement Life: Mapping Texts and Making Models |
Students explore conditions of tenement living in the United States in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Learning about reformers of the time, students study features of informational text to improve comprehension. After visiting additional websites and writing in journals, students work together to construct tenement apartment models. |
6-8 | 9/14/07 |
Text Talk: Julius, the Baby of the World |
This lesson helps young readers interact with and interpret text using Julius, the Baby of the World by Kevin Henkes. The text talk strategy provides students with open-ended questions, which allow them to interpret the language, plot, and characters of the story. | K-2 | 6/25/07 |
Texting a Response to Lord of the Flies |
After reading Lord of the Flies, students use text messages to create a summary of the book by choosing various scenes within the novel that prompt them to write a text message from one of the characters to an imagined audience off the island. | 6-8 | 7/27/09 |
Textmasters: Shaking Up Textbook Reading in Science Classrooms |
Students will become masters at comprehending content area texts with this spin on literature circles. The Textmasters strategy invites students to adopt roles that promote collaborative learning. | 6-8 | 10/7/09 |
The Big Green Monster Teaches Phonics in Reading and Writing |
This lesson incorporates a shared and paired reading of the story Go Away, Big Green Monster! by Ed Emberley to build reading fluency and word recognition skills. Students also examine onset/rime patterns by generating word families, review high-frequency vocabulary through a memory card game, and apply phonics skills during a writing activity. | K-2 | 4/25/08 |
The Big, Bad Wolf...Is This a Fact? |
This lesson uses nonfiction trade books to increase comprehension, vocabulary, and research skills, and boost students willingness to read. Activities include sustained silent reading (SSR), book discussions, teacher modeling, journal responses, research, and use of multimedia software to create presentations. | 6-8 | 6/25/07 |
The Comic Book Show and Tell |
Students learn about the people involved in making comic books and learn how central the script is to the process. They craft comic book scripts using clear, accurate, descriptive, and detailed writing that shows (illustrates) and tells (directs). After peers create an artistic interpretation of the script, students revise their original scripts. | 9-12 | 1/26/06 |
The Correspondence Project: A Lesson of Letters |
After exploring business and friendly letter formats, students write letters for various audiences and real-world purposes. | 9-12 | 7/20/07 |
The Day Jimmy’s Boa Taught Cause and Effect |
Students can often better understand cause and effect if they look at the effect first and then ask, “What caused this?” Trinka Hakes Noble’s books about Jimmy and his boa constrictor are a wonderful way to introduce the concept of cause and effect since the stories are often told in reverse order. | K-2 | 7/15/08 |
The Feature Story—Fifteen Minutes (and 500 Words) of Fame! |
To build connections and community within the classroom, students need to share and celebrate their unique interests and talents. This activity combines interviewing techniques and journalistic writing as it challenges students to write feature stories about their classmates. | 9-12 | 2/14/08 |
The Frog Beyond the Fairy Tale Character: Searching Informational Texts |
Students consider their prior knowledge about frogs by predicting whether eight statements are true or false. Students verify their predictions through the guided use of the website The Somewhat Amusing World of Frogs. This lesson is best used for grades 1 and 2 and can be connected to the study of amphibians or to the reading of Arnold Lobel's Frog and Toad series. |
K-2 | 6/25/07 |
The Importance of Titles: From Big Blank Space to Small Good Thing |
Just as characters’ names reveal much about their identities, so too do titles give us clues to a story’s “identity.” This lesson, focusing on two sets of stories “renamed” by Raymond Carver, allows students to develop an appreciation of the importance of titles. | 9-12 | 5/9/08 |
The Magnetism of Language: Parts of Speech, Poetry, and Word Play |
This lesson integrates the study of grammar with critical-thinking skills and creative writing. Students review parts of speech, looking particularly at their function in poetry. They then identify parts of speech in a nonsensical poem before making magnetic poetry kits and writing their own poems. The lesson can also be used with some high school students. | 6-8 | 4/14/08 |
The Mysteries of Memory: Memorization Techniques That Work |
Memory skills can by improved through techniques that help to integrate new information into long-term memory. Students learn about how memory works and then practice memory strategies involving visualization and making associations, applying these strategies to reading comprehension and memorization tasks. | 6-8 | 3/15/07 |
The Pros and Cons of Discussion |
Use Discussion Webs to actively engage all of your students and require them to compare both sides of an issue in order to form a conclusion. You will find that student-led discussions lead to more participation, more student talk, and higher-level questions than those that you direct. | 9-12 | 2/12/09 |
The Reading Performance: Understanding Fluency Through Oral Interpretation |
This lesson presents an adaptation of the oral recitation lesson: students talk in explicit terms about prosody and gain a new appreciation for written literature intended for oral performance. Technology activities are integrated to instill the value of technology in shaping students' life-long appreciation of literature. | 6-8 | 7/27/05 |
The Solution Square: Strategies for Conflict Resolution |
This lesson uses literature as a springboard for conversation about friendship and conflict resolution. Students reflect on the strategies that good friends use to resolve conflict and role-play strategies for problem solving. | 3-5 | 1/29/08 |
The Ten-Minute Play: Encouraging Original Response to Challenging Texts |
In this lesson, students use both analytical and creative skills to create a ten-minute dramatic adaptation of a section of a complex novel such as Toni Morrison's Beloved. Students participate in peer critiques of the plays, allowing more opportunities for reflection and exploration of the text. | 9-12 | 3/8/09 |
The Two Voices of the ow Spelling Pattern |
As part of a Directed Spelling Thinking Activity (DSTA), students investigate the many sounds a single vowel can represent. In this lesson, students who have previously learned about short and long /o/ sounds will now learn that the spelling pattern ow has two different sounds, as in the words wow and low. | 3-5 | 11/15/07 |
The Wonder of Leo Lionni: Increasing Comprehension with Prediction Statements |
Creating a sense of wonder when reading can help students build their comprehension and relate texts to their own experiences. In this lesson, students read books by author Leo Lionni books and compose “I wonder” statements to help increase their understanding of the story. | K-2 | 1/31/08 |
This is My Story: Encouraging Students to Use a Unique Voice |
Voice is what gives personality to a piece of writing, but it can be difficult to write in a voice that is distinctive. This lesson encourages students to recognize and use their own unique voices by studying the work of other writers before writing on their own. | 3-5 | 2/25/09 |
Thoughtful Threads: Sparking Rich Online Discussions |
This lesson, which is also appropriate for fifth-grade students, guides teachers and students through the process of engaging in online literature circles. The focus of the lesson is to increase the quality of students' discussions by promoting effective student-created discussion prompts, thoughtful replies by group members, and the use of self-assessment and reflection. | 6-8 | 5/13/09 |
Thoughtshots Can Bring Your Characters to Life! |
Flashbacks, flash-aheads, and internal dialogue help writers create realistic characters that hold readers' interests. Students learn to recognize these techniques, called thoughtshots, and practice using them in their own writing to create characters with more depth. |
3-5 | 6/26/08 |
Thrills and Chills! Using Scary Stories to Motivate Students to Read |
Use the popular Goosebumps series by R.L. Stine, or any popular scary story, to motivate even the most reluctant readers to read for enjoyment, explore story elements, and create scary stories. | 6-8 | 2/12/09 |
Thundering Tall Tales: Using Read-Aloud as a Springboard to Writing |
This lesson uses the Coretta Scott King Award book Thunder Rose to reinforce the common elements, or text structure, of tall tales. Reading this literature selection aloud supports students as they produce original tall tales for a culminating activity. | 3-5 | 9/14/07 |
Timelines and Texts: Motivating Students to Read Nonfiction |
Using an historical timeline and their prior knowledge of events, students predict when specific inventions were produced. After sharing their predictions in pairs/trios, they revise their timelines for accuracy, using Web resources. Through discussion, they consider the connections between historical events and when inventions were created. | 6-8 | 9/14/07 |
To, Too, or Two: Developing an Understanding of Homophones |
This lesson uses acting and music to reinforce the meanings and spellings of common homophones. Students listen to a song designed to help them remember the spellings and meanings of many homophones. They then work in small groups to write and create short skits depicting homophones, while their peers determine the correct spellings for the homophones. These skits are later made into comic strips. | 3-5 | 4/21/08 |
Traveling Terrain: Comprehending Nonfiction Text on the Web |
This lesson provides strategic teaching lessons to students for comprehending nonfiction text found in website format. Strategies include locating specific information, identifying text features of nonfiction text, and generalizing information read to related topics. The lesson centers on a science-oriented website, but can be adapted to other content area websites. | 3-5 | 11/16/06 |
Traveling the Road to Freedom Through Research and Historical Fiction |
In this lesson, students read Nightjohn by Gary Paulsen and True North by Kathryn Lasky to gain an understanding of slavery and the Underground Railroad. They also participate in a WebQuest to explore various historical perspectives and develop a character for their own piece of historical fiction. | 6-8 | 2/12/09 |
Two Thumbs Up! Get Students Writing and Publishing Book Reviews |
In this lesson, students learn the components of a book review and how to write one. To spark excitement and provide a purpose for writing, students publish their reviews either through video recording or on the Internet. | K-2 | 10/20/09 |
Unwinding A Circular Plot: Prediction Strategies in Reading and Writing |
This lesson, using circular stories, invites students to use a graphic organizer to explore the plot of the stories while focusing on prediction and sequencing skills. After exploring the features of circular plot stories, students write their own stories individually or in small groups. | 3-5 | 3/20/07 |
Using a Word Journal to Create a Personal Dictionary |
Students keep track of unfamiliar words they encounter while reading various texts. Using a word journal notebook, students explore the perceived meaning and the standard dictionary meaning of these words. Students then create a personal dictionary in PowerPoint® using the words recorded in their word journal notebook. | 6-8 | 6/25/07 |
Using Children’s Literature to Develop Classroom Community |
These lessons use children's literature to develop and strengthen community in the classroom. The lessons allow students to appreciate their individual strengths and abilities, while simultaneously developing skills for cooperative learning. | 6-8 | 4/25/08 |
Using Children’s Natural Curiosity to Lead to Descriptive Writing |
Inspired by the book It Starts with an A, kindergarten students are invited to turn their curiosity and guesswork into a class book, complete with illustrated objects and descriptive language. Students can share this book with family members and peers before adding it to their classroom library. | K-2 | 12/4/05 |
Using Folk Tales: Vowel Influences on the Letter G |
Using the folk tale genre, students are introduced to the irregular spelling pattern of hard and soft g at the beginning of words. Students use the Internet to find and categorize animal names that begin with the letter g, and they also read a story about a giant. | K-2 | 12/16/08 |
Using Greeting Cards to Motivate Students and Enhance Literacy Skills |
Motivate your students to read and write through a study of greeting cards! Greeting cards can be used to enhance your literacy instruction in reading, writing, speaking, visual arts, and listening. Students explore greeting cards and identify crafting techniques authors use when creating greeting cards. | K-2 | 4/26/07 |
Using Personal Connections to Build an Understanding of Emotions |
In this lesson, students concretely define the abstract concept of emotions by using their own facial expressions as models, creating happy and sad masks, and discussing their personal experiences. The lesson is appropriate for prekindergarten through first-grade students. | K-2 | 9/14/07 |
Using Pictures to Build Schema for Social Studies Content |
Student groups analyze images of the Boston Massacre. They study Paul Revere’s engraving of the massacre and compare it to the other images. This activity leads to a discussion on propaganda. Students demonstrate understanding of the Boston Massacre and propaganda through poetry writing, artwork, expository writing, and oral presentations. | 3-5 | 6/26/07 |
Using QARs to Develop Comprehension and Reflective Reading Habits |
Using whole-class, small-group, and individual instruction, this lesson shows students how to ask and answer different levels of questions in an effort to enhance reading comprehension. Students use the question-answer relationship (QAR) strategy to become more aware of their own internal reading processes. | 6-8 | 3/8/06 |
Using Repetition and Picture Cues to Foster Independent Young Readers |
This lesson invites kindergartners to share their knowledge of letters and sounds in a large group setting and gives teachers an opportunity to assess student’s knowledge in this area. Each student contributes a page to make a classroom book that is repetitive in nature. | K-2 | 9/11/03 |
Using Science Texts to Teach the Organizational Features of Nonfiction |
Throughout this lesson, students examine several nonfiction science texts and generate a list of organizational features that are used. Students then collaborate to create a two-page spread using the organizational features they have been studying to present information on a science topic. | 3-5 | 2/12/09 |
Using Songwriting to Build Awareness of Beginning Letter Sounds |
This musical lesson, focusing on beginning letter sounds, is an engaging way for students to practice using selected letters by creating verses to a song. Students think creatively to develop and sing song verses and then illustrate the verses to be included in a class songbook. | K-2 | 12/16/08 |
Using Student-Centered Comprehension Strategies with Elie Wiesel’s Night |
Working in small groups, students use reciprocal teaching strategies as they read and discuss Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel’s memoir Night. Everyone in the classroom takes turns assuming the “teacher” role, as the class works with four comprehension strategies: predicting, question generating, summarizing, and clarifying. | 9-12 | 1/31/07 |
Using the Check and Line Method to Enhance Reading Comprehension |
Although basal textbooks are often considered a teaching faux pas, they are in fact still purchased and issued to students to supplement lesson materials as well as to reinforce mandated curriculum guidelines. This lesson is intended to assist students in retaining valuable information and grasping difficult concepts addressed in texts. | 6-8 | 7/12/07 |
Using the Four-Square Strategy to Define and Identify Poetic Terms |
Through online research and follow-up discussion, students define four poetic terms using a four-square graphic organizer. They then locate and record examples of each term and apply their knowledge as they explore the poem "The Esquimos Have No Word for 'War'" by Mary Oliver. | 6-8 | 8/2/07 |
Using the Internet to Facilitate Improved Reading Comprehension |
This lesson introduces students to Really Simple Syndication (or RSS) feeds and guides them in developing inferential language skills that foster better reading comprehension. | 3-5 | 8/17/09 |
Using the Prediction Strategy to Set Purposes for Reading |
The prediction strategy is modeled, practiced, and used independently as students read a trade book. Response journal forms are used by the students to record questions and responses based on predictions made by students before reading. | 3-5 | 7/12/07 |
Using THIEVES to Preview Nonfiction Texts |
Students are taught how to "steal" information by critically previewing textbooks and other nonfiction texts. This strategy helps students better understand what they read by surveying specific elements identified by the acronym THIEVES: title, headings, introduction, every first sentence in a paragraph, visuals and vocabulary, end-of-chapter questions, and summary. | 6-8 | 6/25/07 |
Using Timeline Games and Mexican History to Improve Comprehension |
This lesson has students participate in a shared reading and conduct online research to gain an understanding of Mexican history. Students choose events, take notes on them, think about how to order them, and create a timeline. They then play a game to learn from each other's timelines. | 3-5 | 2/12/09 |
Using Web-Based Bookmarks to Conduct Internet Research |
In this lesson, students participate in a read-aloud, and then use the format of the text to write poems about themselves. They then conduct Internet research using Web-based bookmarks and write a poem about a content area topic (in this case, butterflies). The lesson is designed for grades 2 and 3. | K-2 | 2/12/09 |
Using Word Storms to Explore Vocabulary and Encourage Critical Thinking |
Using an inquiry model called POWER, this lesson has students learn new vocabulary related to a social issue, explore these vocabulary words in discussions and journals, and create projects that use the vocabulary to reflect their critical perspectives. It can be applied to different content areas. | 3-5 | 2/12/09 |
Using Word Webs to Teach Synonyms for Commonly Used Words |
This lesson uses word webs to introduce synonyms for commonly used words such as good, bad, and nice, and to help students adjust their word usage for different contexts. The lesson was designed for second language learners but can be used with all students, even high school. | 6-8 | 5/14/08 |
Using Writing and Role-Play to Engage the Reluctant Writer |
In this lesson, students use dramatic role-play to further engage their literacy skills. By exploring the characters in a story and writing in role, students use creative means to support their learning and understanding of the writing process. | 3-5 | 7/19/07 |
Viewing Vocabulary: Building Word Knowledge Through Informational Websites |
This lesson encourages students to thoughtfully read a text to identify important words, discuss those words with peers, summarize the text, respond in a variety of ways, and read related texts to identify how those words are used in other contexts. | 6-8 | 2/14/08 |
Viking Voyagers: Navigating Online Content Area Reading |
This lesson supports middle school students' understanding of content area reading. Students access prior knowledge about Vikings, practice research and scanning skills, and investigate Viking culture on the Internet using graphic organizers to support their comprehension. Follow up includes a fun assessment tool called the Viking Quest. | 6-8 | 2/12/09 |
Vocabulary With Franklin: Helping Students Become Word Wizards |
In this lesson, first- and second-grade students learn new vocabulary words, their definitions, and how to spell them. Starting with a read-aloud of Franklin in the Dark by Paulette Bourgeois, students then participate in a wide range of activities from using an online Word Wizard game to performing a script. | K-2 | 7/16/07 |
Vote for Me! Developing, Writing, and Evaluating Persuasive Speeches |
Effective persuasive speeches require the logical formulation of solid arguments that are backed by examples. They also need good delivery. This lesson encourages fourth- and fifth-grade students to think critically and write persuasively by focusing on preparing, giving, and evaluating mock campaign speeches. | 3-5 | 2/12/09 |
Wading Through the Web: Teaching Internet Research Strategies |
In this lesson, students view an interactive PowerPoint presentation that guides them through the process of research on the Internet. Students then discuss the various types of search engines, how to search for information on the Internet, and how to cite Internet sources. | 6-8 | 1/23/08 |
Walt Whitman as a Model Poet: “I Hear My School Singing” |
Whitman’s “I Hear America Singing” lists participants in the American experience of his day. Students will first analyze the poem then determine participants in their personal educational experience and use Whitman’s poem as a model as they create their own list poems. In reflection, they will identify the people omitted from their poems. | 9-12 | 8/9/06 |
Wartime Poetry: Working With Similes |
Using photographs, first-hand accounts, drama, and peer-editing, students write poems about the feelings of children evacuated during World War II. Students are introduced to the term simile and make comparisons to develop strong imagery in their poetry. This lesson can be adapted to suit any time period or topic. | 3-5 | 8/2/07 |
Weekend News! A Weekly Writing Activity |
The Weekend News writing activity gives students the opportunity to recall and write about personal events on a weekly basis. The writing is done in an encouraging environment, which helps students develop writing fluency and apply what they know about the writing process, spelling, and language conventions. Students also create criteria to self-assess their writing. | K-2 | 11/21/08 |
Weekly Writer’s Blogs: Building a Reflective Community of Support |
In this digital rethinking of the traditional weekly writer’s logs, students analyze example writer’s blog entries then begin the habit of writing their own reflective weekly entries, which focus on the writing that they have done over the past seven days. | 9-12 | 3/6/09 |
What Are My Rights? Exploring and Writing About the Constitution |
Engage your students in a study of the First Amendment by exploring issues that directly affect their lives. Using youth curfews as an example, students research a case study, debate the issue, hypothesize if their city or town could pass a youth curfew, and create a blog highlighting their conclusions. | 9-12 | 11/19/08 |
What Did They Say? Dialect in The Color Purple |
Books written in dialect can sometimes be difficult for students to read. This lesson helps students overcome barriers to understanding by discussing how dialects are formed and why they vary, and exploring what dialect reveals about the characters in Alice Walker's The Color Purple. | 9-12 | 2/12/09 |
What’s in a Name? Teaching Concepts of Letter and Word |
The purpose of this lesson is to help kindergarten children understand the concepts of letter and word by using their names as a starting point. Ideas will also be given to help assess student progress in becoming readers and writers. What can you do with names? Just see! | K-2 | 12/4/05 |
What's in a Mystery? Exploring and Identifying Mystery Elements |
In this lesson, students read Nate the Great or a similar mystery and use it to help them identify the elements of mysteries. They then complete a mystery graphic organizer and write their own mystery stories. | 3-5 | 2/12/09 |
What’s My Subject? A Subject–Verb Agreement Minilesson |
In this minilesson, high school students explore and discover the importance of subject–verb agreement rules. They identify both correct and incorrect agreements and discuss the difference between formal and informal language using newspapers and song lyrics and by creating their own quizzes to share with their peers. | 9-12 | 2/25/09 |
What’s the Difference? Beginning Writers Compare E-mail with Letter Writing |
E-mail is increasingly popular among beginning writers who find electronic communication highly engaging. Educators also consider e-mail a powerful medium for literacy learning, but e-mail style and conventions differ from traditional writing. Students explore the differences between e-mail and letter writing and experiment with their own messages. | K-2 | 11/6/06 |
When I Was Young In...A Literature to Language Experience |
This lesson, which can be used with English-language learners (ELLs) and is also appropriate for students in third through fifth grades, provides practice with cultural sharing and using the past tense correctly in English. After reading When I Was Young in the Mountains by Cynthia Rylant, students write and share memories of their own communities. | 6-8 | 2/12/09 |
Whole-to-Parts Phonics Instruction: Teaching Letter-Sound Correspondences |
In this lesson, students are exposed to whole-to-parts phonics instruction. After a story has been read to, with, and by children, the teacher assists them in analyzing spoken words by focusing on onset and rime. Students use onset-rime analogies to identify words that belong to the same word family. | K-2 | 12/18/08 |
Whose Shoes? Using Artifacts to Teach Reading and Rhyming Patterns |
In this lesson first- and second-grade students analyze an artifact and read books about it. They learn to recognize the importance of simple items and further develop their rhyming skills using a poetic book. | K-2 | 2/25/09 |
Word Maps: Developing Critical and Analytical Thinking About Literary Characters |
Characters come to life when we read. With the help of word maps, students can better understand and analyze the problems, actions, and feelings of the characters in a story and make connections to their own lives. | 9-12 | 2/12/09 |
Word Recognition Strategies Using Nursery Rhymes |
This lesson uses familiar nursery rhymes to draw attention to words that end with the same letters. Kindergarten and first-grade students are encouraged to create word family lists and compare them to words in different word families. | K-2 | 12/18/08 |
Word Sorts for Beginning and Struggling Readers |
This lesson uses a hands-on word sort to introduce beginning and struggling readers to short-vowel word families. In addition to learning onset and rime, students practice fluent reading and spelling of the words. | K-2 | 2/12/09 |
Word Study With Henry and Mudge |
This lesson for second- and third-grade students uses a model that incorporates different reading stages and research-based strategies for teaching reading to provide direct instruction for the past tense marker –ed. Students also practice real reading and writing using books from the Henry and Mudge series. | K-2 | 2/12/09 |
Word Wizards: Students Making Words |
This lesson is based on an instructional strategy developed by Patricia Cunningham called "Making Words." Students in first and second grade manipulate a set of letters to construct words dictated by the teacher. Students then apply the strategy using an online, interactive game. | K-2 | 7/10/07 |
Write Right Back: Recognizing Readers’ Needs and Expectations for E-mail Replies |
Beginning writers find electronic communication highly engaging, and educators recognize the power of e-mail as a tool for literacy learning. E-mail is well-suited to teaching audience awareness—understanding what readers need to know to make sense of a reply message and using the reply function as a way to contextualize replies. | K-2 | 1/12/07 |
Write-Talks: Students Discovering Real Writers, Real Audiences, Real Purposes |
This lesson introduces students to a wide world of writing by inviting people into the classroom to talk about what, why, and how they write in their day-to-day lives. Students then reflect on how these varying purposes and processes can apply to their own lives. | 3-5 | 3/17/08 |
Writers’ Workshop: The Biographical Sketch |
This lesson, which is targeted specifically to fourth grade, gives students the opportunity to practice writing short biographical sketches in a workshop setting. The classroom exercises help students develop critical writing skills and complement their content area learning. | 3-5 | 2/25/09 |
Writing Alternative Plots for Robert C. O’Brien’s Z for Zachariah |
The science fiction novel, Z for Zachariah, by Robert C. O’Brien is full of moral dilemmas. As a culminating activity for this novel, students write alternative endings for the novel based around the important decisions made by Ann Burden, the main character. | 6-8 | 1/26/09 |
Writing Free Verse in the “Voice” of Cesar Chavez |
After reading a story about an event in the life of Mexican-American labor activist Cesar Chavez, students write free verse poems in Chavez's "voice" based on the event. | 6-8 | 2/12/09 |
Writing Poetry with Rebus and Rhyme |
This lesson encourages young students to use their developing knowledge of rhyming words to write rebus poetry modeled on rebus books, which substitute pictures for the harder words that young students cannot yet identify or decode. | K-2 | 5/9/06 |
You Can't Spell the Word Prefix Without a Prefix |
Spelling is a form of word study or etymology. Through organized interaction, students explore the role of prefixes, as well as their origins and meanings, and examine how the understanding of prefixes can improve comprehension, decoding, and spelling. | 6-8 | 2/12/09 |
You’re the Top! Pop Culture Then and Now |
This lesson uses Cole Porter’s "You're the Top!" to explore pop culture of the past and present and to practice the stylistic writing technique of cataloguing. If desired, students have the opportunity to extend the lesson into a research project. | 9-12 | 3/7/06 |
Zines for Kids: Multigenre Texts About Media Icons |
Using ReadWriteThink.org online tools, students write short pieces in a variety of genres about a favorite media icon. After working with each tool, students print out their work and assemble the documents into their own zines. | 3-5 | 2/25/09 |
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