Fact or Fiction: Learning About Worms Using Diary of a Worm

Students often believe that fiction writers make everything up, seldom realizing how research worms its way into entertaining writing. In this lesson, students read Diary of a Worm to find out how fact merges with fiction.

The Frog Beyond the Fairy Tale Character: Searching Informational Texts

Frogs often appear as the main character in fiction stories, but what do students really know about frogs? Students find out in this lesson in which they research real-life frogs.

Writing Poetry with Rebus and Rhyme

This lesson encourages students to use rhyming words to write rebus poetry modeled on rebus books, which substitute pictures for the words that young students cannot yet identify or decode.

Choosing One Word: Summarizing Shel Silverstein's "Sick"

Students select what they believe to be the most important word in a text that they have read and justify their choice using examples from the text.