Students examine story elements through teacher read-alouds and independent reading and then use reader-response journals and graphic organizers to prepare for the creation of their own scary stories.
Thrills! Chills! Using Scary Stories to Motivate Students to Read
Grades
|
Reciprocal Revision: Making Peer Feedback Meaningful
6 - 8
Lesson Plan
| Standard Lesson
Interpreting art is a subjective process. In this lesson, students write written responses analyzing a work of art and use feedback from their peers to revise or confirm their initial responses.
Grades
|
Junie B. Jones Introduces Literacy Mystery Boxes
K - 2
Lesson Plan
| Unit
Like Junie B. Jones, students will be saying "Wait till you hear this" after listening to a Junie B. story and creating mystery boxes to help retell the story.
Grades
|
You Can't Spell the Word Prefix Without a Prefix
6 - 8
Lesson Plan
| Standard Lesson
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.
Grades
|
Using Personal Connections to Build an Understanding of Emotions
K - 2
Lesson Plan
| Standard Lesson
What makes you happy? What makes you sad? Connecting words to feelings enriches vocabulary and helps with concept development.
Grades
|
Timelines and Texts: Motivating Students to Read Nonfiction
6 - 8
Lesson Plan
| Standard Lesson
In an effort to help motivate students to read nonfiction, students are challenged to use a timeline to help them name the year when certain products were invented.
Grades
|
Predicting and Gathering Information With Nonfiction Texts
K - 2
Lesson Plan
| Unit
Students take a walk on the wild side when they develop an understanding of nonfiction texts with hands-on experiences and intense analysis.
Grades
|
Writing Workshop: Helping Writers Choose and Focus on a Topic
K - 2
Lesson Plan
| Standard Lesson
Students engage in writing workshop, using a timeline to focus in on and write about a specific event.
Grades
|
Exploring the Subtext Strategy: Thinking Beyond the Text
2 - 4
Lesson Plan
| Standard Lesson
What is it like to have a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day? Students find out in this lesson in which they "become" the characters in Judith Viorst's book.
Grades
|
Internalization of Vocabulary Through the Use of a Word Map
6 - 8
Lesson Plan
| Standard Lesson
Students practice with words and develop both definitional and contextual knowledge through two agents—purposeful sequencing of steps and collaboration with peers.
Grades
|
Phonics In Context
K - 2
Lesson Plan
| Minilesson
Use an engaging, authentic text to build students' knowledge of phonic elements and give them a taste of Japanese culture.
Grades
|
Press Conference for Bud, Not Buddy
6 - 8
Lesson Plan
| Standard Lesson
Students read Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis, demonstrate comprehension of the story by involving themselves in discussions, and analyze the characters in preparation for a class "press conference."
Grades
|
Choosing, Chatting, and Collecting: Vocabulary Self-Collection Strategy
6 - 8
Lesson Plan
| Recurring Lesson
Students identify interesting words from Shakespeare's plays and add them to a classroom vocabulary collection.
Grades
|
Creative Communication Frames: Discovering Similarities between Writing and Art
6 - 8
Lesson Plan
| Standard Lesson
Graphic organizers assist the development of comparative vocabulary and generate discussions of analogy and metaphor in art as students go on a real or virtual tour of an art gallery.
Grades
|
Sentence Quest: Using Parts of Speech to Write Descriptive Sentences
K - 2
Lesson Plan
| Standard Lesson
Students learn about sentences by listing verbs, nouns, and adjectives. They use word cards to create descriptive sentences and work in groups to create the longest sentences they can.
Grades
|
Fairy Tale Autobiographies
5 - 9
Lesson Plan
| Standard Lesson
Students read and analyze fairy tales from several cultures, identifying common elements. Choosing common situations, students write original fairy tales, using picture books as models and a peer review process.
Grades
|
Show What You Know: Read, Write and Solve Math Problems
2 - 3
Lesson Plan
| Minilesson
Informational texts, iPads, and interactive games, oh, my! Help students journey through multimodal texts to identify and solve real-world mathematics problems using writing and apps.
Grades
|
Reading Movies and TV: Learning the "Language" of Moving-Image Texts
5 - 12
Lesson Plan
| Minilesson
Introduce students to the idea that movies and TV have their own language and grammar, which gives them special ways of telling their stories.
Grades
|
Blogging in the Primary Grades? Yes, Indeed!
2 - 5
Lesson Plan
| Standard Lesson
Give students an authentic reason to read and write by researching blogs written by their peers around the world and then writing their own.
Grades
|
Create a Great Future: STEM Career Research Using Close Reading
6 - 12
Lesson Plan
| Minilesson
What if students could see the relevance of their school curriculum to real-world, interesting, STEM-related careers? Let's help them create a great future!