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.
Timelines and Texts: Motivating Students to Read Nonfiction
Grades
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Sequencing: A Strategy to Succeed at Reading Comprehension
3 - 5
Lesson Plan
| Standard Lesson
Did Paul Bunyan gouge out the Grand Canyon before or after he dug the Great Lakes? Students create a life-sized timeline showing the sequence of events in this tall tale.
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
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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
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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
|
Poetry Plus! Creating 21st Century Poems with Web Tools
3 - 5
Lesson Plan
| Minilesson
This lesson encourages students to immerse themselves in poetry as they share their original poems orally and digitally with published poets and peers nationwide.
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!
Grades
|
Bringing Economic Vocabulary to Life Through Video Posters
2 - 5
Lesson Plan
| Minilesson
Imagine if vocabulary could come alive with the click of a button! Students create video posters to demonstrate knowledge of new economics vocabulary.
Grades
|
Tell Me Your Story: Video-Inspired Vocabulary Writing
9 - 12
Lesson Plan
| Recurring Lesson
Students watch a sample of artistic video clips online and respond through creative writing while using the vocabulary words they are currently studying.
Grades
|
Inspire Healthful Reading Using Unconventional Texts
K - 2
Lesson Plan
| Minilesson
This minilesson encourages children to seek out and appropriately react to nutrition labels and to make healthy food choices, integrating science, math, health, and literacy.
Grades
|
Beyond History Books: Researching With Twin Texts and Technology
4 - 8
Lesson Plan
Students in grades 4–8 activate prior knowledge and research information about a historic event through fiction and nonfiction literature and exploration of relevant websites.
Grades
|
Resumes and Cover Letters for High School Students
9 - 12
Lesson Plan
| Unit
High school students are taught how to use resumes and cover letters to highlight their skills and make them stand out, whether applying to college or for a job.
Grades
|
Digital Word Detectives: Building Vocabulary With e-Book Readers
2 - 6
Lesson Plan
| Minilesson
Students in grades 2-6 use digital dictionaries and other e-book tools to learn new vocabulary as they read e-books on digital reading devices.
Grades
|
Playlist for Holden: Character Analysis With Music and Lyrics
7 - 12
Lesson Plan
| Minilesson
Students compile a playlist of 10 songs representing a literary character and explain their choices based on the book's dialogue, plot, conflict, and resolution.
Grades
|
Making Memories: An End-of-Year Digital Scrapbook
6 - 8
Lesson Plan
| Standard Lesson
Students reflect on their school year, creating a digital scrapbook consisting of images and text to present to their school community.
Grades
|
3-2-1 Vocabulary: Learning Filmmaking Vocabulary by Making Films
6 - 8
Lesson Plan
| Unit
Bring the vocabulary of film to life through the processes of filmmaking. Students learn terminology and techniques simultaneously as they plan, film, and edit a short video.
Grades
|
Engaging With Cause-and-Effect Relationships Through Creating Comic Strips
2 - 4
Lesson Plan
Students demonstrate their knowledge of cause-and-effect relationships by creating original comic strips and sharing their completed work in an oral presentation format.
Grades
|
Creating an Online Community Through Electronic Portfolios
9 - 12
Lesson Plan
| Recurring Lesson
Students publish their work in an electronic portfolio, which enables them to respond to each other's content online.