What do hula hoops and the American system of government have in common? Using hands-on station activities, pupils consider the roles of the three branches of government. A script for teachers and writing prompts help round out a...

A lesson looks at the Pilgrims and Wampanoag tribe during the first Thanksgiving. Scholars compare and contrast information presented by an online activity then discuss their findings. Learners examine the two group's daily routines and...

Following an online activity, scholars listen to a read-aloud of If You Were at the First Thanksgiving by Anne Kamma. Pupils discuss their family traditions and complete a T-chart comparing the holiday then and now. Collages are made to...

This newspaper activity requires students to read eight headlines and then select what each would be about from the options given. When answers are submitted, an explanation is also given.

A comprehensive approach to writing coherent paragraphs and knowing how to transition between paragraphs.

Article provides excellent tips and strategies for building comprehension and critical thinking skills in Social Studies. It describes some of the challenges students have with reading and understanding their textbooks.

[Accessible by TX Educators. Free Registration/Login Required] This lesson is about being able to identify the author's purpose in a specific text. Specifically, it's about looking at several authors' works on the same topic and...

Interactive lesson explains the content and organization of newspaper articles. Includes self-scoring exercises for practicing identifying the five W's (who, what, when, where, and why) in a series of brief news articles and a...

This collection of rubrics and checklists can be used for formative and summative assessments. Students can use many of these to self-assess during various phases of the informative writing process, and teachers may use these to guide...

In this activity, students will examine the ways in which a magazine cover's headlines and graphics express the main ideas of its articles. They will then use an interactive tool to create covers that summarize chapters of informational...

[Accessible by TX Educators. Free Registration/Login Required] In this lesson, you will expand on your ability to read texts, synthesize them, and make choices based on the information you read. Finally, you will learn how to use textual...

[Accessible by TX Educators. Free Registration/Login Required] In this lesson, you will be taking a look at how authors of informational texts, such as expository texts, organize their writing and the effects that organization can have...

Here is an excellent list of ideas for teachers to utilize in their classroom to accompany paragraph writing skills. These creative and exciting activities will sharpen your student's writing abilities.

Fifth graders will use non-fiction books to identify and explain how text features help them as individual readers.

Teach students to summarize nonfiction text with these lesson plans. Includes worksheets and activities that can be downloaded and printed.

This unit is designed to teach students about research writing. The lessons follow the format of Writer's Workshop. Many of the lessons provide a formula for students to follow while constructing their essays to ensure struggling readers...

This unit focuses on reading comprehension and structure. It includes lessons on the main idea and supporting details, theme, sequence, fact and opinion, literary devices, character, text features, inferences, organization of nonfiction,...