Give your class an overview of American tall tales and some examples with these slides. The basic definition of folk stories, legends, and tall tales is explained, followed by famous characters from American lore. Reading suggestions are...

Various genres of oral tradition are outlined and defined in these slides. Give your class examples of folk tales, fairy tales, parables, fables, legends, and myths before reading an example of one of these stories. This overview acts as...

Although this legislative process lesson is designed to accompany a specific text, it is valuable independently. Young learners participate in a picture walk (worksheet included) through My Senator and Me: A Dog's-Eye View...

Use the dystopian novel After by Francine Prose to spark discussion about individual and student rights. Learners read the novel, evaluating how far a school can go to control its attendees. As they read, scholars...

Practice is a great way to build skills in reading with fluency and intonation. In leveled pairs, learners read a simple passage pausing as indicated by the marks on the page. They take turns reading the passage until they are both...

F-u-n spells fun. It is a simple word that little learners can sound out as they build phonemic awareness and those early reading skills. This short scripted instructional activity provides teachers with the basics for teaching how to...

Decoding words in connected text can make emergent readers really feel like they are great readers. They work as a class to sound out simple cvc words located in super short sentences. Tip: Extend this activity by having a variety of...

Sounding out individual phonemes and blending them to make a word is usually one of the first tasks mastered when learning to read. Make master decoders out of your learners, they sound out a series of simple two and three-letter cvc...

Did Shakespeare really write all that stuff? After viewing a trailer for the film, Anonymous and reading Stephen Marche’s article “Wouldn’t It Be Cool If Shakespeare Wasn’t Shakespeare?” class groups read articles about the Shakespeare...

Review with your young readers the course of events in typical fairy tales with princes, princesses, and dragons. Then read either The Paper Bag Princess by Robert Munsch or Princess Smartypants by Babette Cole to compare these two...

Explore positional prepositions as learners follow directions by adding four details to this picture of a fairy. Each instruction includes both an object and its location, so scholars get plenty of review. Consider also allowing them to...

Mico (or your favorite puppet) helps emergent readers recognize words from segmented phonemes. Explain to learners that he struggles with pronouncing words and needs their help. Model how Mico segments sounds in single-syllable words....

Get your scholars excited about phonemes using Mico the puppet; they use the picture cards to examine three words at a time. Mico says the ending sound of one of the words, and learners determine which of them is a match. You'll want to...

What's the sound, Mico? Use your class' favorite puppet (in this example, Mico) to teach them about initial sounds in single-syllable words. Using the picture cards provided, choose three and lay them out in front of learners. When Mico...

Mico the puppet offers a phoneme challenge for emerging readers: can they find the object with the middle sound they hear? Use the fantastic set of full-color picture cards to play this game with small groups or even the whole class....

Practice makes perfect when it comes to reading fluency! Walk your emerging readers through a familiar passage, slowly pointing to each word to keep every learner with you. While looking at a projected passage, scholars read one word at...

Make letter sounds a game for pre-readers using these letter cards. After you demonstrate, learners take turns drawing letters out of a bag. Weight them for the letters they have been practicing most recently. Once they've chosen a...

What sound does the letter t make? As scholars develop letter recognition, form sound associations with strategies like these. Explain the tongue movement in making the /t/ sound, asking learners to try it. Draw the t on the...

Use these inventive strategies to focus on the letter r, forming sound associations along with letter recognition. Explain the tongue movement in making the /r/ sound, asking learners to try it. Draw the r on the board and give...

Do your emerging readers know that letters sometimes borrow the sounds of other letters? Explore the soft /c/ sound, explaining that c has borrowed the sound from s. After giving scholars some examples of words that begin...

“Use ellipses to show omitted material from a quoted passage . . . and to maintain good grammar . . . .” Everything learners need to know about ellipses and how to uses them is included in colorful presentation that is rich with...

Ensure that your learners have a strong grasp of when to use -s versus -es when making a word plural. For this instructional activity, class members match words to their correct endings.

Designed for teachers, this resource identifies problems learners face when attempting a research project and approaches instructors can use to help their class members overcome these obstacles. Suggestions are included for how to help...

If your class is gearing up to read MAUS by Art Spiegelman, consider having them complete this KWHL chart as a prereading activity. They record what they know, what they want to learn, how they will find the information, and what they...