This lesson will allow students to demonstrate comprehension of a text by using a wide variety of strategies and by making personal connections to stories. Students will learn how to develop deeper understanding of character and theme, as well.

In this lesson, students are first introduced to inquiry notebooks and then use them record what they already know about worms. Next, students observe the cover of a fiction book about worms and make a hypothesis on whether the book is fact or fiction, and then check their hypotheses after the book is read aloud. Next, after an introduction to related scientific words such as hypothesis, habitat, attribute, predator, and prey, students conduct and record research and findings in their inquiry notebooks.

In this lesson, students explore both facts and feelings about a topic and make self–text–world connections as they prepare a presentation using word-processing and presentation software. Possible topics span many content areas, including science (animals, climate, space), geography (landforms), and historical events. Students select photos from websites that demonstrate their content understanding and communicate their feelings on the topic. They write and record a two-minute descriptive or persuasive script and pair the script with the photos using presentation software. Students and teacher assess the effectiveness of the presentation using the rubric and handouts provided.

E-book readers, or digital readers, are devices that can host thousands of electronic books and allows readers to interact with digital texts through the use of e-book tools and features. In this lesson, students will read e-books and use digital tools (dictionaries and notes) to support their development of vocabulary. Specifically, students will assume roles of “word detectives” as they look up words in digital dictionaries and use other strategies to identify the meaning of vocabulary words.

Students will become engaged learners through this unit that prepares students for studying ancient Greece with digital storytelling skills. First students develop a list of questions to research Greek gods, heroes, and creatures. Then with a partner, they choose the topic of their research and divide the questions between themselves. After conducting research, the partners write scripts for their digital story using the online tool PowToon.

In this cross-curricular poetry and biology unit, Li-Young Lee’s poem “Mnemonic” is used to explore how memory works. Students begin by brainstorming a list of their own memories and circling interesting words and phrases that they share with the class and then incorporating these words and phrases into a piece of writing. Students next discuss the brain and how memory is stored, leading students to dissect Li-Young Lee’s poem “Mnemonic.” As they apply this scientific information to the poem, students better understand the kinds of memories the speaker has in the poem and where those memories might be located in the brain. Groups of students then plan and complete projects in which they create a product that relates to memory, in one of three categories: informational, creative, or personal.

Students will read and analyze sonnets to discover their traditonal forms. Students will chart the poems' characteristics, including the poetic features and their emtional responses to the poems. Then they review the details for similarities, deducing traditional sonnet forms that the poems have in common. After this introduction, students write original sonnets, using one of the poems they have analyzed as a model.

In this lesson, students will analyze examples of contemporary youth poetry and the poetry of Langston Hughes to determine how a writer's environment influences his or her writing. Students will then work in groups to conduct research on how events in the world shaped Hughes's work. In a group presentation to the class, students will cite specific examples that link their interpretation of the poem to the sociohistorical context in which it was written. The lesson culminates with each student creating an original poem that communicates a personal view on a current world issue.

In this leson, students begin exploring sounds through a read-aloud of Dr. Seuss's, Mr. Brown Can MOO! Can You? They then play with the sounds in their classroom, creating words that capture what they hear. Next, they explore sounds from selected websites and record what they hear on a chart, using spelling strategies to help them. Finally, students create original cinquain poems using sound words.

Students will retell and summarize a story by using math vocabulary, equations, and pictures.

For this lesson, students read the wordless picture book, Pancakes for Breakfast by Tomie dePaola telling the story themselves as they read the pictures. Next, they draw a picture of a person doing something, and tell the story of their picture. Working at their own pace, they continue the story by drawing pictures showing the problem and solution. When all the pictures are complete, students put them in order and write or dictate the story that goes with them. Finally, students create an accordion book from their drawings and text.

While this lesson makes use of websites about Anne Frank and the Holocaust, teachers can easily adapt the activities to a variety of topics. Guided by the questions on the Observation and Inquiry Sheet provided, students work together to explore several online texts on the chosen topic. Then they examine one website in depth and consider how the unique features of the site are used to convey information about the topic. In a subsequent Silent Conversation, students initiate their own queries and discussions about the substantive content of the online texts. Students meet as a class to share their impressions and opinions of the various sites.

Students will be able to identify the parts and format of a friendly letter. Students will write a friendly letter using the appropriate format and proper spelling, capitalization, punctuation, and grammar. Students will also be able to identify the parts of an e-mail message and write and send e-mail messages. Students will communicate with an e-pal according to a specified timeline. (Confirm permission with your district and county officials before implementing this lesson.)

In this lesson students explore ekphrasis, writing inspired through art. Through discussion poems inspired by works of art, students examine ways in which poets can approach a piece of artwork. Students then research piece of art that inspires them and in turn, compose a booklet of poems about the pieces they have chosen.

This three-part lesson introduces students to the use of speedwriting (also called free writing) as a prewriting technique. Learning the technique of speedwriting allows students to generate a foundation of ideas on which they can build a narrative structure. The goal is to fill up the blank page without worrying about grammar, spelling, or even coherence. Students then identify key ideas and phrases in their speedwriting, and use a graphic Story Organizer to develop the ideas into the main elements of a story (exposition, rising action, climax, conclusion).

This lesson leads students through an exploration of age-appropriate texts of various formats that are in their own ways revisionist fairy tales. After reading the stories Ella Enchanted and The Courageous Princess, students write journal entries on which of the two stories' heroines they’d most like to be. Next they read the poem "Grethel" and then compare and contrast all three female leads. Then students choose one of the texts and write their own revisions by turning the poem or book into another form. Finally, students share their work and assess their own writing using a class-created rubric.

In this lesson, students learn cause-and-effect relationships by using of a variety of picture books by Laura Joffe Numeroff. They use online tools or a printed template to create an original comic strip for a given writing prompt.

In this lesson, students read Martin Luther King Jr.'s "I Have a Dream" speech in conjunction with Nikki Giovanni's poem "The Funeral of Martin Luther King, Jr." in order to better understand the speech and the impact it had both on observers like Giovanni during the Civil Rights Movement and on Americans today. After researching and writing quiz questions about the vocabulary and content of King's speech, students practice it orally before performing it readers' theater-style in front of an audience. Students synthesize their learning by writing reflections exploring various questions about King's dream in today's society, Nikki Giovanni's response, and ways to promote social change.

In this minilesson, students first explore Dr. King's use of semicolons and their rhetorical significance. They then apply what they have learned by searching for ways to follow Dr. King's model and use the punctuation mark in their own writing.

In this unit, students examine story elements and vocabulary associated with mystery stories through Directed Learning–Thinking Activities and then track these features as they read mystery books from the school or classroom library. Several activities at the Millennium Mystery Madness website, plus a story map project, add to their understanding and appreciation of the mystery genre. Students plan their own original mystery stories with the help of the interactive Mystery Cube, peer edit and revise their stories, and publish them online.