In this author study, students listen to four books by author Leo Lionni over the course of multiple days. Each reading is followed by discussion focusing on literary elements and comparing characters, themes,settings, and plots. After discussion, students participate in creating and organizing information on a large matrix which depicts the main elements of that day’s story. During the lessons, the matrix helps students review and retell each story and to compare details of two or more stories at a time. On the final day of this lesson, individual students choose any two books to compare using a Venn diagram.

In this lesson, students use the Cornell notes tool to do close reading of informational text.

Most people read and understand better when reading print. Usually when we are online, we are jumping around from place to place. To read online and really understand, we need to slow down and really think about what we are reading. In this lesson, students practice strategies to help them read deeply online. These strategies are based on the article in the lesson resources: "Strategies to Help Students 'Go Deep' When Reading Digitally" by Katrina Schwartz.Teacher copies the text from an online article into a Google Doc and shares it with students. Students use the highlighting tool to mark the most challenging vocabulary words and use strategies to determine their meaning. Then they develop a main idea for a paragraph by choosing one, two, three, and finally four words that make up the main idea. They type this above the paragraph and use formatting tools to make it a heading. As they repeat this process with additional paragraphs they are developing a summary of the article in the document outline.

Most people read and understand better when reading print. Usually when we are online, we are jumping around from place to place. To read online and really understand, we need to slow down and really think about what we are reading. In this lesson, students practice strategies to help them read deeply online. These strategies are based on the article in the lesson resources: "Strategies to Help Students 'Go Deep' When Reading Digitally" by Katrina Schwartz.Teacher copies the text from an online article into a Google Doc and shares it with students. Students use the highlighting tool to mark the most challenging vocabulary words and use strategies to determine their meaning. Then they develop a main idea for a paragraph by choosing one, two, three, and finally four words that make up the main idea. They type this above the paragraph and use formatting tools to make it a heading. As they repeat this process with additional paragraphs they are developing a summary of the article in the document outline.

This resource is part of Tools4NCTeachers.This packet contains exit tickets for the Kindergarten, Cluster 7 standards. Exit tickets are written responses to questions posed at the end of a lesson. They are brief assessments which allow the teacher to determine student understanding of the concepts and skills taught that day. At the Kindergarten level, a blank copy of the exit ticket should be displayed on the board and read aloud to students. As teacher reads, students work independently on their own copy of the exit ticket.

In this lesson, students learn and practice summarizing strategies that they will continue to use during their academic careers.