This resource, which downloads directly, is a lesson plan to use with the book "Across the Wide Dark Sea" by Jean Van Leeuwen. "Across the Wide Dark Sea" is a realistic text about a boy and his family's nine-week journey and survival during the first winter at Plymouth. This text poetically narrates a young boy's account of risking the ocean ot find freedom in a new land.

This resource, which is a direct download, is a lesson plan for "Aero and Office Mike" by Joan Plummer Russell. "Aero and Officer Mike is an informational text about a police officer and his partner, a dog named Aero. Information about their daily routine, Aero's special talents, and Officer Mike's training is included.

In this lesson, collaborative groups will read a variety of American tall tales, then report elements of their story to the whole class. Students add story information to a collaborative, whole-class character study matrix that summarizes all the stories. In a writing activity, students compare two characters of their choice. The lesson process is applicable to any set of related texts.

In this lesson, students read Aunt Flossie's Hats to learn about family traditions and stories and how they keep families united across generations. Students discuss the text and respond to questions using the text to support their answers. Lesson opens to a Word document.

In this lesson, students continue to compare and contrast sections of two texts about the poison dart frog.

In this lesson, students continue to compare and contrast sections of two texts about the poison dart frog.

In this lesson, students compare and contrast sections of two texts about the poison dart frog.

In this lesson, students explore adjectives through a read-aloud and develop a working definition of the term. They list as many adjectives as they can, then combine them with "to be" verbs to create simple sentences. Next, they are introduced to character traits by putting the adjectives from their list in the context of a character from a shared reading. They then use an online chart to equate the character traits with specific actions the character takes. Finally, students "become" one of the major characters in a book and describe themselves and other characters, using Internet reference tools to compile lists of accurate, powerful adjectives supported with details from the reading. Students read each other's lists of adjectives and try to identify who is being described.

In this lesson, students will see how artistic materials can extend knowledge. This lesson provides opportunities for students to explore and experience the meaning potential of everyday writing and drawing tools in their own writing. The lesson can adapted for older students.

In this lesson, students begin by working in small groups to analyze differences and similarities among a selection of comics from a variety of subgenres. Based on their discussion, they determine what subgenres are represented and divide the comics accordingly. Students then analyze the professional comics' uses of conventions such as layout and page design. Finally, they create their own comics using an online tool.

A strong plot is a basic requirement of any narrative. Students are sometimes confused, however, by the difference between a series of events that happen in a story and the plot elements, or the events that are significant to the story. In this lesson, students select a topic for a personal narrative and then do the prewriting in comic-strip format to reinforce the plot structure. Finally, they write their own original narratives based on the comic strip prewriting activity, keeping the elements of narrative writing in mind. This lesson uses a version of "The Three Little Pigs" fairy tale to demonstrate the literary element; however, any picture book with a strong plot would work for this lesson.

Awareness and true understanding of other cultures can create the desire to take action. In this lesson, students learn about Palestinian Arabs. After exploring the culture in a book and online, students identify a current social issue that concerns them. In a formal letter written to an appropriate official, students identify these issues and discuss suggestions of ways the problems might be addressed.

In this lesson, students summarize biographies of leaders, including Abraham Lincoln, Harriet Tubman, Sojourner Truth, Rosa Parks, Frederick Douglass, Ida B. Wells, Lydia Maria Child, William Lloyd Garrison, Claudette Colvin, and Martin Luther King, Jr.

As a way to support teachers with English Language Arts (ELA) instruction during the pandemic, the NCDPI ELA team created choice boards featuring standards-aligned ELA activities.The intended purpose of these choice boards is to provide a way for students to continue standards-based learning while schools are closed. Each activity can be adapted and modified to be completed with or without the use of digital tools. Many activities can also be repeated with different texts. These standards-based activities are meant to be a low-stress approach to reinforcing and enriching the skills learned during the 2019-2020 school year. The choice boards are to be used flexibly by teachers, parents, and students in order to meet the unique needs of each learner.Exploration activities are provided for a more self-directed or guided approach to independent learning for students. These activities and sites should be used as a way to explore concepts, topics, skills, and social and emotional competencies that interest the learner. 

In this lesson, students practice their fluency skills by performing their freaky frog poem aloud to a peer.

This lesson has two components: 1) a fluency list of poverty words and 2) a world map of poverty cases. In the first component the teacher introduces a list of poverty words organized by part of speech that will be learned and practiced during this lesson. Fluency practice continues to occur throughout the unit in both the reading fiction and non-fiction components. Being able to read content vocabulary words, phrases and sentences fluently is so important in a student’s ability to comprehend complex texts and issues. Providing students with ample time and opportunities to practice academic language directly from their texts will allow this to occur (Rasinski "Fluency Matters" 2014). In the second component a large world map is used to investigate the issue of poverty by comparing the effects of poverty of people in 6/7 continents. Students will engage in speaking and writing tasks using the world map. This lesson was developed by Karie Gregory as part of their completion of the North Carolina Global Educator Digital Badge program. This lesson plan has been vetted at the local and state level for standards alignment, Global Education focus, and content accuracy.            

Resources to support 3rd grade teachers or teachers who facilitate guided reading groups.

This cross-curricular lesson combines Social Studies and Language Arts to demonstrate how the study of an historical topic can be developed to make learning nonfiction more exciting, and also improve fluency and comprehension. This project about Benjamin Franklin includes a series of lessons in which the students: 1) read for information from multiple texts, 2) write a script for a Readers Theater play, 3) read for expression and fluency by using their script, 4) enhance their reading with visual arts, and 5) demonstrate dramatic interpretation through role-play. This approach engages students throughout in active participation and collaboration. Included are many supporting resources, such as a read-aloud rubric, an audition sheet, and ideas for student assessment and reflection.

Paraphrasing helps students make connections with prior knowledge, demonstrate comprehension, and remember what they have read. Through careful explanation and thorough modeling by the teacher in this lesson, students learn to use paraphrasing to monitor their comprehension and acquire new information. They also realize that if they cannot paraphrase after reading, they need to go back and reread to clarify information. In pairs, students engage in guided practice so that they can learn to use the strategy independently. Students will need prompting and encouragement to use this strategy after the initial instruction is completed. The lesson can be extended to help students prepare to write reports about particular topics.