Literacy and Reading Skills, Part 2

Good Intentions: Taking a Cognitive Approach to Literature and Stories
In this lesson, students consider literary texts through the lens of cognitive science and reflect on the cognitive benefits of the study of literature. Students will practice analyzing multiple perspectives.

Graphic Accounts
Students read an article from the New York Times and explore different types of graphs used in the newspaper. This lesson is designed for grades 6-12.

Great 'Read-Alouds' From The New York Times
In celebration of Read Across America Day on March 2, and of World Read-Aloud Day on March 3, this blog offers engaging, short Times essays, articles, op-eds and humor pieces on a range of topics for teachers, parents or students to read aloud.

Guided Reading through Children's Literature
Strategies for improving reading comprehension using excerpts from children's literature.

Identifying Different Perspectives - Camilo's Drums
Students watch a 4-minute video about a father and son who play drums. They use a graphic organizer to identify the different points of view. Support materials included on the site.

Is it Fact or Opinion?
As a result of this activity, students will distinguish between fact and opinion in a published diary. This lesson is designed for grades 6-8.

Johnny Appleseed: Fact or Fiction?
During this lesson, students will learn about Johnny Appleseed through a variety of sources. From the information, students will distinguish between fact and fiction. Students will use the writing process to create their own stories about Johnny Appleseed. They will have the opportunity to publish their work and share it with the class. This lesson plan includes handouts and rubric. It is designed for second grade.

Kindergarten Language Arts Skills
The page links to a generous assortment of standards-based activities.

Kindergarten and First Grade Comprehension Activities
A site rich with 26 activities to build comprehension skills, including KWL charts and graphic organizers available as printables. This document requires Adobe Reader for access. (Suggestion: save the document to your computer and print only the pages you need.)

Kindergarten and First Grade Reading Fluency Activities
A collection of 22 activities to develop reading fluency in beginning readers, complete with support materials in printable form. This document requires Adobe Reader for access. (Suggestion: save the document to your computer and print only the pages you need.)

Learn the Alphabet
Each letter is pronounced and used in a variety of words. A good opening visual for a lesson on a letter or an engaging option for self-directed learning.

Letter Recognition Activities
Designed for kindergarten and first grade, this document includes 43 pages of activities to develop letter recognition, including bulletin board borders and other printable material. (Suggestion: save the document to your computer and print only the pages you need.)

Letter-Sound Correspondence Activities
Designed for kindergarten and first grade, this document includes 115 pages of activities to develop letter-sound correspondence, printable games and other resources. (Suggestion: save the document to your computer and print only the pages you need.)

Literacy Center
A wealth of online activities with letters, numbers, shapes, colors, and more.

Main Idea and Details — Cloud
Students watch a 7-minute video segment about a wild colt, thinking about what main idea the author is trying to convey. Next, they read the transcript for the segment and identify details they believe are most important. They write these details on small sticky notes. Then students draft a main idea statement that describes the main idea of the segment. Finally, students double check the details as relevant or irrelevant on a two-column chart. This lesson is designed for grades 5-7. It includes support materials and a suggestion for assessment.

Making Predictions - The Injured Otter
Students watch a 3 1/2 minute video segment that shows a young injured otter's attempts to locate his missing family, find food and remain safe while dealing with the winter elements in Yellowstone National Park. Students predict what happens next and then write a narrative account of these events from three possible points of view: the injured otter, the filmmaker or an animal behaviorist. This lesson is designed for grades 8-10. Scroll down for links to support materials.

Map It Out!
Students will explore picture books (without words) and discuss the specific elements of the illustrations that "tell" the story. They will learn to "read" illustrations as they look at the ways in which pictures reveal information about the characters, setting, and plot of a story.

No Pain, High Gain
Tips for teaching students how to read standardized test passages.

Open Court Resources
Free resources to support the Open Court program, pre-K through grade 6.

Orson's Farm
At this interactive site students use cartoon characters to practice with words and sounds.

Phonics
A collection of phonics resources.

Prediction Cards
This activity integrates art and writing to strengthen the reading skill of prediction.

Pre-reading - Using wordless comics to teach using picture cues to create meaning in reading
Students use picture cues to create meaning. This lesson is designed for grades 1 and 2.

Prereading Strategies
Tips for students.

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