Cluster 1: Key Ideas and DetailsArchived

Students will learn about and become familiar with the different habitats of the Everglades and the plants that live there.

This is lesson 2 in a series of 3 lessons. Students will be able to identify plants of the Everglades using a dichotomous key and identify what causes Everglades habitats to be different.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson is about a nine-year-old boy s personal experiences living with Tourette syndrome and how he gains the courage to tell his classmates about it. The author is 9-year old Dylan Peters. He provides clear information about Tourette Syndrome in a way that students can easily understand. This lesson plan addresses the following literacy skills: asking and answering questions to demonstrate understanding of a story, referring explicitly to the story as the basis for the answers; distinguishing their own point of view from that of the author of a text; and writing an opinion piece in response to a text-based question.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students use technology every day, but do they ever stop and wonder about the inventors who made certain technology possible? This lesson encourages students to investigate three American inventors-Alexander Graham Bell, George Washington Carver, and Stephanie Kwolek-through research and readings of their biographies. As students read, gather, and present information about Bell, Carver, and Kwolek, they learn how this trio's inventions changed and shaped America's past and influenced the future of technology.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this close reading lesson, students will explore vocabulary, answer text-dependent questions, and identify the key details and main idea of an informational text about dolphins. They will then compare the text, "Dolphins" with the text, "Winter's Tail." The students will write an informative essay to explain the similarities and differences between the two texts.

Type: Lesson Plan

This 3rd grade MEA asks students to work as a team to figure out which candidate is the best possible choice for the 8th grade boys' basketball coach. They will have to analyze data, decide on a procedure, and create a ranking system to choose the best candidate. They are also given multiplication and division problems based on the data.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

This task involves having students look at three different fish tank sizes and determine, using a data list, which fish will fit in these fish tanks based on their size. They will also need to look at other characteristics to determine how to group the fish together. Students will have to either multiply, divide or add repeatedly in order to find different solutions on how to place the fish in each tank size.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this close reading lesson, students will identify the key details and main idea of two informational texts about George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. They will then compare and contrast the two presidents using a graphic organizer and write an informative essay to explain the presidents' similarities and differences.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will analyze the text "Extreme Animals," identifying key details, main ideas, and author's claims. After learning about select animals within the text, students will choose one animal to present as "The Most Interesting Animal." The facts from the text will be used to prepare a campaign poster to advertise why their chosen animal is the most interesting.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will learn to determine the main idea by identifying the main topic and key details of informational text. They will use that information to create trading cards about the three levels of government and write an informative paragraph summarizing what they've learned.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students use a variety of texts to find key details that lead them to the main idea. Students will use a graphic organizer that will guide them in learning that the key details within a text will lead them to determining the main idea.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will learn about the life cycle of the loggerhead turtle. They will gather facts about the loggerhead turtle from various texts in order to write an informative piece and create a turtle brochure. The students will use brainstorming, comprehension skills, organizational skills, critical thinking and creativity skills.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is a hands-on lesson about maps where students practice drawing maps and asking and answering questions about maps. Students will love learning about maps, elements of maps, and using maps in this exciting look into directions and locations.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students are selected to develop procedures for conducting a study on plant fertilizers. They are given data to determine which fertilizer is best for school gardens based on growth rate, size of vegetables, amount of vegetables, taste, and color. They will reassess these fertilizers during the twist incorporating safety ratings.

Students may arrange the criteria based on their team's interpretation of most important to least important. Students may have to make trade-offs based on these interpretations.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this model eliciting activity students use data about the temperature and water requirements of plants to figure out when the plants should be planted. They also use data such as space requirements and time until harvest to make judgments about which plants would best suit the needs of students planning a school garden in Florida.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will learn how to effectively read a timeline and understand its purpose within a text. Students will also be able to create a timeline by extracting key details from within a grade-level text on a given topic.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson is designed to help students identify the main idea and details of a text using the topic of inventions.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will use the Book Hottest, Coldest, Highest, Deepest by Steve Jenkins to explore our amazing world. Students will be involved in a series of vocabulary development and review activities to aid in the understanding of an informational text. Students will also practice writing and answering text dependent questions.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will use non-fiction books on the subject of spiders to find key details in the text that lead them to the main idea. Students will use a graphic organizer that shows the concept as a math problem in which the key details from the text are added up to find the main idea. At the end of the lesson, students will create a poster utilizing key details and main idea from a book about an arachnid.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will learn about heat through a video, a kinesthetic activity and summarizing informational text. This lesson can be completed in two 40 minute time period or over two days. Students will be able to demonstrate and explain the way heat moves from one object to another.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will discover the cycle water goes through as the temperature is raised from cold to hot. They will discover the processes water takes from the solid form to the vapor form.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will learn about some of the behaviors of light, specifically refraction, through a video, a kinesthetic activity and summarizing informational text. Students will be able explain what causes a shadow by understanding the way light travels as well as explain refraction of light. This lesson can be completed in two 40 minute time periods or over two days.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will be able to identify characteristics of electrical energy. This lesson can be completed in one 80 minute time period or over two days. Students will learn about electrical energy, circuits, conductors and insulators through video, a hands on exploration and summarizing informational text.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will be able to describe water as it changes states through melting and freezing.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will learn about mammals using the book Mammals by Melissa Stewart. Through this book, the students will practice identifying and using text features to understand the text, as well as determine key details and main idea. The students will then create a newspaper article about a mammal of their choice using the main ideas, key details, and text features from Mammals.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson tied to academic standards for English/Language Arts, students receive support as they read a complex informational text about gravity. The teacher facilitates a close reading and writing a response-to-text. This lesson accompanies the CPALMS Lesson "Stop the Drop - An Engineering Design Challenge."

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, the students will identify and use text features to learn about reptiles while reading the book REPTILES by Melissa Stewart. As the students practice identifying and using text features, they will also identify key details in the text. Using the text features and key details, students will work to identify main idea. The students will then create a Reptile Poster using the main ideas, key details, and text features.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this open-ended problem, students will work in teams to determine a procedure for selecting a company from which to purchase spacesuits. Students will make decisions based on a table that includes company, cost per suit, color, durability, materials, and comfort. Students will determine the price per flight, graph the provided information, and write a letter to the client providing evidence for their decisions.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson uses an assortment of books about jobs to review main idea, details, and nonfiction text features.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson is a good review of main idea and details. It uses informational books about bats in the lesson. Students will use informational text features to help find the main idea and details. They will also use the knowledge of main idea/details and informational text features to complete a simple research sheet and/or book.

Type: Lesson Plan

Using a main idea and details graphic organizer, students will identify the main idea, key details, and explain how the details support the main idea about different forms of energy.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will learn about different forms of energy and how to find the main idea and key details in informational text. Included with the lesson is an anticipation guide to assess prior knowledge, plus a rubric to score the students' summative assessment. Also present is a list of books to choose from so that teachers can use the books that fit their students best.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will learn about energy causing motion and change through examining the cause and effect relationships and sequence of events.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson is a good way to review main idea and details, sequencing, and biographies. It is easy to use as a literacy center after the lesson. Students will read a biography of Amelia Earhart and then create a timeline of the major events of her life using the information in the book. They will also complete a biography report which will help them summarize the important information. Finally, they will use the timeline and report to make a main idea book about the important events in her life. After completing these activities students will choose another biography of a different person and repeat the steps. Students will be exposed to nonfiction text through many different biographies.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson helps students explore the nature and structure of expository texts that focus on cause and effect. Students begin by activating prior knowledge about cause and effect; the teacher then models discovering these relationships in a text and recording findings in a graphic organizer. Students work in small groups to apply what they learned using related books and then write paragraphs outlining the cause-and-effect relationships they have found.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, the students will use key details to identify the main idea of informational text about vertebrates.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson plan provides students with real life and hands on experience to the freezing process. Students learn what temperature water freezes at and how freezing can affect the environment.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this resource, students will create questions about an assigned nonfiction topic, and then use text-based evidence to answer their questions. The teacher modeling and guided practice activities use the text Reptiles by Melissa Stewart. In the independent practice activity, teachers will need to gather multiple books on the same topic for students to conduct research with.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will use key details to determine the main idea of informational text about landmarks. For the summative assessment, students will work in small groups to read an informational text about landmarks, fill out a Main Idea Pyramid Graphic Organizer, and then create a poster in the shape of the landmark they read about. Students will utilize the information on their graphic organizer when creating their poster.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will learn about compare and contrast by studying the states of matter!

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will be able to identify characteristics of sound energy, such as pitch and volume. This lesson can be completed in one 45 minute time period or over two days. Students will learn about sound through video, a hands on project and summarizing informational text.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson focuses on helping students identify text features, understand their purpose, and apply this knowledge to understand the non-fiction text Great Migrations Elephants by Laura Marsh (770L) by asking and answering text-based questions.

Type: Lesson Plan

Learn how to identify the sequence of events or ideas in a text and make connections between the events or ideas.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn how to identify explicit evidence and understand implicit meaning in a text, supporting details in informational text and explain how the details support the main idea.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn how to identify explicit evidence and understand implicit meaning in a text.

You will be able to answer questions about informational text and refer explicitly to the text to support your answers.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

In this activity, students will use multiple reading strategies (predicting, questioning, clarifying, and summarizing) to comprehend text.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will use multiple reading strategies to answer questions and comprehend text.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will generate and answer questions while they read to comprehend text.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will answer teacher-generated questions while reading to comprehend text.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will identify question types (right there, think and search, author and me, on my own) to comprehend text.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will read teacher-generated statements about a text prior to reading the text and agree or disagree based on prior knowledge. Then, students will read the text and confirm or change their initial choice based on text evidence.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will activate prior knowledge and generate questions about the topic. They will then answer those questions and add what they learn during and after reading grade-appropriate text.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will generate and answer questions to comprehend text.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will match causes and effects. NOTE: This is an introductory level activity. It will need to be extended using grade-appropriate text to meet the complexity of the aligned standards.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will identify cause and effect relationships in text and record them on a graphic organizer.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will identify the relationship between cause and effect. NOTE: This is an introductory level activity. It will need to be extended using grade-appropriate text to meet the complexity of the aligned standards.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will record key words/phrases in categories on a graphic organizer to generate main idea statements.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will identify significant and minor details in text.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will identify the main topic, supporting details, and main idea(s) in text using a graphic organizer.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will identify supporting details and the main idea in text using a graphic organizer.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will identify details and main idea(s) in text by highlighting key words/phrases pertaining to the topic.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will identify supporting details and main ideas in expository text and record them on a graphic organizer.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will answer questions while reading teacher-selected text.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will summarize text using a graphic organizer.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will use multiple strategies (e.g., prior knowledge, ask and answer questions, make and confirm predictions, summarize) to comprehend narrative or expository text.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will summarize text (narrative and expository) using a graphic organizer.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will summarize expository text using a graphic organizer.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will identify text structures and complete corresponding graphic organizers. Multiple graphic organizers are provided, and a reference sheet is also provided that includes an explanation, signal words, and graphic organizer templates for each text structure.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will sort sentences based on their text structures. As an extension activity, students can write about a topic using each text structure.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will identify supporting details and main ideas in expository text and record them on a graphic organizer.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will identify the relationship between cause and effect. NOTE: This is an introductory activity for cause and effect. Students will need to extend their learning using text containing a cause/effect text structure to fully meet the expectations of the aligned standards.

Type: Student Center Activity

This teaching idea from the California Court's "California on My Honor" lesson plan program supports the introduction of national symbols, landmarks and monuments and what they stand for. The teaching idea calls for students to be given the task of developing a flag to represent their classroom.once they begin to understand the abstract representation of symbols.

Type: Teaching Idea

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. This article is a description of how a plant responds to light, gravity, and heat.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. This article describes the function of the different parts of a plant.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The article explains how tree rings are used to determine the Earth's climate many years ago.

Type: Text Resource