Standard 3: Reading Across Genres

This is lesson #6 in the text unit series for Vote! In this lesson students will create a plan and campaign advertisements as final products. The teacher will discuss the role of the mayor and how this government position relates to the role of the governor and president as examples of people who make and enforce rules and laws. This lesson is focused on pages 24-29 which shows the amount of work needed to campaign for an election and highlights the importance of voting. The teacher will use a presentation to support students as they summarize the events and work needed to plan a campaign.

This unit will explain voting in the United States. Unit lessons include duties of responsible citizens for voting, the voting process, responsibilities of candidates, and voting outcomes. Teacher will utilize a read aloud over several lessons incorporating text structure, text features, figurative language, and the use of multimedia in presentations. Teachers will facilitate research to help students create a presentation.

This resource uses a book that is on the Florida Department of Education's reading list. This book is not provided with this resource.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is lesson #5 in the unit, Abraham Lincoln: A Life of Honesty by Tonya Leslie. The lesson focuses on using relevant details within the Emancipation Proclamation and the Bill of Rights to determine the central idea. Additionally, students will summarize the similarities within the two documents.

This unit will help students explain why the United States Constitution is an important document that protects the rights of American citizens, the responsibilities of the United States government, and how Abraham Lincoln is an important symbol of the United States Government.

Students will engage in a read aloud spread out over several lessons emphasizing vocabulary, central idea, research, expository and opinion writing, and collaboration in groups.

The teacher will facilitate vocabulary instruction, student research, determination of central ideas, student presentation, expository and opinion writing, and group collaboration to help students demonstrate why the United States Constitution is an important document.

This resource uses a book that is on the Florida Department of Education's reading list. This book is not provided with this resource.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is lesson 1 of 6 in the text unit series for Father of the Constitution, A Story about James Madison by Barbara Mitchell. In this lesson, students will be engaged in learning about national and state symbols. In small groups, students will compare the national and state seals, the national and state songs, and the national and state preambles to their constitutions. The groups will use a graphic organizer to identify relevant details and summarize the information they learned from comparing and contrasting each item. Groups will present their findings to the group. The lesson will conclude with a group discussion about whether the school and the class have similar items to compare.

This unit of study is about the Father of the Constitution, James Madison. Through this unit, students will follow the life of James Madison, creating a timeline of events that led to the creation of the U.S. Constitution and the democratic government system still in use today. Students will research, develop an argumentative debate, and vote as they read the text. Students will realize that this process prepared Madison for the writing of the U.S. Constitution. Students will engage in the expository writing process to construct a Classroom Constitution that aligns with the school’s vision and mission statements.

This resource uses a book that is on the Florida Department of Education's reading list. This book is not provided with this resource.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is lesson #2 in the text unit series for Abraham Lincoln: A Life of Honesty by Tonya Leslie. Students will be learning about the local, state, and national levels of government. This will be done before reading the text Abraham Lincoln: A Life of Honesty to build background knowledge.

This unit will help students explain why the United States Constitution is an important document that protects the rights of American citizens, the responsibilities of the United States government, and how Abraham Lincoln is an important symbol of the United States government.

Students will engage in a read aloud spread out over several lessons emphasizing vocabulary, central idea, research, expository and opinion writing, and collaboration in groups.

The teacher will facilitate vocabulary instruction, student research, determination of central ideas, student presentation, expository and opinion writing, and group collaboration to help students demonstrate why the United States Constitution is an important document.

This resource uses a book that is on the Florida Department of Education's reading list. This book is not provided with this resource.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is lesson # 8 in the text unit series for Vote! After reading pages 34-42, students will write a written response to the prompt, "Describe how and why voting in a republic is important.” Students will collaborate with a partner to brainstorm ideas and then write an essay to support their answer, including details from the text.

This unit will explain voting in the United States. Unit lessons include duties of responsible citizens for voting, the voting process, responsibilities of candidates, and voting outcomes. Teacher will utilize a read aloud over several lessons incorporating text structure, text features, figurative language, and the use of multimedia in presentations. Teachers will facilitate research to help students create a presentation.

This resource uses a book that is on the Florida Department of Education's reading list. This book is not provided with this resource.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is Lesson 7 in the text unit series for Vote! by Eileen Christelow. After a close read of pages 30-33 of the text, students will have the opportunity to voice their choice by voting. Students will create their own ballot to vote on a topic, and then host a mini election in class. Students will also focus on summarizing the text using the central idea and relevant details.

This unit will explain voting in the United States. Unit lessons include duties of responsible citizens for voting, the voting process, responsibilities of candidates, and voting outcomes. Teacher will utilize a read aloud over several lessons incorporating text structure, text features, figurative language, and the use of multimedia in presentations. Teachers will facilitate research to help students create a presentation.

This resource uses a book that is on the Florida Department of Education's reading list. This book is not provided with this resource.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will listen to and discuss information on the writing and content of the United States Constitution, in this lesson plan. They will organize summary information into a useful order that will help them create the coding for a Scratch program. This is part 1 of a 2-part series that integrates Civics, English Language Arts, and Computer Science. 

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will conduct research to identify two to three relevant details that support a given central idea about the three branches of the U.S. government. Students will gather information through text and text features utilizing informational texts and/or teacher given websites about how each branch is organized and operates. Students will then compile the information in order to summarize the main idea and relevant details into a multimedia project comparing and summarizing the three branches.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this close reading lesson, students will read Tops & Bottoms, adapted by Janet Stevens, focusing on the lessons that the characters learn as a result of their actions throughout the text.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will analyze song lyrics to determine the meanings of figurative language used throughout the lyrics. Students will determine the theme of the song and explain how the examples of figurative language help develop the theme. They will complete various graphic organizers and write an opinion piece to demonstrate their understanding of the skills.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will work with the teacher and in cooperative groups to read and summarize A River of Words: The Story of William Carlos Williams by Jen Bryant. Through the reading of the text, students will sequence the events and use text features and text structure to understand the text. Students will then write to summarize William Carlos Williams' story.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this reading lesson, students will work with the teacher and in cooperative groups to read and comprehend Faithful Elephants. Through multiple readings, the students will determine the meaning of words using context clues, discuss questions from the text, and explain the theme of the story by writing an expository paragraph.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will learn to identify the central idea and explain how key details support that idea in an informational text. They will use that information to create trading cards about the three levels of government and write a paragraph summarizing the text and what they've learned.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students use a variety of texts to find key details that lead them to the central idea. Students will use a graphic organizer that will guide them in learning that the relevant details within a text will lead them to determining the central idea. Students will summarize a text using central idea and relevant details to build summary.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will work with similes and metaphors through the use of music and a graphic organizer. At the end, students will write a poem demonstrating their mastery of these types of figurative language.

Type: Lesson Plan

During this lesson students will write a summary of the text My Secret Bully by Trudy Lidwig, focusing on the details to determine the theme. Students will complete a problem/solution graphic organizer to be used in the summary. This is the first in a series of three lessons using the text My Secret Bully.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will write a summary of the text Hottest, Coldest, Highest, Deepest by Steve Jenkins. In doing so, students will focus on identifying the central idea and relevant details in the text. Students will participate in vocabulary development activities to aid in the understanding of the informational text.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will be working with 5 types of figurative language, including similes, metaphors, idioms, personification, and alliteration. Students will work together to create anchor charts for each type of figurative language, and then work in small groups to identify figurative language examples in poetry. They will identify the type of poem they are reading as they are hunting for figurative language. Finally, students will complete an individual assignment to gauge mastery of the figurative language skills learned.

Type: Lesson Plan

Using the book Crickwing, students will demonstrate understanding of the connection a writer needs to make between the words they use and the meaning they would like the reader to secure.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, 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 relevant details in the text. Using the text features and relevant details, students will identify the central idea. The students will then create a Reptile Poster using central ideas, relevant details, and text features. This lesson will use the text Reptiles by Melissa Stewart. However, this lesson can be done with any reptile-based book.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson students will read poems, see pictures, and learn about personification- the figure of speech that describes nonliving/inanimate objects by giving them human characteristics. Students will identify types of poems and create lists of characteristics, identify feelings that they evoke, and write sentences using personification. They will be writing sentences using personification to express themselves and illustrate their examples.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson focuses on identifying plot elements of Strega Nona by Tomie dePaola in order to explain how the character develops. Using a plot diagram and guiding questions, students will identify the exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution in the book. Students will then use the plot information gathered to summarize the text and explain how the character develops.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students read informational texts to determine the text’s central idea and the relevant details that support the central idea. Students use a graphic organizer to record a central idea and details and then write a paragraph summary. This lesson is written in a generalized way so that any type of informational text can be used.

Type: Lesson Plan

Help 3D Animator Angie explain and use metaphors to describe how the character, Reign the Cat, develops throughout the story "Adventures with Reign the Cat" in this interactive tutorial.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

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

You will be able to identify literal and nonliteral words and phrases in sentences and stories. You will also be able to find the meaning or words and phrases by looking carefully at what the author is saying.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

In this activity, students will identify similarities and differences between stories using a graphic organizer.

Type: Student Center Activity

In this activity, students will retell a story using story question cards.

Type: Student Center Activity

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

Type: Student Center Activity