Students are guided through an informal exploration of nonfiction texts and child-oriented Websites, learning browsing and skimming techniques for the purpose of gathering interesting information.

Students explore their towns' landmarks, symbols, and people; look at brochures and other informational tools; practice writing for a specific audience and revising; and work collaboratively to create a brochure.

This lesson introduces students to American colonial life and has them compare the daily life and culture of two different colonies in the late 1700s. Students study artifacts of the thirteen original British colonies and write letters between fictitious cousins in Massachusetts and Delaware.

This lesson concentrates on Anne Frank as a writer. After a look at Anne Frank the adolescent, and a consideration of how the experiences of growing up shaped her composition of the Diary, students explore some of the writing techniques Anne invented for herself and practice those techniques with material drawn from their own lives.

The ability to ask and answer questions while reading is essential to comprehension. This article discusses instructional strategies used to teach questioning and provides many online resources. The article appears in the free, online magazine Beyond Weather and the Water Cycle, which explores the seven essential principles of the climate sciences for teachers in k-grade 5 classrooms.

This article reprints and links to informational text about the adaptations that allow mammals and fish to survive in polar oceans. Versions are available for students in grades K-1, 2-3 and 4-5. Related science and literacy activities are included.

In this video from August Wilson: The Ground on Which I Stand the playwright discusses the influence that the blues has had on his writing. The clip also features a performance from Ma Rainey’s Black Bottom and commentary from several theater scholars.

Students create brochures on the same topic as another piece of writing they have done, highlighting how shifting purposes and audiences creates changes in their strategies as writers.

Charlotte Perkins Gilman's story "The Yellow Wall-paper" was written during atime of change. This lesson plan, the first part of a two-part lesson, helps to set the historical, social, cultural, and economic context of Gilman's story.

Students and the teacher produce a class book through a group-writing activity, focusing on a basic before-during-after sequence of events.

This article discusses how creating Readers Theater scripts from informational text can improve fluency and build comprehension.

This feature outlines the context of The Seneca Falls Convention of 1848 which produced the "Declaration of Sentiments," a CCSS exemplar for grades 11 CCR. This document made a bold argument, modeled on the language and logic of the Declaration of Independence that American women should be given civil and political rights equal to those of American men, including the right to vote.

Students explore the genre of posters, review informational writing and visual design, and then design poster presentations to share in class or at a school-wide fair.

Students learn about memory by doing a memory-writing exercise, studying the brain to understand how it affects memory, reading Li-Young Lee's poem "Mnemonic," and creating projects to demonstrate their understanding.

Students will engage with primary source documents to explore the reasons behind memorializing people in public art. Students will craft written or oral statements to support an argument in favor of installing a statue of Dr. Martha Hughes Cannon, Philo T. Farnsworth, or Brigham Young in National Statuary Hall.

By closely reading historical documents and attempting to interpret them, students consider how Arthur Miller interpreted the facts of the Salem witch trials and how he successfully dramatized them in his play, "The Crucible." As they explore historical materials, such as the biographies of key players (the accused and the accusers) and transcripts of the Salem Witch trials themselves, students will be guided by aesthetic and dramatic concerns: In what ways do historical events lend themselves (or not) to dramatization? What makes a particular dramatization of history effective and memorable?

Students create text sets on a high interest topic and use the texts to practice three strategies for reading for information.

This article reprints and links to informational text about the art and science of igloos. Versions are available for students in grades K-1, 2-3 and 4-5. Related science and literacy activities are included.

Tell me about it in your own words! If students can paraphrase the information they have read, then youand they can be confident that they understand it.

This nonfiction article, written for students in grades 4-5, explores the ways in which glaciers shape the Earth's land. Modified versions are available for students in younger grades.