Through studying Beatrix Potter's stories and illustrations from the early 1900s and learning about her childhood in Victorian England, students can compare/contrast these with their own world to understand why Potter wrote such simple stories and why she wrote about animals rather than people.

This outlines the 2-day close reading exemplar developed by Student Achievement Partners.

FreeReading is an open source instructional program that helps educators teach early literacy. Because it is open source, it represents the collective wisdom of a wide community of teachers and researchers. FreeReading contains Comprehension Activities, a page of activities to address important comprehension skills and strategies.

In this eight-week module, students explore the questions: “Who is the wolf in fiction?” and “Who is the wolf in fact?” They begin by analyzing how the wolf is characterized in traditional stories, folktales, and fables. Then they research real wolves by reading informational text. Finally, for their performance task, students combine their knowledge of narratives with their research on wolves to write a realistic narrative about wolves.

Flor has been looking forward to summer with her best friend since last summer! But an unexpected twist of fate lands her working in her family’s mattress store and her best friend at band camp. Herlife gets even worse when she has to compete in the local honey pageant (again) and volunteer to help a recluse beekeeper with her worst frenemy. With her parents fighting and the possibility of moving to New Jersey on the horizon, this summer cannot get any worse.Grade Level: 3rd-7thLexile Level: 870LGuided Reading Level: SGenre: fiction, chapter book 

The "Into the Book" web site is designed to help elementary students practice eight reading comprehension strategies through playful interactive activities. The site focuses on eight research-based strategies: Using Prior Knowledge, Making Connections, Questioning, Visualizing, Inferring, Summarizing, Evaluating and Synthesizing. "Behind the Lesson," the teacher area of the site, provides information, lesson plans and other resources for teachers.

The interactive explores the ways that poets choose line breaks in their writing. After viewing the demonstration, students are invited to experiment with line breaks themselves.

Michael is feeling all alone in a new city and new school until Jesse, a fellow student introduced him to the school garden! Working with new friends, exploring tastes, harvesting vegetables, nicknaminginsects, and solving garden riddles are just a few of the ways that the school garden helps Michael feel like he is growing roots. This Found Poetry style picture book is perfect for introducing a uniquemodern style of poetry while incorporating history, cooking, word study, and a love for the outdoor classroom.Grade Level: 2nd-5thLexile Level: Not availableGuided Reading Level: Not availableGenre: Fiction, poetry

The Plot Diagram is an organizational tool focusing on a pyramid or triangular shape, which is used to map the events in a story. This mapping of plot structure allows readers and writers to visualize the key features of stories.

This unique book is a love letter written as a poem from the author, Shabazz Larkin, to his two sons. This artist, author, and activist is learning to overcome his fear of our most amazing pollinators --bees! With careful research and experiences with his sons, Larkin is learning to be fearless and wants to teach kids to be brave when facing their fears.Lexile Level: Not availableGuided Reading Level: Not availableGenre: FictionPre-Reading

This activity is a creative writing assignment in which first graders create poetry from scientific information about dragonflies.