Understanding the big idea of a nonfiction text and being able to write a succinct summary are key fourth grade skills. This lesson focuses on summarizing a nonfiction passage in three to four sentences.

We often conduct reading fluency tests on our students without explicitly teaching this skill. Use this lesson, which incorporates student peer review, to help raise awareness of reading fluency while improving it.

Is it real or is it fantasy? This lesson introduces students to the literary concepts of realism and fantasy. Readers will practice this skill by using details in texts to distinguish the two genre elements.

Your students will practice searching for clues to uncover the main idea and supporting details in nonfiction texts about John Muir and Day of the Dead traditions around the world.

Making flash cards is something done by students of all ages. Help your kids develop good study habits with this lesson plan, which will teach them how to use flash cards and a dictionary to learn new vocabulary.

In this lesson, students will use their creativity, a graphic organizer, and a fun story to learn about character analysis.

It’s time to make an educated guess! In this lesson, your students will practice using their background knowledge and evidence from the text to make inferences in nonfiction pieces about Martin Luther King, Jr., and Cesar Chavez.

Young learners will love finding the main ideas in short informational texts. Featuring a bunch of fun worksheets, this lesson will help students learn about different topics while improving their reading skills.

Using your acting skills and a great book by Chris Van Allsburg, you will lead your students on an adventure to compare characters and events throughout a book.

Cats are the best! Pizza is better! My teacher rules! In Fact or Opinion: Part 1, your students will combine reading and writing to learn about the differences between facts and opinions and how those differences are communicated.

We aren’t mind readers, but we can still figure out why the author wrote a text and what an author thinks about the topic! This lesson will teach your students the main purposes for writing.

Context clues are a powerful tool for all readers! Use this lesson to teach your students how to utilize context clues to determine the meanings of unknown words.

Text formatting can add a lot of richness to how information is explained. In this lesson students will explore the organization of nonfiction texts and go on a scavenger hunt for different kinds of text formatting features.

It’s time to get those magnifying glasses out! In this lesson, students will act as detectives, searching for clues about idioms. Who can find the clues that lead to the meanings of various idioms?

Captions and illustrations come together and leap forth from your class as they relate to nonfiction texts.

That’s right! The theme applies to everyone! Use this interactive lesson to teach your students how to find the theme of a fictional text.

What do Malala Yousafzai, Al Gore, and Michelle Obama all have in common? They are all nonfiction authors with a purpose. In this interactive lesson, students will gain practice looking at details in text to identify the author’s purpose.

This lesson helps students learn about asking and answering questions about a text. It also exposes them to valuable lessons about trying to figure out their dreams and not giving up along the way.

Get your students moving! In this lesson, your students will walk around the classroom as they practice using and interpreting idioms.

Teach your students to ask and differentiate between recall questions and inferential questions. This lesson will help build a classroom culture around asking deep, inferential questions.

Take your understanding of factors one step further! Use this lesson to classify factors as prime and composite numbers while creating factor trees.

Look at history! In this lesson, guide students through an exploration of the context, causes, and effects of the Transcontinental Railroad, and help them practice identifying the main idea and supporting details in a nonfiction text.

Use this lesson to help your students learn how to find the main idea and details in a nonfiction text using a graphic organizer for support.

This lesson gives students the chance to demonstrate and reinforce their knowledge of sequencing. Have them role play a fantasy text to practice sequencing!

Students will have a blast as they engage in interactive projects to learn about the characteristics of urban, suburban, and rural communities. This lesson will help them develop both their writing and social-studies skills.

In this fun, fast-paced multiplication review lesson, students will play a musical game as they practice their facts while applying different techniques to their problem-solving skills.

How can you see what your students are thinking while they read? Try reading response letters in your class. Students will practice formatting letters and learn to discuss their thinking about literature in writing.

Keep it simple! Teach your students to write a summary using the Somebody-Wanted-But-So-Then frame for analyzing a story.

Jazz up your nonfiction reading and add a little color! Use this lesson with your students to teach them to cite text evidence as they answer questions by color coding.

Students will "roll" to this quick game and "slap out" multiplication facts to reinforce multiplication skills and beat their own scores!