By analzying picture books, students will make connections between the text and the illustrations of a story. They will compare and contrast the text and the illustrations and reflect upon how they impact their comprehension of a text.

This lesson teaches kids all about Malcolm X and how his childhood influenced him to become one of America's most well known, controversial, and revolutionary figures. First kids will listen to a read-aloud authored by Malcolm X's daughter, Ilyasah Shabazz, and then they will write an informative paragraph.

Students will use their understanding of plot, theme, and comparing and contrasting in this lesson that teaches about an award-winning African American author, Jacqueline Woodson. Students will read some of her fiction books and compare and contrast the stories. They'll also discuss what they think makes Jacqueline Woodson an award-winning author.

In this lesson, your students will explore the world through a variety of picture books. They will examine a variety of themes through each text that they read and determine any common themes among the texts.

The Earth is constantly giving us clean water, shelter, food, and so much more! Through this lesson, students will learn about how nature is always giving and discuss ways we can appreciate and take care of our environment.

Students will love talking about what they've been reading when the story comes to life. This tea time activity nourishes students' confidence in addition to improving their reading comprehension skills.

Reading can be a rollercoaster with its ups and downs! Use this lesson that features a rollercoaster-themed story map to teach your students about story structure and how to use a graphic organizer to visualize it.

How familiar are your fourth graders with the fictional genres available in their class or school libraries? This lesson introduces them to many genres of fictional books so they can get off to a terrific start of fourth grade reading.

Let’s read about our rights! In this social studies and language arts lesson, students learn about the Bill of Rights and participate in some fun writing activities.

Llama Llama's adventures are fun, interesting, and ready for your students' keen eyes. Explore the themes, setting, plots, and illustrations to discover hidden similarities and differences between these beloved picture books.

Every great reader and writer knows that syntax matters. During this lesson, students will use the close reading strategy to focus on word choice, and use their understanding of syntax to develop theories about patterns in the text.

In this lesson students will be guided through a session of reflecting on their day and their emotions. They will also practice ways they can welcome and befriend their emotions with kindness and curiosity.

Change is inevitable, even for story characters! In this lesson, your students will determine how a character changes throughout a story by focusing on the character’s dialogue and actions.

Fully adaptable, this lesson can be used to to highlight African American leaders, famous women, veterans, or any other group of individuals who have acted heroically and have positively influenced our nation!

Using the same action verbs all the time can get old. Help your students spice up their writing by teaching them to identify and use action verbs. Your young writers will explore synonyms to improve their repertoire of action verbs.

Let’s put it all together! In this lesson, students will explore the different parts of a drama or play. By the end of the lesson they will be able to define terminology related to plays and give examples of the unique genre features!