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Language Arts

Ask students to draw a picture of something of their choice; their family, a house, their pet, or another concept that the child is familiar with. Then ask the child to say a sentence or two about the picture, for example "Our dog is brown." Write the child's words on the bottom of her picture and read them back to her. As you write, model a clear sound to letter match. "We read a book about the moon. I'm going to write the word mmmmmmoon. What sound is at the beginning of moon? What letter makes that sound?" Encourage the child to read the sentence too.

Have students tell a group story. Sometimes called Language Experience Charts, group stories benefit from a shared class experience like a field trip or school assembly. Start by brainstorming a title. Write down the children's ideas. If necessary, prompt a sequence "What happened first? Then what did we do?" and so on. Record the sentences as the children dictate them. As you write, model a clear sound to letter match. "We read a book about the moon. I'm going to write the word mmmmmmoon. What sound is at the beginning of moon? What letter makes that sound?" When the story is finished, read the story aloud with the children. Read it several times, then ask if anyone would like to read it by himself. Give everyone a chance to read. Later, copy the story on chart paper and display it in the classroom.

Science

Children learn to describe and care for plants and animals, recording their findings in science journals through pictures, dictation, or kindergarten-style writing.

Social Studies

Teachers can follow up with a read aloud by asking students to summarize a read aloud on a social studies topic. Teachers can write the student dictations on chart paper. Summaries can be read by the whole class.

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Dictation is the process of writing down what someone else has said. With young children, dictation offers a way for a parent or a teacher to record a child's thoughts or ideas when the writing demands surpass writing skills. Dictation provides a chance for an adult to model many writing behaviors including handwriting, matching sounds-to-letters to spell words, and sentence formation.

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Some students who process things at a slower rate may not be able to keep up if they are expected to write what they hear. Others may not be able to recognize words as they are written if they are speaking and being listened to and recorded by a teacher.

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Dictation is great for verbal learners and ELLs. It is also a great way for students to see writing modeled in a correct way. If a teacher is writing down what a student says for them to see, students can begin putting together words and sounds as well as correctly see how things should be written. ELL students especially benefit from this form of modeling as they are learning to speak and write in English. If a child is writing down what others are saying, they are practicing their handwriting, spelling, and listening skills.

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Dictation is when students listen to a teacher or another student speak and write what they say. It can be used in multiple subjects and covered in various ways.

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Paragraph Hamburger | Classroom Strategy | Reading Rockets

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The "paragraph hamburger" is a writing organizer that visually outlines the key components of a paragraph. Topic sentence, detail sentences, and a closing sentence are the main elements of a good paragraph, and each one forms a different "piece" of the hamburger.

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Students may have a hard time brainstorming and organizing their thoughts in such a specific way. Some students with dyslexia or other forms of visual development issues may not be able to process or utilize the paragraph hamburger.

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The paragraph hamburger helps students visualize how information should be written and read. It is a great way to organize thoughts and to keep in mind key ideas and concepts. It’s a fun and new way to take in new information.

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A students ability to write is developed in three stages: emerging, beginning, and fluent. As the years of education goes, their writing grows and develops into fluency by fourth grade. A key component to being a fluent writer is understanding how to build a paragraph. The paragraph hamburger is a great way to help students organize their thoughts while properly constructing a paragraph.

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Language Arts

This planning checklist for a choral reading lesson uses the poem "One Sister for Sale" by Shel Silverstein. See example ›

This PDF includes dozens of poems for shared, choral, paired, and echo reading. See example ›

The website below offers teachers several poetry options conducive to the Choral Reading strategy along with some interesting tips on reading and language development. See example ›

The example of choral reading found on this site uses the children's book James and the Giant Peach. See example ›

Science

This lesson plan includes examples of choral reading activities that correspond to introductory science concepts. See example ›

Social Studies

This website includes a script for the choral reading of the children's book Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain. See example ›

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Choral reading is reading aloud in unison with a whole class or group of students. Choral reading helps build students' fluency, self-confidence, and motivation. Because students are reading aloud together, students who may ordinarily feel self-conscious or nervous about reading aloud have built-in support.

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Students who are not yet fluent or are a step behind may not benefit from reading with the class. They may process information at a slower rate and will not be able to keep up. Other students may not be able to focus as the others read aloud, as some students need a quiet space to read. Others who are more sensitive to loud noises may not benefit from listening to everyone read at once.

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Students who do not like to read aloud will feel more comfortable reading aloud when everyone else is reading too. This will offer a sense of support knowing that others are reading aloud and will not hear mistakes or may even correct mistakes as they read. This activity can build confidence and encourage students to read aloud on their own as they figure out that they are capable of doing so.

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Choral reading happens when an entire class or group of students read the same passage aloud, at the same time. Often short passages or text that is familiar to the students, having already heard it aloud or having read it themselves.

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Language Arts

Reader's theater lesson plans (with scripts):

Reader's theater scripts:

Math

Teachers can use reader's theater as an instructional technique for mathematical word problems. This example could be used for a reader's theater about 100's day and the concept of 100 .

Social Studies

Here are reader's theater scripts about America in varying reading levels.

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Reader's theater is a strategy for developing reading fluency. It involves children in oral reading through reading parts in scripts. In using this strategy, students do not need to memorize their part; they need only to reread it several times, thus developing their fluency skills. The best reader's theater scripts include lots of dialogue.

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If you have students that are not fluent readers, readers theater may be hard, embarrassing, and ineffective. Some readers that are completely fluent may also not enjoy reading in front of large or small groups. It could potentially set up a situation where students feel afraid to fail and instead do not want to participate.

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Often times, reader’s theater is fun and feels less like schoolwork. It is an engaging activity that allows students to read emotional and exaggerated text that may differ from what they usually read in class. They can work in small or large groups and are given room for error and correction.

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Fluency is the ability to read text with accuracy, speed, and porosity. Becoming a fluent reader is important in literacy. One way to check for and encourage fluency is through Reader’s Theater. Reader’s Theater is an activity that can be repeated and manipulated in many ways. Students will read parts from a prewritten script without having to do any memorization. They will often get a small amount of time to look over what is to be read but not a lot.

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Phonics instruction teaches the relationships between the letters of written language and the sounds of spoken language. To read, children need to understand the alphabetic principle - the idea that letters represent the sounds of spoken language. Decoding is when we use letter-sound relationships to translate a printed word into speech.

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Students who are not visual learners may have a harder time using magnets. Others may play with the magnets rather than learn. Some students may have a harder time with the varying colors and text styles of the magnets and might become overwhelmed.

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Students that are kinesthetic learners will have a great time using physical manipulative to learn to spell words and recognize letters. Teachers can easily help students fix errors and physically show them where they made a mistake.

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Alphabet magnets are a way for students to practice phonics while using manipulative. They can practice letter sounds, alphabetical order, and spelling words and sentences.

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KS1 Alphabet Strips and Tabletop Alphabet Lines - SparkleBox

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Free printable alphabet strips and mats for children to use on their desks.

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Alphabet Matching | Classroom Strategy | Reading Rockets

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Very young learners are developing their understanding of the alphabetic principle — the understanding that there are systematic and predictable relationships between written letters and spoken sounds. Teachers can help students develop this understanding through lots of fun activities that help stu…

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Students who are hearing or visually impaired may need differentiated instruction when it comes to learning letter and sound relationships. This may also be taught incorrectly, like with the usage of the “schwa” sounds, or the content may be taught at too fast of a pace with lifelong confusion.

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Alphabet matching is great for early learners that are trying to associate sounds with letters. It’s a good stepping stone towards reading full words and allowing students a chance to develop an understanding of the graphophonemic relationship.

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Phonics instruction should be consistent and utilizing what students are currently learning and what they have already learned. They should give students opportunities to practice letters and sounds and the relationships between them. A way for teachers to do this is through Alphabet a Matching. This strategy is helpful because it allows children to learn letters and sounds together,

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You are welcome to print copies for non-commercial use, or a limited number for educational purposes, as long as credit is given to Reading Rockets and the author(s). For commercial use, please contact the author or publisher listed.

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Phonemic Activities for the Preschool or Elementary Classroom

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Activities that stimulate phonemic awareness in preschool and elementary school children are one sure way to get a child ready for reading! Here are eight of them from expert Marilyn Jager Adams.

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Students with hearing impairments, slower processing skills, or students who are not auditory learners may not benefit from this faster paced lesson. They, in fact, may miss out on crucial information and understanding.

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Sound synthesis is a great way to help students recognize sounds, new words, and new vocabulary. By adding and subtracting letters and sounds from words they know, they can begin making connections to new words as they start to learn harder words.

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Phonemic awareness involves activities that can be “done in the dark.” Sound synthesis is the understanding that new words can be created from single words. How, if you add an ‘f’ to the beginning of the word ‘ox,’ then the word is now ‘fox.’

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You are welcome to print copies for non-commercial use, or a limited number for educational purposes, as long as credit is given to Reading Rockets and the author(s). For commercial use, please contact the author or publisher listed.

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Phonemic Activities for the Preschool or Elementary Classroom

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Activities that stimulate phonemic awareness in preschool and elementary school children are one sure way to get a child ready for reading! Here are eight of them from expert Marilyn Jager Adams.

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Some students that are more visual learners may be unable to fully grasp the concept of clapping as they speak. Students who have a harder time multitasking may also have a difficult time grasping the idea of clapping out syllables.

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Clapping syllables is a hands on way to understand how many syllables are in a word. It’s a great way for kinesthetic learners to grasp a more abstract concept that may be difficult to understand.

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Phonemic awareness is the ability to manipulate and think about phonemes as they are spoken. There are many ways for children to show that they have an understanding of being phonemically aware. Syllable games are one way for teachers to help their students establish phonemic awareness through allowing them to listen to and physically manipulate syllable sounds by clapping.

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Adler, C. (2004). Seven Strategies to Teach Students Text Comprehension.

Armbruster, B. B., Lehr, F., & Osborn, J. (2001) Put reading first: The research building blocks for teaching children to read kindergarten through grade three. Washington, DC: The U.S. Department of Education.

Boulineau, T., Fore, C, Hagan-Burke, S. and Burke, M. (2004). Use of Story-Mapping to Increase the Story-Grammar Text Comprehension of Elementary Students with Learning Disabilities. Learning Disability Quarterly, Vol. 27, No. 2 (Spring, 2004), pp. 105-121

Nell K. Duke, P. David Pearson, Stephanie L. Strachan, and Alison K. Billman (2011) Essential Elements of Fostering and Teaching Reading Comprehension . From What Research Has to Say About Reading Instruction (4th ed.), International Reading Association.

Nell K. Duke, Alessandra E. Ward, and P. David Pearson (2021). The Science of Reading Comprehension Instruction , The Reading Teacher, Vol 74, No. 6 (May-June 2021).

Dunst, C, Simkus, A, Hamby, D. (2012). Children's Story Retelling as a Literacy and Language Enhancement Strategy. CELLreviews 5(4). Asheville, NC: Orelena Hawks Puckett Institute, Center for Early Literacy Learning.

Santa, C., Havens, L., & Valdes, B. (2004). Project CRISS: Creating independence through student owned strategies 3rd Edition. Dubuque, IA: Kendall Hunt Publishing Company.

Timothy Shanahan et al., Improving Reading Comprehension in Kindergarten Through 3rd Grade (2010). U.S. Department of Education, Institute of Education Sciences.

Trabasso, T., & Bouchard, E. (2002) Teaching readers how to comprehend text strategically. In C. Block and M. Pressley, (Eds.) Comprehension instruction: Research-based practices (pp. 176-200). NY: Guilford Press.

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Story maps use graphic organizers to help students learn the elements of a book or story. The most basic story maps focus on the beginning, middle, and end of the story. More advanced organizers focus more on plot or character traits.

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Scaffolding instruction by providing prompts for each section of the story map you are using. For example, in the "Beginning" box of your map, write in prompts such as: Who is the story about? Where does the story happen?

Varying the complexity of story maps and sequencing words used. Some students may benefit from the very simple beginning-middle-end format. More complex sequences, such as first-next-then-last, can be used with students who are ready.

Using wordless books. There are many wordless books that can be used for sequencing with younger students and with English language learners or students with limited English proficiency. For younger students, Pancakes for Breakfast by Tomie dePaola, which humorously details a woman making pancakes from scratch, or the wordless adventures by Mark Newgarden about a small dog named Bow-Wow (e.g., Bow-Wow Bugs a Bug) are good options. Books by Barbara Lehmann and David Weisner are helpful for older or more sophisticated students practicing sequencing.

Using books in translation for picture sequencing activities. Providing English-learners with a copy of the text in their first language allows them to participate in sequencing and demonstrate their understanding of the concept and the content.

Modeling sequencing with a smaller group of students using a familiar book with a very clear narrative structure to help students understand each story component.

Extend the learning

Writing

Students can use sequencing words and charts to help them write summaries of texts they have read or heard. They can also use sequencing as a pre-writing technique for planning their own writing or use a sequencing word anchor chart as a writing tool.

Math

Most math curricula include worksheets on ordinal numbers (first, second, third, etc). You can support students' sequencing ability by encouraging the use of vocabulary words such as "What bead goes first? Then which bead? Which bead is third?" Encouraging students to write out the steps for solving addition and subtraction problems that include regrouping is an excellent way to have them think through the steps in a logical order.

Science

Scientific inquiry also develops sequencing skills. In order to study or observe changes in something, students must follow along and record, in sequential order, what they notice. Students can document their observations by writing or drawing.

Social Studies

Timelines are a great way to teach sequence in social studies. Students may enjoy making a timeline of their own lives, including important milestones such as when they learned to walk or talk or when they first wrote their name or rode a bike. Once students understand the process of charting important milestones on a timeline, topics from the social studies curricula can be used. Try this printable timeline template.

Other ideas for sequencing

Arts and crafts activities. Quilt-making and other arts and craft activities may reinforce the idea of sequencing and also introduce math concepts (measurement, addition & subtraction and basic computation, etc). Alex Henderson's Kids Start Quilting with Alex Anderson: 7 Fun & Easy Projects Quilts for Kids by Kids, Tips for Quilting with Children provides easy instructions for adults quilting with children.

Cookbooks for children can reinforce math concepts (measurement, etc) and sequencing while making connections to students' reading. The Little House Cookbook: Frontier Foods from Laura Ingalls Wilder's Classic Stories by Barbara Walker presents recipes for foods mentioned in the Little House series by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

Everyday activities. Create a sequence page for a simple activity around the house or at school. Fold a blank piece of paper into squares. Start with 4 large squares. For older students, create more squares. Ask kids to draw the steps they know in the order in which the steps occur. For example, draw each step it takes to make a peanut butter and jelly sandwich or to brush their teeth.

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Story Sequence | Classroom Strategy | Reading Rockets

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Sequencing refers to the identification of the components of a story - the beginning, middle, and end - and also to the ability to retell the events within a given text in the order in which they occurred. The ability to sequence events in a text is a key comprehension strategy, especially for narrative texts.

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If a sequencing chart wants to be used, it must be used during or after a story has been read. Some learners cannot organize their thoughts in sequence of events and may struggle with visualizing the story in a step-by-step instruction.

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Retelling a story is a great way to help students remember what they have read. Retelling it verbally is a way to help answer questions and correct misunderstandings, which can then be turned into writing on a sequencing chart. The chart can help children learn transition words and increase their understanding of the parts of a story.

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When students create sequence charts, they are retelling a story they have read in order of events to better comprehend and retain the information they have been given.

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Disadvantage of story mapping are some students are not visual learners and cannot comprehend the information how it is presented. It is also not helpful when beginning a story as it is better used during or after a story, so it cannot help introduce.

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Story maps are a great way to enhance student comprehension, ensure that the important aspects of a story are being understood, and give all students the chance to organize their thoughts. They can be used in various subjects, even math and science, to help with student comprehension. There are more complex and simpler types of story maps for children that may be at varying levels of understanding.

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Here is an example of a story map:

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Story maps are used to help readers determine the different parts of a story, like: the characters, the setting, the plot, or the problem and solution. They are best used while a story is being read and after a story has been read to help gather information.