Reading Skills Lesson Plans

Below are listed lesson banks and lesson plans from a variety of Internet sources. The Web Sites listed here have been selected to complement and enrich your teaching of the ELA Middle Years Language Arts Curriculum in the Grade 6 Reading Strand.

Lesson Banks

• Ohio Resource Centre Lesson Plans - The Ohio Resource Center improves teaching and learning by promoting best practices based upon the national and state standards in mathematics, science, and reading for Ohio schools and universities. The vast variety of lesson plans are arranged by subject and by grade level
• Arizona Education (AZED) Grade 6 Language Arts Resource Page - This web page is a work in progress. It contains lesson plans on many skills in both reading and language drawn from other web sites around the world.
• Academy Curricular Exchange - Language Arts Lessons - The OFCN (Organization for Community Networks) Curricular Exchange Web Page containing a variety of lesson plans on many aspects of Reading and Writing
• Language Arts Lesson Plans and Resources - This page contains links to lesson plans and resources for teaching reading, spelling, writing, journalism, communication, debate, and drama. Resources and lesson plans for children's and adolescent literature have been relocated to separate sites, but are still accessible from the site index.
• Teacher's.net Lesson Bank - Reading Skills - a bank of teacher written lesson plans that promote the reading genre. The bank is being added to continuously.
• Lesson Plan Search - A searchable data base of over 1000 lesson plans for Middle Years students covering many subject and topic areas.
• Language Arts Mini-Lessons - 33 mini-lessons for grades 4 - 12, with a focus on grades 6 - 8 from the Columbia Education Center. Grade level for each is marked.
• Alabama Learning Exchange Lesson Plans - here is a bank of well written and well supported lesson plans with a technology bent promoting both Reading and Writing skills. Locate the lesson plan according to subject and grade level by checking the appropriate boxes.
• Grade Six Units/Lesson Plans - from RichlandOne Interactive comes this excellent bank of unit and lesson plans in ELA. Click the Reading/Language Arts link to jump to the lessons/units in that subject area.
• Novel & Picture Book Activities - a bank of lesson plans outlining specific activities students can do with novels and with picture books.

Individual Lesson/Unit Plans

• Teaching Skimming from the BBC Skillswise Web Site - from the BBCi Web Site, this is a collection of factsheets, quizzes, and worksheets that deal with skimming skills. There is also a tutor section which lists a number of other sites with lesson plans that deal with the development of these skills.
• Teaching Scanning from the BBC Skillswise Web Site - from the BBCi Web Site, this is a collection of factsheets, quizzes, and worksheets that deal with scanning skills. There is also a tutor section which lists a number of other sites with lesson plans that deal with the development of these skills.
• Word Wall - Ideas on how to have students read a word wall in the classroom. A word wall is a systematically organized collection of words displayed in large letters on a wall or other large display place in the classroom. There really are no set "rules" for word walls and you will find plenty of variations on the idea.
• My Own Kingdom - This lesson requires students to write a descriptive essay and make an illustration of their own imaginary kingdom and share with the class. This lesson can be done after reading about Leslie's and Jesse's kingdom from the book, Bridge to Terabithia, by Katherine Paterson (or any other imaginative kingdom).
• Reading for Meaning - Focuses on the skills and strategies needed for close reading to support the current topic or theme. Students choose non-fiction texts and learn how and why to use specific reading strategies to gather information to share and discuss with a group.
• Aboriginal Literature Unit for Grade 6 - This grade six English Language Arts unit plan explores different genres of Aboriginal literature such as stories, legends and poetry. Students are given opportunities to complete a story frame, write their own children’s story and legend, and listen to an Aboriginal storyteller and Aboriginal recordings. Numerous assessment templates are provided
• Literature: Story Elements - These sites have hands-on activities and graphic organizers to help students understand the different story elements, including plot, setting, and characterization. Also learn about sequencing and cause and effect. There are links to eThemes Resources on character traits, book activities, and graphic organizers.
• Literature: Choose-Your-Own-Adventure Stories - Some examples of "Choose Your Own Adventure" stories, definitions of story structure and tips on vivid grammar.
• Literature: Book Activities - These hands-on activities can be used to supplement almost any book. Includes class activities to increase reading comprehension and vocabulary. Includes a link to eThemes Resource on story elements.
• Action Is Character: Exploring Character Traits with Adjectives - In this activity, students "become" one of the major characters in a book and describe themselves and other characters, using Internet reference tools to compile lists of accurate, powerful adjectives. In class discussion, students support their lists with details from the novel.
• An Exploration of Text Sets: Supporting All Readers - Text sets focus on one concept, and include books, Web sites, maps, pamphlets, poetry, photographs, almanacs or encyclopedias. In this lesson, students create text set collections on topics of keen interest. They will explore the texts using three reading strategies. Research strategies from your own repertoire can extend the lesson.
• Building Reading Comprehension Through Think-Alouds - This lesson shows teachers how to use think-alouds in the classroom for improved understanding of texts and as an assessment of reading performance
• Critical Literacy: Point of View - By the sixth grade, most students are able to identify point of view in texts by recognizing writing in the first person, second person, and third person. In this lesson, students learn to look at texts from different viewpoints. Was the "big bad wolf" really bad? Throughout the lesson, students are encouraged to view texts from different angles.
• Developing a Definition of Reading through Analysis in Middle School - Students will interact with a variety of different texts to uncover a broader meaning of reading.
• Internalization of Vocabulary Through the Use of a Word Map - Middle school students can internalize vocabulary through the use of a concrete and sequential word map. This multisensory method, which incorporates sketching, is intended as one method that students can choose to increase their personal vocabularies.
• Press Conference for Bud, Not Buddy - This lesson is designed for middle school students reading Bud, Not Buddy, by Christopher Paul Curtis. The lesson encourages students to use higher-level thinking and discussion skills, as well as to take on the perspectives of different characters. The activities are interactive, and focus on comprehension skills.
• Reading and Analyzing Multigenre Texts - In this lesson plan, students develop a definition of multigenre texts by exploring a multigenre picture book, short chapter books, and, if desired, multigenre novels. Students will brainstorm alone and together what they will need as readers to read and understand multigenre texts successfully. The students will share findings and discuss strategies needed to comprehend, and by extension to write, these texts.
• Scaffolding Comprehension Strategies Using Graphic Organizers - To facilitate comprehension during and after reading, students apply four reading strategies: preview, click and clunk, get the gist, and wrap-up. Graphic organizers are used for scaffolding of these strategies while students work together in cooperative groups.
• Story Character Homepage - A project for literature circles or class novels to develop understanding of a character. In groups students will look at examples of homepages on the Internet, note what elements most contain, and use them as models to create a homepage for their chosen character.
• Student Contracting - This lesson will help your students become more engaged and motivated by developing learning contracts in the classroom. Reading and writing is the focus of the lesson; however, contracts can easily be incorporated into all subject areas for a variety of purposes.
• Using QARs to Develop Comprehension and Reflective Reading Habits - Using whole-class, small-group, and individual instruction, this lesson shows students how to ask and answer different levels of questions in an effort to enhance reading comprehension. Students use the question-answer relationship (QAR) strategy to become more aware of their own internal reading processes.
• Using the Check and Line Method to Enhance Reading Comprehension - Although basal textbooks are often considered a teaching faux pas, they are in fact still purchased and issued to students to supplement lesson materials as well as to reinforce mandated curriculum guidelines. This lesson is intended to assist students in retaining valuable information and grasping difficult concepts addressed in texts.

Found a valuable Lesson Plan you think should be added here? Contact us at: Online Learning Centre

Web Resources | Lesson Plans | Home