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 8 Reading Strand.

Lesson Banks

• 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.
• Novel & Picture Book Activities - a bank of lesson plans outlining specific activities students can do with novels and with picture books
• 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 Eight 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.

Individual Lesson/Unit Plans

• Interactive Reading Project - Students are motivated to read and learn to discuss literature by discussing books they are reading via e-mail.
• What a Novel Idea! : A Cooperative Learning Approach to Novel Studies for Middle Years Students (Writing Workshop) - Reading response journals, literature circles, Readers' Theatre and cooperative group work are just a few of the strategies used in this multigrade unit plan which is designed for students in grades six to nine. Consideration is given to the Adaptive Dimension by making provisions for a variety of learning styles and abilities and by altering evaluation methods
• Journal Topics for Novel Study - a list of activities that may be used in conjunction with the teaching of novels.
• 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 eighth 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.

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