This selection is an informational narrative in the form of a play or Readers' Theater. The play is about a group of boys and girls who are summertime campers at the National Sea Base camp in the Florida Keys. Their adventure includes camping, snorkeling, and sailing aboard the ship. This is a new adventure for the characters in this story.

Students are guided through an informal exploration of nonfiction texts and child-oriented Websites, learning browsing and skimming techniques for the purpose of gathering interesting information.

Humor, trouble, and adventure follow Tom Sawyer everywhere--from the banks of the Mississippi to the brink of death and back in Mark Twain's first full novel. The Big Read Reader's Guide deepens your exploration with interviews, booklists, timelines, and historical information. We hope this guide and syllabus allow you to have fun with your students while introducing them to the work of a great American author.

This nonfiction story is about a partnership between a policeman, Officer Mike, and his partner, a police dog named Aero. Information about daily routine (work and breaks), Aero's special talents and Officer Mike's training and care of Aero is included.

Akiak is the story of a dog that desires to win the Iditarod with her owner, Mick. Akiak is injured and is disqualified from finishing the race, but she follows Mich and the team of dogs to the finish line. This lesson provides teachers with support for using text-dependent questions to help students derive big ideas and key understandings while developing vocabulary.

This informational text describes how paleontologists continue to investigate unanswered questions about dinosaurs.

The story is about a little boy who tries in vain to save, but unfortunately makes poor decisions and squanders his money.

Allie has a new basketball. She has a hard time finding someone to play with her because they believe basketball is a boys game. Allie continues to practice and play, despite their opinions.

Through a close reading of "Amelia Bedelia", students reread the material to discuss text-dependent questions, promoting deep thinking about the text and its characters.

This lesson provides teachers with support for using text-dependent questions to help students derive big ideas and key understandings while developing vocabulary from the text Amelia and Eleanor Go for a Ride. Pilot Amelia Earhart and first lady Eleanor Roosevelt are good friends and one night, after dinner at the White House, Amelia then offers to take Eleanor on an unforgettable night flight to Baltimore and back in the Curtis Condor twin-motor airplan. By the time they arrive back in Washington D.C., a group of reporters meets them at the airstrip. Eleanor admits to not flying this time, but has every intention to fly in the near future.

This lesson extends over several class periods. Students analyze the claim, grounds, warrants, qualifiers and counterclaims in three articles about the American Dream. Students conduct research and find two additional articles about the American Dream. Students then analyze the argument in those articles. Finally, students write their own argument essay about the current state of the American Dream.

Groups of students read and discuss American folklore stories, each group reading a different story. Using a jigsaw strategy, the groups compare character traits and main plot points of the stories. A diverse selection of American folk tales is used for this lesson, which is adaptable to any text set.

Students read three short stories about women; discuss the development of female characters, gender differences, and society' s expectations; and write scripts in which the characters discuss their similarities and differences.

By analyzing Dear Abby's rant about bad grammar usage, students become aware that attitudes about race, social class, moral and ethical character, and "proper" language use are intertwined.

In this lesson students use the Informational Text Analysis Tool to deconstruct the essential elements of informational text. Informational text is more important to teachers than ever before, especially with the rise of the new Core standards. The Library of Congress is an excellent resource for finding and using texts to build students' reading skills.Through a diverse array of classic and contemporary literature as well as challenging informational and primary source texts, students build knowledge, gain insights, explore possibilities, and broaden their perspective.

Students analyze images of Oscar Wilde used to publicize his 1882 American lecture tour. They then compare a caricature to another researched image, sharing this analysis in a podcast.

It is important for students to know how to evaluate messages conveyed by the news media. Exploration of the artistic techniques used in political cartoons leads to critical questioning.

Students listen to fiction and nonfiction read-alouds and explore selected Websites to identify factual information about animals. This lesson focuses on ants, but can be adapted to any animal.

Nine-year old Anthony is proud of his history, culture, and family tradition of Mexican rodeo-style roping and riding. He also enjoys various aspects of his modern life such as school, basketball, friendships, swimming, and exploring.

This video segment from Between the Lions is an original, animated retelling of the classic Aesops fable in which a grasshopper sings and dances while the ants gather food for winter. The grasshopper then has nothing to eat once the cold weather comes. In the end, the ants invite the grasshopper inside for a meal, and they all dance a merry mambo. Featured "m" words include: many, moons, moody, Murray, Marge, merry, Melanie, mangos, melons, mambo, music, moving, mushrooms, macaroni, managed, milk, Myrtle, mind, middle, month, mountains, melt, meanwhile, munched, moment, make, move, motioned, meatballs, mashed potatoes, magnificent, and meal. This video segment provides a resource for Fluency, Phonemic Awareness, Phonics, Letter Knowledge Awareness, and Phonological Awareness. ***Access to Teacher's Domain content now requires free login to PBS Learning Media.