One of the more challenging reading standards is explaining events in informational text. "Explain events, procedures, ideas, or concepts in a historical, scientific, or technical text, including what happened and why, based on specific information in the text." This can be

When I moved back to teaching fourth grade and read the standard "Compare and contrast a firsthand and secondhand account of the same event or topic; describe the differences in focus and the information provided" I was more than a little confused. Once I I spent time unpacking

I used to feel like the standard that required students to reference characters in mythology was a bit random. I struggled with how to tie this in to my reading instruction. But, when looking at the standards in totality, you can see how this builds upon previously taught

Theme has to be one of my favorite reading standards to teach. It's probably become of the amazing collection of mentor texts that can be used to teach theme, as well as how these lessons require students to dig a little deeper. This post shares some of my favorite mentor texts

I like to introduce point of view through a combination of lessons and activities. Even though it's not exactly the same thing, I also introduce the idea of perspective during these lessons. I typically spend about a week teaching point of view, and then I circle around back to

Main idea and supporting details are often extremely difficult for students to identify and understand. Over the years, I've learned that my main idea and supporting details instruction needs to be highly scaffolded in order for my students to grasp this tricky skill. All of

One of the best ways to teach characterization and character traits is through mentor texts. In fact, after I teach basic comprehension strategies, I begin teaching story elements. I spend a week on setting, characterization, and plot. You can read my post on teaching setting