ReadWriteThink is the RIGHT way to THINK about lesson development.

How I Use It

The most recent lesson I used with my class is "Get the GIST" when studying a primary source document of Queen Elizabeth I's speech prior to England's defeat of the Spanish Armada. As a 7th grade social studies teacher, the objective of the lesson was for students to get the "gist" of this speech and not be too weighed down by some of the vocabulary used, although we did analyze some pertinent words and phases within the speech. ReadWriteThink provided a lesson as well as a student-friendly graphic organizer where students answered the questions who, what, why, where, when and. how. Students then used their answers to these questions to write a 20 word summary of the speech. Since using this graphic organizer, students are now familiar with what the "gist" of a complex text is and can more easily break down both primary and secondary sources using this technique and organizer. I have particularly found this lesson helpful in differentiating instruction for students. This is just one example of one of the thousands of lessons that ReadWriteThink has to offer. While marketed as a reading/writing website, it has so many applications for all content areas. I highly endorse this site!