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Lesson Plans and Teaching Resources for The Raft

The cover for The Raft Lesson Plans and Teaching Resources

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Use The Raft by Jim LaMarche to strengthen your students' comprehension skills, build their vocabulary, and help them understand how words work.

No friends, no TV, and lots of chores; not exactly the summer that Nicky was hoping for. The Raft tells the story of how his summer turns around when Nicky finds a raft that provides adventures unlike he has ever experienced. This engaging story is excellent for practicing comprehension strategies including making connections, synthesizing, asking questions, making predictions, and making inferences.

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Explore lesson plans and activities to help you teach with The Raft in the drop down below.

Asking Questions with The Raft

Nicky's adventures on the raft encourage students to ask questions about the characters and plot of the story. Some questions may not be explicitly answered in the story, prompting students to use their imagination and information from the text to come up with their own answers.

Common Core State Standards Alignment

RL.3.4RL.3.10RF.3.3RF.3.4SL.3.1cSL.3.1dSL.3.2SL.3.3W.3.8RL.3.1L.3.6RL.3.3

TEKS Alignment

3.1A3.7F3.1C3.7G3.1D3.8C3.1E3.9C3.6A3.13A3.6B3.13E3.6I3.13H3.7B3.7C3.7D3.7E

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Making Connections with The Raft

Making connections to The Raft will help your readers more deeply understand the story. With this lesson plan, students will have the opportunity to practice making text to self, text to text, and text to world connections with prompting and support.

Common Core State Standards Alignment

RL.3.3RL.3.10RF.3.3RF.3.4SL.3.1dSL.3.2SL.3.3W.3.8L.3.6RL.3.1

TEKS Alignment

3.1C3.7F3.1D3.7G3.1E3.8C3.6A3.13C3.6E3.13E3.6I3.13H3.7A3.7B3.7C3.7D3.1A3.7E

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Making Inferences with The Raft

Author Jim LaMarche includes clues in both the text and illustrations to help readers make inferences while reading The Raft. Adding their prior knowledge to these clues enables students to make logical inferences about the story.

Common Core State Standards Alignment

RL.3.7RF.3.3RF.3.4SL.3.1dSL.3.2SL.3.3W.3.8L.3.6RL.3.1RL.3.4

TEKS Alignment

3.1D3.7F3.1E3.7G3.6A3.8C3.6B3.13C3.6F3.13E3.6I3.13H3.7A3.7B3.7C3.1A3.7D3.1C3.7E

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Making Predictions with The Raft

While reading The Raft, students will gain practice using the text and illustrations to make predictions about the characters, events, problems, and solutions in the story. After reading, students will reflect on whether their predictions were correct or not.

Common Core State Standards Alignment

RL.3.3RL.3.10RF.3.3RF.3.4SL.3.1dSL.3.2SL.3.3W.3.8L.3.6RL.3.1RL.3.2

TEKS Alignment

3.1C3.7E3.1D3.7F3.1E3.7G3.6A3.8C3.6B3.13C3.6C3.13E3.6I3.13H3.7A3.7B3.7C3.1A3.7D

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Synthesizing with The Raft

As students read The Raft by Jim LaMarche, their thinking may change as the main character's feelings about his summer change. Use this lesson plan to help students "think about their thinking" as the story unfolds.

Common Core State Standards Alignment

SL.3.1dRL.3.2SL.3.2RL.3.3SL.3.3RL.3.4W.3.8RL.3.5L.3.6RL.3.6RL.3.7RL.3.10RF.3.3RF.3.4SL.3.1cRL.3.1

TEKS Alignment

3.6H3.13E3.6I3.13H3.7B3.7C3.7D3.1A3.7E3.1C3.7F3.1D3.7G3.1E3.8C3.6A3.8D3.6G3.13C

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Comprehension Assessment with The Raft

Use this Common Core aligned comprehension assessment to evaluate students' comprehension of The Raft.

Common Core State Standards Alignment

TEKS Alignment

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Running Record with The Raft

Use this Running Record to assess oral reading fluency with The Raft. Track meaning, structure, and visual accuracy using the first 100 words of the text to determine whether or not this book is a good fit for the readers in your classroom.

Common Core State Standards Alignment

TEKS Alignment

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Cause and Effect Matching with The Raft

Read The Raft then have some fun matching cause and effect sentences from the book. By using these cause and effect cards, students will demonstrate both their comprehension of the text and their understanding of cause and effect relationships in hands-on and interactive way.

This resource includes matching/sorting cards and a sorting mat for four cause and effect sentences in The Raft. Each cause card is marked with a square and each effect card is marked with a circle, making it easy to support students who struggle with matching cause and effect relationships.

Common Core State Standards Alignment

TEKS Alignment

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Cause and Effect Sentence Stems with The Raft

Understanding cause and effect is a key comprehension and language skill. The text structure of The Raft includes several examples of cause and effect relationships, making it easy to use as a springboard for modeling or independent practice.

This simple resource includes four sentence stems. Each sentence stem presents an effect. Students will use what they know about the book to fill in the cause of the effect.

Common Core State Standards Alignment

TEKS Alignment

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Writing with The Raft

The BookPagez extension activities are a great way to push student engagement beyond the pages of the text. Try using this activity with early finishers, with students who show a deeper connection with the text, or as a center activity.

Common Core State Standards Alignment

TEKS Alignment

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Asking Questions with The Raft (Spanish)

Student Practice Page and Answer Key
Reader's Notebook Prompt
Graphic Organizer

Making Connections with The Raft (Spanish)

Student Practice Page and Answer Key
Reader's Notebook Prompt
Graphic Organizer

Making Inferences with The Raft (Spanish)

Student Practice Page and Answer Key
Reader's Notebook Prompt
Graphic Organizer

Making Predictions with The Raft (Spanish)

Student Practice Page and Answer Key
Reader's Notebook Prompt
Graphic Organizer

Synthesizing with The Raft (Spanish)

Student Practice Page and Answer Key
Reader's Notebook Prompt
Graphic Organizer

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About the Book

Title: The Raft

Author: Jim LaMarche

Genre: Realistic Fiction

Themes: Family, Summer, Adventure

ISBN: 9780064438568

Publisher's Summary:

Nicky is convinced that his summer with his grandmother in the Wisconsin woods is going to be the worst summer ever. She cooks food that he doesn’t like, there’s an art studio where her living room should be, and he’s expected to do chores—including fishing, the most boring chore ever. But one afternoon, while Nicky is trying to catch their dinner, a raft drifts down the river towards him. The raft has a calming magic about it, affecting both Nicky and the wildlife of the river and woods. Through the raft and the adventures it brings him on, Nicky finds new common ground with his grandmother, a fellow river rat, who encourages him to explore his newfound talent for art.

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Lesson Plans and Teaching Resources for The Raft