What is a Target Lesson?
Target Lessons are short, easy-to-use, highly engaging lessons that support reading, writing, and classroom discussion. Each lesson is designed to be completed in one 50-minute class period and teaches students a key skill — like identifying the main idea or analyzing the author's point of view — that they’ll use to deeply understand the text. Target Lessons are 100% free for teachers and students, forever. Read more about why and how these lessons are free here.
Each Target Lesson directly addresses a reading skill through skill instruction and skill-aligned questions that students answer as they read.
Target Lessons are currently available for the following skills:
- Finding the best evidence
- Main Idea and Central Idea
- Connecting Ideas
- Cause and Effect
- Problem and Solution
- Theme and summarizing
- Finding the meaning of unknown words
- Analyzing Text Structure
- Identifying Author’s Point of View
- Analyzing Character Point of View
- Analyzing Characters
Target Lessons also include scaffolded Pre-Reading, During Reading, and Post-Reading activities that are designed to build students' engagement and knowledge as they move through the lesson. Read more about how to use Target Lessons in your classroom here.
Target Lessons may be appropriate for use as Tier 2 and Tier 3 interventions. We recommend consulting with your school or district's Multi-Tiered Systems of Support (MTSS) liaison for specific guidance.