Inclusive Big Ideas
Use these “Inclusive Big Ideas” to plan grade-level standards-based lessons for all students, including those with significant cognitive disabilities. Grab your colleague and start by finding the standard that you are teaching and then browse the resource to:
- Spark ideas for instructional strategies and activities
- Align lesson content and instruction while removing common barriers to student learning
- Identify essential content, concepts, and vocabulary related to standards
- Integrate cross-curricular connections and evidence-based practices that optimize engagement
Suggested Citation
- TIES Center. (2021). Inclusive Big Ideas. https://tiescenter.org/topics/inclusive-instruction/ibi
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Compare and contrast characters, settings, or events in a text
Grade 5: English Language Arts - Reading Literature
Standard: Compare and contrast two or more characters, settings, or events in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., how characters interact). RL.5.3
Describe the changes in characters, settings, or events in a text
Grade 6: English Language Arts - Reading Literature
Standard: Describe how a particular story’s or drama’s plot unfolds in a series of episodes as well as how the characters respond or change as the plot moves toward a resolution. RL.6.3
Describe how changes in characters, settings, and plots interact over the course of a text
Grade 7: English Language Arts - Reading Literature
Standard: Analyze how particular elements of a story or drama interact (e.g., how setting shapes the characters or plot). RL.7.3
Explain text structure, including the difference between fiction and nonfiction
Grade 1: English Language Arts - Reading Literature
Standard: Explain major differences between books that tell stories and books that give information, drawing on a wide reading of a range of text types. RL.1.5
Describe what happens in a story using text structure, including the beginning, middle, and end of a story
Grade 3: English Language Arts - Reading Literature
Standard: Refer to parts of stories, dramas, and poems when writing or speaking about a text, using terms such as chapter, scene, and stanza; describe how each successive part builds on earlier sections. RL.3.5
Describe what happens in a story using text structure; Explain the differences between text types (poem, prose, drama)
Grade 4: English Language Arts - Reading Literature
Standard: Explain major differences between poems, drama, and prose, and refer to the structural elements of poems (e.g., verse, rhythm, meter) and drama (e.g., casts of characters, setting descriptions, dialogue, stage directions) when writing or speaking about a text. RL.4.5
Describe what happens in a story using text structure; Analyze how the structure of a text develops story elements
Grade 5: English Language Arts - Reading Literature
Standard: Explain how a series of chapters, scenes, or stanzas fits together to provide the overall structure of a particular story, drama, or poem. RL.5.5
Analyze how the structure of a text develops story elements (theme, setting, plot)
Grade 6: English Language Arts - Reading Literature
Standard: Analyze how a particular sentence, chapter, scene, or stanza fits into the overall structure of a text and contributes to the development of the theme, setting, or plot. RL.6.5
Analyze how the structure of a text develops literary elements
Grade 7: English Language Arts - Reading Literature
Standard: Analyze how a drama’s or poem’s form or structure (e.g., soliloquy, sonnet) contributes to its meaning. RL.7.5
Analyze how the structure of a text develops literary elements
Grade 8: English Language Arts - Reading Literature
Standard: Compare and contrast the structure of two or more texts and analyze how the differing structure of each text contributes to its meaning and style. RL.8.5
Compare points of view
Grade 4: English Language Arts - Reading Literature
Standard: Compare and contrast the point of view from which different stories are narrated, including the difference between first- and third-person narrations. RL.4.6
Compare points of view
Grade 5: English Language Arts - Reading Literature
Standard: Describe how a narrator’s or speaker’s point of view influences how events are described. RL.5.6
Analyze point of view
Grade 6: English Language Arts - Reading Literature
Standard: Explain how an author develops the point of view of the narrator or speaker in a text. RL.6.6
Analyze point of view
Grade 7: English Language Arts - Reading Literature
Standard: Analyze how an author develops and contrasts the points of view of different characters or narrators in a text. RL.7.6
Analyze point of view
Grade 8: English Language Arts - Reading Literature
Standard: Analyze how differences in the points of view of the characters and the audience or reader (e.g., created through the use of dramatic irony) create such effects as suspense or humor. RL.8.6
Comprehend information from multiple representations
Grade 1: English Language Arts - Reading Literature
Standard: Use illustrations and details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events. RL.1.7
Comprehend information from multiple representations
Grade 2: English Language Arts - Reading Literature
Standard: Explain how specific images (e.g., a diagram showing how a machine works) contribute to and clarify a text. RL.2.7
Comprehend information from multiple representations
Grade 3: English Language Arts - Reading Literature
Standard: Explain how specific aspects of a text’s illustrations contribute to what is conveyed by the words in a story (e.g., create mood, emphasize aspects of a character or setting). RL.3.7
Explain how information from multiple representations of a topic contribute to understanding of the topic
Grade 4: English Language Arts - Reading Literature
Standard: Make connections between the text of a story or drama and a visual or oral presentation of the text, identifying where each version reflects specific descriptions and directions in the text. RL.4.7
Explain how information from multiple representations of a topic contribute to understanding of the topic
Grade 5: English Language Arts - Reading Literature
Standard: Analyze how visual and multimedia elements contribute to the meaning, tone, or beauty of a text (e.g., graphic novel; multimedia presentation of fiction, folktale, myth, or poem). RL.5.7
The Inclusive Big Ideas were adapted from resources created by the NCSC Project , a federal grant from the US Department of Education (PR/Award #: H373X100002), However, the contents do not necessarily represent the policy of the US Department of Education and no assumption of endorsement by the Federal government should be made.