Hopefully, you caught last week’s blog post where we laid the basic foundations of our EB Lesson Planning Approach (and touched upon the life-changing concept of batch planning!), but if you haven’t, be sure to head back there before diving into today’s post where we’ll cover 3 engaging ways to start any literature unit.
This is what we call an Into Lesson.
With an Into Lesson, your #1 goal is to grab your students’ attention. That’s it – get them interested from the get-go!
There are three important aspects to keep in mind when thinking about your Into Lessons for your units:
- A quality Into Lesson sets your students up for success in the upcoming unit.
- It is typically one lesson that lasts no more than 1-2 class periods (it could even last for half of a class period).
- This is where you might want to provide background knowledge, introduce key vocabulary, or simply set the scene for your unit of study.
The ever-important thing to remember though is that this lesson should be super engaging to get student buy-in!
So, now that we know what an Into Lesson is, let’s talk about 3 different (and super engaging) into lessons that you can use to start any literature unit!
Popcorn Predictions
I LOVE popcorn predictions. In fact, it’s one of the easiest activities to use to introduce a new concept. Popcorn predictions works really well when you’re introducing novels, short stories, or poems.
I wrote a whole blog post about this a while ago that you can read here, but here are the cliff notes of how this works:
- Comb through the literature piece you’ll be teaching and search for quotes that are relevant to the text (but don’t give too much away).
- Aim for one quote per student, but if you have to repeat some quotes, it’s totally fine.
- Type up the quotes, print them out, and cut them up, so each quote is on a separate strip of paper.
- Each student gets one sentence strip (and a recording sheet) that they will read and make a prediction about the text based on that quote.
- After writing their first prediction, they will then “pop” around the room, switching quotes with a classmate and making a second prediction.
- Students will do this anywhere from 3-4 times, after which, they will make a final prediction about the text to share with the class.
Five Word Wonder
I’ve used this particular activity so many different times with a wide variety of grade levels, and every time, without fail, students love it! They get into heated discussions about what they believe the text will be about and creates easy excitement about the text before we start reading!
Here’s how it works:
- Choose five unique (but important) words and/or phrases from the text you will be reading. For example, if you were reading “Thank You, M’am” by Langston Hughes, you might choose:
- Thank you, M’am
- run
- boy
- blue suede shoes
- Mrs. Luella Bates Washington Jones
- Without telling students anything, simply write these on the board or display them somewhere in your classroom.
- Place students into groups of 4-5 and explain to them that they will be writing their own anticipatory paragraph explaining what they believe the story will be about. No hints allowed – just the 5 words/phrases.
- After students have written their paragraphs with their group, have students share with the class and lead a whole class discussion.
You’ll love hearing about the predictions they come up with!
Visual Image Analysis
You’ll notice a theme here as we get to idea 3 … keep it simple! These Into Lessons are incredibly simply, yet powerful and engaging for students.
And something that you will always hear us preach: rinse and repeat! If your students loved Popcorn Predictions, do them again with your next text! Just because you’ve done it once doesn’t mean you can’t do it again.
Alright, Visual Image Analysis … here’s what you’ll need to know to get started with this Into Lesson:
- Choose an image that connects to the time period, historical context, theme, character, setting, or topic in the text you will be reading or unit you will be analyzing.
- Display this image somewhere in your classroom and have students analyze the image through the following lenses:
- Scan: What do students first notice?
- Observe: Students should make observations about the image.
- Predict: Provide students with 4-5 questions that have them making predictions about the text based on the image.
We hope you love using these ideas in your classroom with your students!
And if you’re looking for an incredible into lesson to kick off your Argumentative or Persuasive Writing Unit, grab our Free Whodunnit Detective Lesson and get your students stoked to find evidence from a mystery story and illustration to support claims and justify their reasoning.

Want to learn more about joining The EB Writing Program or how to start the purchase order process for your school district?
Visit : https://www.ebwritingprogram.com/school-licensing
24 Comments
Loved all three Intro lessons. Popcorn predictions is my favorite. I’ll be using this one in summer school next week.
I always enjoy your emails and appreciate y’all. Praying your business continues to prosper and reaches many educators.
* Be sure to correct the word “Into” lessons… INTRO lessons.
Sonya, check out this blog post; it explains the EB lesson plan approach, Into, Through, and Beyond.
https://ebacademics.com/2021/03/the-eb-lesson-planning-approach.html
Hi,
I loved these lessons as well. I also thought it was Intro Lessons, but realized it is actually Into Lessons. How clever of the EB team. You all do such a good job of helping us to engage students.
Thank you! So glad it’s helpful.
Thanks
I love these ideas! On the first one though if I’m seeing multiple classes a day would it be good to find different one for each period or just reuse them? 2) Simple but sounds effective. 3) most definitely will use.
These look like so much fun! I love having the kids make predictions.
I love these strategies and I am sure I am going to use them . Thank you so much for sharing !
Thank you!
3 Engaging Ways to Start Any Literature Unit
The title caught my eye and I’m so happy that I read through the post. These are some of the best ideas I have seen as they are gradeless/ageless. It may be a bit late for this year, but they will certainly be used next year. Thank you – Kathie (Canada)
I love these ideas. Thank you!
Loved popcorn predictions. I can’t wait to try the other two
Yay! Let us know how it goes.
I got excited about trying these out just by reading the directions! Thank you!
Awesome! Let us know how it goes.
What are your go-to INTO lessons for a nonfiction unit on text features or organization of text?
Hey, ELizabeth! I would say a great Into lesson is to teach the types of text structures and how to identify them (like their definitions and words they commonly use), then play a game in which students identify the text structures within sentences or short texts. Text Structure Knockout is the Into Lesson in our latest monthly issue!
I love these ideas!
Awesome! Be sure to let us know if you try them out.