Power to Learn
How Much Space Do We Have?
Census-takers view the Internet to find the total population of a city and its total land area. They work with different mathematical scenarios that involve populations and land area in their city. They complete math problems and unit...
EngageNY
Talking with My Peers: Carousel of Reading Superheroes Around the World
In many places in the world, people go to great lengths to get books to read. This beginning-of-the-year activity uses pictures of people reading in extraordinary situations to stimulate effective listening and speaking using the...
EngageNY
Continued Close Reading of Waiting for the Biblioburro: Comparing and Contrasting the Children in Colombia, Appalachia, Chad, and Afghanistan
Focus on similarities and differences with a jigsaw activity that requires pupils to compare Waiting for the Biblioburro to other texts they have read. To prepare, class members first respond to text-dependent questions, moving on to...
EngageNY
End of Unit Assessment Part II: Science Talk
Scholars complete Part 2 of their end of unit assessment by having a science talk. Pupils pair up to answer questions about what makes a natural disaster. As one learner talks, the other records what is said. They then trade places.
ReadWriteThink
Style-Shifting: Examining and Using Formal and Informal Language Styles
Your high schoolers are probably versed in two languages: formal language, and informal conversation. Help them identify the correct language style for their audience and context with a thorough lesson and examples of different speech...
Curated OER
Temperature Conversions
Students discuss the different between the English system of measurement and the metric system. Working ins mall groups, students read the weather map. They convert temperatures from one measurement system to another.
Curated OER
Trek Across America
Bring a time machine into your classroom with this writing lesson, in which young writers project themselves back in time and have a variety of choices from that point forward. They either write a conversation with a historical figure,...
Outside Education
Handmade Fettuccine
Young chefs engage in an interdisciplinary cooking lesson converting measurements within a recipe, crafting noodles, gathering herbs from the school garden, and making fettuccine for a class luncheon.
EngageNY
Science Talk: How do Bullfrogs Survive
Following the reading of the book Bullfrog at Magnolia Circle, the ninth activity in this unit involves emerging experts in a science talk about how bullfrogs survive. Looking back through the text, young scholars prepare for the...
EngageNY
Choosing a Book That Interests Me: Seeking the Superhero Reader in Me
Selecting a "power book" and engaging in a structured class discussion are the learning targets for this fourth lesson in a larger unit. It is designed as a beginning of the year unit for establishing norms and routines in the classroom....
EngageNY
Introducing Close Reading: Finding the Main Message and Taking Notes About Rain School
This second lesson in a larger unit is perfect for the beginning of the year because it explicitly teaches 3rd graders how to use close reading skills by identifying unfamiliar words, figuring out the gist, and defining important...
EngageNY
Continued Close Reading of Nasreen's Secret School: Discussions of Questions and Evidence
Third graders answer text-dependent questions of the story Nasreen's Secret School both independently and then collaboratively through using the carousel of questions strategy. This plan is the seventh instructional activity in a...
EngageNY
Close Reading of Bullfrog at Magnolia Circle: Main Ideas about the Bullfrog
As your class reaches the end of the book Bullfrog at Magnolia Circle, the seventh lesson in this literary unit helps third graders transition from reading narrative to expository writing. Scholars develop their note-taking skills...
Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District
Parts of Speech Pre-Test: The Building Blocks of Grammar
Help your learners get a good grasp on grammar. An insightful pre-test allows teachers to learn about their young writers' knowledge of the building blocks of grammar, so they can begin building a unit of study. It includes a...
Curated OER
English Measurement System
Students determine how to convert measurement. In this English Measurement activity, students discover interesting facts about the history of measurement. Students study formulas and practice using them.
Curated OER
Guess Who's Coming to Dinner?
Who would you love to see at your table? Groups research a decade, ranging from the 1840s to the 1960s, read a short story associated with that decade, and plan a dinner party, complete with table set-up and menu. After researching...
EngageNY
Close Reading of Nasreen's Secret School: How Do People Access Books in Afghanistan?
Third graders continue to practice the close reading skills of capturing the gist and reading again for important details in the sixth lesson in a larger unit. This is a great beginning-of-the-year unit for establishing visible thinking...
EngageNY
Contrasting Two Settings (Chapter 6: "Lost Melones/Cantalouples")
Continue working through Esperanza Rising, by Pam Munoz Ryan, by looking into language choices and discussing text-dependent questions. Pupils converse in small groups and as a class about plot, setting, and figurative language. Using...
Curated OER
Energy Conversions: Science and the Use of Energy
Students consider the concept of energy and its sources. They study how energy is converted for use and how it is managed and conserved.
EngageNY
Understanding Perspective: Japanese Society’s Impact on Japanese Guards (Pages 189-197)
The focus is on written communication as class members respond to questions about the text Unbroken in their Written Conversation note catchers. They trade note catchers with a partner every two minutes and then share ideas from their...
Curated OER
Phineas Gage: “How Do You Get Through Hard Times?” Chalk Talk
Hold a discussion in writing about coping strategies to prepare your pupils for reading Phineas Gage: A Gruesome but True Story About Brain Science by John Fleischman. After journaling, pupils come up in an organized fashion and write...
EngageNY
Drawing Inferences: “My Own True Name”sl.7.1
How much are you worth? Scholars read text dependent questions, and discuss how the text relates to self worth. They then work with partners by having written conversation to make inferences about the text. For homework, pupils correct...
EngageNY
How Does the Author Convey Themes in Bud, Not Buddy?
After reading up to chapter 12 of Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis, scholars read chapter 13 and take part in a grand conversation about the author's writing techniques. Pupils discuss how his writing conveyed literary themes...
EngageNY
Looking Closely at Stanza 3—Identifying Rules to Live By Communicated in “If”
Just as Bud, from the novel Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis, had rules to live by, so does the poem, If by Rudyard Kipling, but how do the two relate? Pupils delve deep into the poem's third stanza, participate in a grand...