Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District
Parts of Speech Adjectives: Building Blocks of Grammar
How do you describe a jellyfish? Individuals write adjectives for Nomura's jellyfish, take notes, and check understanding with a formative assessment. Notes include the definition for adjectives, guiding questions to help writers...
Santa Monica-Malibu Unified School District
Parts of Speech Verbs: Building Blocks of Grammar
Pupils begin with a brain teaser, take notes, and formatively check understanding with a Chinese proverb. In addition to parts of speech, the resource also includes information about parts of a sentence. Teachers may extend instruction...
EngageNY
Looking Closely at Stanza 2—Identifying Rules to Live By Communicated in “If”
Pupils take part in a close reading of the poem, If by Rudyard Kipling, in which they delve deep into its meaning and identify its rules to live by. As the grand discussion progresses, learners then relate the poem's rules with those...
EngageNY
Launching To Kill A Mockingbird: Establishing Reading Routines (Chapter 1)
Scholars use a Story Impressions Note-catcher to capture their first impressions of words or phrases from To Kill a Mockingbird. They then listen to a reading of the first six pages of the novel before the teacher asks questions to check...
EngageNY
Introducing Research Folders and Generating a Research Question
Take the next step in the writing process with a lesson plan geared towards the completion of writing an evidence-based essay about a rule to live by, as Bud did in Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis. Pupils collaborate with their...
EngageNY
Choosing Songs for the Film Soundtrack
Music has the power to bring topics alive. Learners take on the role of sound director in their film planning and choose the songs to accompany their photographs. They must also support their decisions with evidence and reasoning as they...
Road to Grammar
Understanding the -ED Ending
English is a complex language, so take some time to clarify one aspect that is often confusing for English language learners: the -ed ending. This resource includes information about the different ways the -ed ending is used and provides...
Curriculum Corner
Informational Text Graphic Organizers
Examine informational text with a three-page worksheet that focuses on taking notes, identifying the main idea, and locating supporting details in order to form a summary paragraph.
Worksheet Web
Language – Debating
Having a debate doesn't mean you're fighting. Introduce middle schoolers to debate with a resource which distinguishes between an quarrel and a debate, describes the debate process and format, and presents some possible debate topics.
EngageNY
End of Unit 2 Assessment: Working with Two Texts - Reading, Listening, Summarizing, and Synthesizing
As a summative assessment for this unit on colonial trade, fourth graders listen to and read informational texts in order to demonstrate their ability to take notes, write summaries, and draw connections. Young scholars first listen as...
Curated OER
Expressing Your Views to the Letter
Analyze the motivation, purpose, and value of letters to the editor by examining letters written in response to the violence at Columbine High School. For homework, middle and high schoolers write their own letters to the editor about an...
EngageNY
Building Background Knowledge: Colonial Craftspeople
In the first lesson plan of this unit on colonial trade, fourth graders gain background knowledge of different jobs performed by early colonists. The class begins with a slide show presentation that includes a variety of great...
Curated OER
Rockefeller's Revenge: Exxon and Mobil Unite
Study the impact and possible outcomes of the Exxon-Mobil merger in your language arts, social studies, or economics class. Secondary learners evaluate a series of graphs, write a paragraph interpreting the data, and engage in class...
Curated OER
Hoot: KWHL
How can we help endangered animals? Learn about which animals are endangered and what people can do to protect them with a lesson based on Carl Hiaasen's Hoot. After completing a KWHL chart to note what they already know and what they...
Student Handouts
Group Discussion Notes
Hold participants accountable for group discussions by asking members to take notes. After identifying the topic, the recorder indicates the speaker, the speaker’s opinion, and comments on this opinion. The matrix could also be given to...
EngageNY
Mid-Unit Assessment: Getting to Know a Character: What Details in the Text Help Us Understand Ha?
Take a walk with me. Scholars participate in a gallery walk of the anchor charts their groups created about Inside Out & Back Again in the previous lesson plan. Pupils take notes about Ha's character on sticky notes as they take the...
California Education Partners
Follow the Water by Arthur Dorros
Assess scholars' reading and writing capabilities with an exam that challenges learners to respond to an informative text. Through note-taking and peer discussion, pupils analyze a passage from the story, Follow the Water from Brook to...
Curated OER
Beginning Your Inquiry
If you're starting a research project, use this guide to help young learners form the inquiry for their research. With steps that outline the entire process, including note taking and gauging the quality of an inquiry question, this...
California Education Partners
Tuck Everlasting
An assessment takes a close look at the story, Tuck Everlasting by Natalie Babbitt, and tests writing abilities. Over the course of two days, scholars read an excerpt, answer questions on a learning exercise pertaining to the author's...
Curated OER
Student Opinion: What Small Things Have You Seen and Taken Note of Today?
An interesting and unusual topic for a news article, this resource from the New York Times website asks learners to take a moment and consider all the things they notice during a typical day. Based of the editorial piece "Things I Saw"...
Maine Content Literacy Project
Introduction to the Short Story
How should pupils read short stories? Set them up for this unit with an introductory lesson that goes over the main characteristics of a short story and starts learners off reading their first short story of the unit. In order to get a...
Pulitzer Center
Peacebuilding: Taking Home Lessons Learned in Africa
Learners take a closer look at one journalist's work on UN Peacebuilding efforts in four African nations: Sierra Leone, Burundi, Central African Republic, and Guinea Bissau. They collaborate to define peacebuilding and discuss the...
PBS
Interviewing: The Art of Asking Questions
Interviewing skills are important, even outside of a news reporter's desk or employer's office. Take your class through the process of interviewing people they don't know with a set of case studies featuring journalists and various...
EngageNY
Grade 9 ELA Module 2: Unit 1, Lesson 3
Hearken! and observe how well a literary analysis unit can help ninth graders read closely and connect text structure to a central idea. Focusing on Edgar Allan Poe's "The Tell-Tale Heart," learners take notes and track the development...