Novelinks
Words by Heart: Question Answer Relationship
Even though readers investigate matters of the heart, this activity promotes the inner workings of learners' brains. The fifth lesson of six has the teacher first model the strategy to the class before having small groups practice. To...
New York State Education Department
TASC Transition Curriculum: Workshop 5
Are video games sports? Pupils investigate this question as well as various nonfiction selections to learn more about claims and the support that defines them. All of the selections mimic the rigor on state tests and encourage close...
Scholastic
Lesson 1: What Are Barriers?
Scholars discuss the concept of a barrier with a short passage on Jackie Robinson. The writing process begins with a paragraph and several other sentences about Robinson's unique traits that made breaking a barrier...
EngageNY
Writing, Critique, and Revising: Two-Voice Poems (Chapter 14: "Las Ucas/Grapes")
Continue work on the two-piece poem that compares two characters from Esperanza Rising. Give class members a few minutes to finish their drafts. After they have a complete product, model how to critique and edit the poems with one group....
National History Day
Reporting on World War I
Throughout history, newspapers have reported the events of the day as they unfolded. Using primary and secondary sources from World War I, scholars uncover how the American people learned of the events of the War to End All Wars. History...
K12 Reader
Making Predictions
Read efficiently and effectively with a passage about making predictions and using headlines and visual aids as clues. After kids read a few paragraphs in the passage, they answer five comprehension questions on the side of the page.
EngageNY
Paragraph Writing, Part II
Come up with a list of requirements for this expository essay on Esperanza's character in Esperanza Rising as a class and use the list to guide class writing. Here, learners will complete the first paragraph, discuss their notes for the...
EngageNY
Group Discussion: Accessing Books Around the World
Continue work with an informational text by following the procedures detailed here. The plan, part of a series, focuses on My Librarian is a Camel. Class members complete text-dependent questions and then prepare for and participate in a...
Channel Islands Film
Once Upon a Time (Saxipak’a): Lesson Plan 4
How did the environment and natural resources found on the Channel islands influence the culture of the Chumash? Archaeology meets technology in an activity designed for middle schoolers. After viewing West of The West's documentary Once...
National History Day
Leland Linman’s War: A Look at Soldiers’ Daily Lives in World War I
Hunkering down in the trenches of World War I, Leland Linman decided to write a journal about his experiences. By reading Linman's entries in the fourth installment of an eight-part lesson series, scholars get a firsthand look at life in...
Literacy Design Collaborative
"The Gettysburg Address" Close Reading Module
It's time to think deep and narrow. Scholars focus close reading on one short text but task take their thinking to a deep level. Readers use a Rhetorical Analysis Chart to analyze The Gettysburg Address and determine how Lincoln used...
Teach-nology
Author’s Purpose: Inform
Why does an author write an informative article? Learners examine passages of a short reading on Spain and determine what the author wanted to inform the reader about.
Achieve
Stairway
It's the stairway to learning! Scholars research all aspects of building a staircase. Using information from building codes, they write and graph a system of inequalities to analyze the constraints. The completed project is a scale model...
New York State Education Department
TASC Transition Curriculum: Workshop 10
How have educational standards evolved? Educators of adults examine expectations in the 10th workshop out of 15 to better determine how standards have grown. Participants respond to a variety of sample questions to determine how they...
EngageNY
Grade 10 ELA Module 2: Unit 2, Lesson 10
All good things must come to an end! Scholars put all their learning into practice by completing an end-of-unit assessment. They use textual evidence from Julia Alvarez's "A Genetics of Justice" to write essays analyzing how Alvarez...
Anti-Defamation League
Shirley Chisholm: Unbought, Unbossed and Unforgotten
A 13-page packet introduces high schoolers to a lady of amazing firsts. Shirley Chisholm was the first Black woman elected to Congress, the first Black woman to run for President of the United States, and a leader of the Women's Rights...
Curated OER
The Raven
After a close reading of Edgar Allan Poe's "The Raven" individuals copy the rhythm and rhyme scheme and rewrite the final stanzas of the poem.
National Endowment for the Humanities
Faulkner's As I Lay Dying: Images of Faulkner and the South
Learners research one aspect of the life of Faulkner and the culture of the South. For this As I Lay Dying instructional activity, learners explore a webpage on Faulkner and write a summary. Learners analyze the images...
Walters Art Museum
The Symbolism of Allegorical Art
Introduce learners to allegorical art with four bronze sculptures by Francesco Bertos. After modeling how to recognize bias and allegory in Bertos' Africa, class groups examine the other three sculptures in the series before creating...
E Reading Worksheets
Tone Worksheet 3
The interpretation of a poem often lies in the mind of its reader, especially when reading the tone. Focus on author's word choice, middle schoolers read four different poems and briefly state a perceived tone for each, along with the...
Curated OER
The Metamorphosis: Multicultural Strategy
Track the changes and developments in Franz Kafka's The Metamorphosis with a reading comprehension worksheet. Individuals copy important quotations from each of the book's three parts, record their...
K20 LEARN
Writing An Argumentative Paragraph: Argumentative Writing
Learning how to craft a cogent argument based on a solid claim, supported with evidence and solid reasoning, is an important life skill. Teach middle schoolers about argumentative writing with a lesson asking them to analyze the claims,...
EngageNY
Launching the Performance Task: Planning the Two-Voice Poem
Two voices, one poem. Scholars learn about and write a two-voice poem using graphic organizers, model poems, and guides. They practice reading poems with a partner and discuss how a poem of this type could help compare Salva and Nya...
EngageNY
Gathering Information about Water Management: Assessing and Reading Internet Sources, Day 3
Water is life! Using the informative resource, scholars first read two informational articles about water management in agriculture. Then, they use a Venn diagram to contrast the different types of evidence authors use to support a...