Students will have an opportunity to develop such "live interviews" with ancient athletes; working in small groups, they will produce a script based on the results of their research and they will perform the interview for other students in the class.
In this lesson, students recognize loaded words when reading and purposefully use them in persuasive writing.
In his essay, Mandela explains his shifting understandings of freedom based on different stages in his life. Mandela explains how his perceptions of freedom evolved from wanting freedom for just himself to fighting for freedom for others, and concluding that denying freedom to others robs the oppressors of their own freedom. In this CCSS lesson, students will explore this story through text dependent questions, academic vocabulary, and writing assignments.
Students will explore the personalities of the Revolutionary War's Patriots and Loyalists by participating in a character role play. The lesson will culminate with students researching and writing a character sketch of a key Revolutionary figure of their choice and participating in a Colonial Town Hall & Debate.
Rather than extending a two-page paper to five pages by restating facts, philosophizing aimlessly, or simply making things up, students engaging in this revision lesson learn how to make the cut. In Zinsser’s guide for nonfiction writing, he states, “The secret of good writing is to strip every sentence to its cleanest components”
In this lesson, students will use the individual experience of Mary McLeod Bethune to analyze choice, its affects on social equality, and impact on their own life experiences.
In this lesson students examine how imagery is used to represent ideas, themes, periods of history, and make cultural connections to poem, "Still I Rise." Students will reflect through written expression how resiliency is in their lives, school, and community.
In this video from American Masters | Maya Angelou: And Still I Rise, students will explore the role of poetry in American politics, compare Angelou and Frost, and consider how Angelou’s poem reflects the challenges and concerns of the time. Discussion questions, teaching tips, and a student handout push students to engage with Angelou’s words and to think critically about her famous work.
Students are immersed in popular culture. As educators, we have an opportunity to engage them in literacy activities that make use of this fun and engaging resource. In this lesson, students develop media literacy skills as they explore and analyze an episode of a popular television series. Possible shows include Zoe 101, The Secret Life of the American Teenager,or any of the High School Musical movies. Students reflect on characters, motivations, problems, and solutions as they view and interpret media. They then propose a new television series that more realistically portrays teenagers.
The emphasis of this lesson is on history and research rather than literature, selections from Jack London's The Call of the Wild are used to provide focus and structure for students' research in online databases of primary sources, and to serve as models of vivid narrative prose for students' own stories.
This teacher's guide for The Misfits by James Howe containes discussion questions, activities, and research assignments.
This article examines what happens when a sugar planter tries to save his sugar crops by importing a few mongooses. In this CCSS lesson, students will explore this story through text dependent questions, academic vocabulary, and writing assignments.
When a sudden and inexplicable force causes everything to stop working on Maple Street, the people there begin to wonder who or what is responsible. Fear begins to invade each person’s mind. This behavior reveals that the real monsters on Maple Street are the people themselves and the fears and prejudices they harbor. In this CCSS lesson, students will explore this story through text dependent questions, academic vocabulary, and writing assignments.
In this lesson, students create a two-column list of nouns and ordinary verbs specific to a particular occupation. They then pair a specific noun from the first column with an occupation-related verb from the second column to create descriptive lines with vivid verbs being used in a different context. The trick lies in the fact that the verbs must be used in a new way, having nothing to do with the occupation. Often this approach to writing leads to a natural metaphorical passage as a result. Students refine this writing strategy by rotating through computer stations, each housing a descriptive passage begun by other students, revising and suggesting improvements or just adding lines to the descriptive passages.
In this CCSS lesson, students will explore this story through text dependent questions, academic vocabulary, and writing assignments.
In this unit students practice writing to an essential question, using context clues and root words to determine word meaning, close reading with the aid of a glossary, taking notes with graphic organizers, re-reading to answer text dependent questions; and summarizing.
What should a good narrative contain? For this lesson, a mystery, a type of narrative realistic fiction, will be composed. Since strong adjectives and adverbs will support a mystery, they will be incorporated into the writing.
A USA Today Education informational article on Joe Montana's 16 principles for success with included reources/ worksheets for students.
This excerpt from Jackie Robinson’s autobiography, "I Never Had It Made," begins with the history behind Branch Rickey’s plan to integrate major league baseball. In this CCSS lesson, students will explore this history through text dependent questions, academic vocabulary, and writing assignments.
In this lesson, the students will read and reread the passage closely combined with classroom discussion about it, students will identify why and how farming practices have changed, as well as identify Pollan’s point of view on the subject.