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.
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 students will explore reading strategies using the think-aloud process as students investigate connections between the life and writings of Edgar Allan Poe. The unit, which begins with an in-depth exploration of “The Raven,” then moves students from a full-class reading of the poem to small-group readings of Poe’s short stories (“The Black Cat,” “Hop-Frog,” “Masque of the Red Death,” and “The Fall of the House of Usher”). The unit concludes with individual projects that explore the readings in more detail.
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 will discover how much they can learn from this mixed genre memoir/biography about what inspires life choices.
In this CCSS lesson, students will explore this story through text dependent questions, academic vocabulary, and writing assignments.
Students will ask and record questions as they reflect upon the work of art. They will develop understanding of metacognition while considering questions and themes. ESSENTIAL QUESTION: How does asking questions lead to deeper thinking?
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.
Students work together to analyze an orally presented research study and provide a brief presentation on their findings to their classmates. This resource supports English language development for English language learners.
Within the physical science strand of 7th grade science, students focus on the motion of objects. In this task, students will assume the role of school board members who must discuss and vote on the issue of including seatbelts in the district’s school buses. Students will read nonfiction passages regarding this issue to prepare for the board meeting that will take the form of a Socratic Seminar. Students will then individually cast their votes through written explanations of their decisions that reference the discussion and provided passages. The real-world and interdisciplinary aspects of this lesson allow students to build meaningful connections and promote the development of 21st Century Skills. This lesson was developed by NCDPI as part of the Academically and/or Intellectually Gifted Instructional Resources Project. This lesson plan has been vetted at the state level for standards alignment, AIG focus, and content accuracy.
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.
This lesson, Nonviolent Resistance, focuses on Dr. Martin Luther King's, “The Sword that Heals,†and asks student to listen to interviews with veterans of the freedom struggle as they discuss the role of nonviolent direct action.
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.
In this CCSS lesson, students will explore this book through text dependent questions, academic vocabulary, and writing assignments.
In this lesson, students make a list of the ways original stories have been revised—changed or altered, not just “corrected”—to begin building a definition of global revision after reading several fractured fairy tales. After students have written a “revised” story of their own, they revise again, focusing more on audience but still paying attention to ideas, organization, and voice. During another session, students look at editing as a way to polish writing, establishing a definition of revision as a multi-level process.
The main character, Mr. Johnson, embarks upon quite the opposite of an ordinary day. This day he spends as a do-gooder, wandering the streets of the city, purposefully taking time to insert himself into the lives of the people he passes. His perfect day is juxtaposed the moment he returns home to his grumpy, negative wife. The irony is: most ordinary days are not filled with all great deeds, but rather a mixture of positive and negative experiences. In this CCSS lesson, students will explore this story through text dependent questions, academic vocabulary, and writing assignments.
Harry Tillian’s father owns a candy and nut shop. Harry used to visit the shop with his friends every day, but his priorities change once he enters middle school. Mr. Tillian buys a talking parrot to keep him company. One day Mr. Tillian gets sick and must go to the hospital. Harry takes care of the shop while his dad is ill, and the parrot helps Harry realize how much his dad has been missing him. In this CCSS lesson, students will explore this story through text dependent questions, academic vocabulary, and writing assignments.
The Paragraph Shrinking strategy allows each student to take turns reading, pausing, and summarizing the main points of each paragraph. Students provide each other with feedback as a way to monitor comprehension.
The PQP technique—Praise–Question–Polish—requires group members to take a turn reading their drafts aloud as the other students follow along with copies. This oral reading helps the writer to hear the piece in another voice and to identify possible changes independently.