In this lesson, students write an essay about the governmental issues that surrounded Andrew Jackson's presidency.
In this CCSS lesson, students will explore this history through these stories with text dependent questions, academic vocabulary, and writing assignments.
In this lesson exemplar, students will participate in critical discussion of two stories that illuminate important, yet divergent, experiences of war and conflict.
The Researching to Deepen Understanding units lay out an inquiry process through which students learn how to deepen their understanding of topics. Students pose and refine inquiry questions, exploring areas they wish to investigate. They find and assess sources and organize researched material in ways that will support their analysis and integration of information. As their inquiry progresses, they evaluate and extend their research, synthesize their information, and eventually express their evolving evidence-based perspective.
This English Language Arts /Literacy Unit empowers students with a critical reading and writing skill at the heart of the Common Core: Reading complex texts closely to analyze textual details and deepen understanding.
This unit develops students’ abilities to read closely for textual details and compare authors’ perspectives through an examination of a series of texts about immigration through Ellis Island.
These English Language Arts/Literacy Units empower students with critical reading and writing skills at the heart of the Common Core: analyzing and writing evidence-based arguments.
This unit develops students’ abilities to analyze arguments from a range of perspectives on immigration policy in the United States. Students also learn to develop, write and revise their own evidence-based arguments.
In this lesson, students use previewing to activate their prior knowledge and set a purpose for reading. Using a strategy called THIEVES, which is an acronym for title, headings, introduction, every first sentence in a paragraph, visuals and vocabulary, end-of-chapter questions, and summary, students are guided through a preview of a nonfiction text. After guided practice, partners work together to use the strategy to preview a chapter from a textbook.
This cross-curricular ELA/science module consists of three units. In Unit 1, students build background knowledge about the central role that water plays in all life. In Unit 2, students use the US Environmental Protection Agency My WATERS Mapper to explore major US watersheds and the USGS National Water Information System to examine their local watershed. Unit 3 provides scaffolding toward students' summative writing assessment.
In this lesson, students learn about using a web graphic organizer effectively as a prewriting tool for expository writing.
In this activity students will examine how attitudes towards slavery and the Civil War changed between 1860 and 1865. What began in the minds of President Lincoln and most northerners as a war to preserve the union changed, over the course of the war, into a war to free the slaves. This transformation occurred in large part because of the actions of enslaved and free African Americans themselves. Students will create a historical marker, based on historical evidence, that addresses the question: "What was the Civil War fought over?"
In this three week unit on the novel The Pearl, by John Steinbeck, students examine and discuss the characteristics of a novel, compare and contrast the novel to folk tales and short stories, write chapter summaries and essays, and conduct Internet research to prepare slideshow presentations on related topics including those reflecting cultural differences of the novel's characters and those issues involving the economic principle of supply and demand.
In this lesson, students write a compare/contrast essay about two cars to determine which one should be purchased.
The narrator of The White Umbrella is a Chinese American girl who struggles with feelings of embarrassment and longing to be like others. In this CCSS lesson, students will explore this story through text dependent questions, academic vocabulary, and writing assignments.
Brian Aldiss describes a futuristic world in which machines are capable of thinking based on the tasks they have been designed to perform. One day the machines realize that the few remaining humans have died, leaving the machines to fend for themselves. In this CCSS lesson, students will explore this story with text dependent questions, academic vocabulary, and writing assignments.
Diane Ackerman describes fall foliage and explains the natural processes that cause the leaves of deciduous trees to turn each year. Along with her observations, she also muses on the significance of the changing of seasons and on life and death. In this CCSS lesson, students will explore this story with text dependent questions, academic vocabulary, and writing assignments.
The wind and water are personified as two women talking about their children. Mrs. Wind brags about her children, which annoys Mrs. Water who drowns Mrs. Wind’s children when they come to her for a drink. As Mrs. Wind calls for her children, white feathers come to the top of the water, causing whitecaps. In this CCSS lesson, students will explore this story through text dependent questions, academic vocabulary, and writing assignments.
In this CCSS lesson, students will explore this document through text dependent questions, academic vocabulary, and writing assignments.
In this lesson, the students will focus their reading through a series of questions and discussion about the text, students will explore the questions Monk raises and perhaps even pursue additional avenues of inquiry
Explore the traditions and conventions of haiku and compare this classic form of Japanese poetry to a related genre of Japanese visual art.
“The Wreck of the Hesperus†is a narrative poem about an arrogant ship captain (skipper) who takes his daughter on an ill-fated voyage across a wintry sea. In this CCSS lesson, students will explore this poem through text dependent questions, academic vocabulary, and writing assignments.