Most people read and understand better when reading print. Usually when we are online, we are jumping around from place to place. To read online and really understand, we need to slow down and really think about what we are reading. In this lesson, students practice strategies to help them read deeply online. These strategies are based on the article in the lesson resources: "Strategies to Help Students 'Go Deep' When Reading Digitally" by Katrina Schwartz.Teacher copies the text from an online article into a Google Doc and shares it with students. Students use the highlighting tool to mark the most challenging vocabulary words and use strategies to determine their meaning. Then they develop a main idea for a paragraph by choosing one, two, three, and finally four words that make up the main idea. They type this above the paragraph and use formatting tools to make it a heading. As they repeat this process with additional paragraphs they are developing a summary of the article in the document outline.

E-book readers, or digital readers, are devices that can host thousands of electronic books and allows readers to interact with digital texts through the use of e-book tools and features. In this lesson, students will read e-books and use digital tools (dictionaries and notes) to support their development of vocabulary. Specifically, students will assume roles of “word detectives” as they look up words in digital dictionaries and use other strategies to identify the meaning of vocabulary words.

This resource is a collection of vocabulary words and definitions regarding the earth, moon and sun system.

Students will gain an understanding of using contractions in speaking and in written text. They will identify word pairs used to make contractions and create contractions appropriately. They will also have a better understanding of how certain grammatical structures, like contractions, contribute to the overall understanding of a text.

The 12th grade learning experience consists of 7 mostly month-long units aligned to the Common Core State Standards, with available course material for teachers and students easily accessible online. Over the course of the year there is a steady progression in text complexity levels, sophistication of writing tasks, speaking and listening activities, and increased opportunities for independent and collaborative work. Rubrics and student models accompany many writing assignments.Throughout the 12th grade year, in addition to the Common Read texts that the whole class reads together, students each select an Independent Reading book and engage with peers in group Book Talks. Language study is embedded in every 12th grade unit as students use annotation to closely review aspects of each text. Teacher resources provide additional materials to support each unit.

The laws that govern and the social norms that regulate society are not always fair, legal, moral, or ethical. What is a person to do about all this injustice? What are the hazards of righting injustices or changing social norms? And what are the dangers of doing nothing?

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Students read and annotate Antigone, “Letter from a Birmingham Jail,” and Pygmalion.
Students write a literary analysis showing the effect of social class or the law on a character’s life.

GUIDING QUESTIONS

These questions are a guide to stimulate thinking, discussion, and writing on the themes and ideas in the unit. For complete and thoughtful answers and for meaningful discussions, students must use evidence based on careful reading of the texts.

How do social class and legal institutions shape literary characters’ lives (and presumably our lives)?
How does social class affect a person in dealing with the law (protect a person, hurt a person)?
How is social class determined in America and in other places in the world?

BENCHMARK ASSESSMENT: Cold Read

During this unit, on a day of your choosing, we recommend you administer a Cold Read to assess students’ reading comprehension. For this assessment, students read a text they have never seen before and then respond to multiple-choice and constructed-response questions. The assessment is not included in this course materials.

In this lesson, students will submit their Character Analysis Essay. They will also discuss the unit’s Guiding Questions, review their writing portfolios, and reflect on the unit.

It's raining cats and dogs! Students explore figurative language through read-alouds, teacher modeling, and student-centered activities, further developing their understanding of the literal versus the metaphorical translations of idioms.

This is a unit on fish habitats. The activities include the following: looking at pictures of fish and their habitat, talking about what all animals need to live, how fish live, making a poster of a fish habitat, and finally visiting a lake.

Students will explore pottery through specific characteristics to form a vessel and discuss its meaning and its function. They will develop an understanding for the value and meaning of their objects based on the form and how it determines the pottery function (use). Their personal connections to what they know will determine their choices for the pottery form and its function. This lesson was developed by Belinda Coston as part of their completion of the North Carolina Global Educator Digital Badge program. This lesson plan has been vetted at the local and state level for standards alignment, Global Education focus, and content accuracy.

Lesson focuses on building multisyllabic words using affixes, while troubleshooting nonsense words created and what happens when information is not transferred correctly.

This lesson encourages students to participate in group and class discussions about the novella, The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Students discuss vocabulary, themes, and the writing styles used in the story. They also explore the characters as part of the task.

This page contains useful information for students about to start reading the play Twelve Angry Men. A powerpoint and a handout with vocabulary ensure students are ready to begin the play.

In this activity students will first brainstorm all the terms (vocabulary) they can think of related to electricity. Next, they will work collaboratively in groups to try to define these terms. Then in groups they will create word webs drawing correlations between the various terms. Groups will discuss how light bulbs work, how they light up, write down their ideas. Next, students will try to draw what they believe a circuit is and how it works. They will need to write several sentences concerning their thoughts. Then they will be given a battery, wires and a light bulb and asked to check their designs. Students will explore what they believe series and parallel circuits are, write down their ideas and draw some pictures. They then will be given materials to try and create these circuits. Finally, students will predict and test differences in bulb brightness in a variety of series and parallel circuits.

In this engaging interactive, students unscramble a list of words and then use the circled letters to unscramble the bonus solution.

This simple, straightforward lesson helps English language learners and others practice context clues, close reading, questioning and discussion of text.

This site provides educational videos, quizzes and games about amphibians for students at varied grade levels. Teachers or students can make an online presentation and save it for homework or a school task. This resource supports English language development of English language learners.

This resource supports the English language development of English language learners. This resource contains an article about ants, explains the life cycle of an ant with pictures, the colony life cycle, and has a coloring page of the life cycle (p.28), among others.

This resource supports English language development for English language learners. These videos about birds show and discuss birds of prey, nesting birds, and other birds as they interact with their environment. The narrators speak slowly enough to permit teacher interaction. Students can also play games to identify birds. Teachers or students can make an online presentation and save it for homework or a school task.