This unit is designed to teach about the causes and effects of the Great Depression, and provide an introduction to the use of primary sources in the study of history. This historical discovery approach will emphasize the role of the historian as detective using such skills as observation, discrimination, analysis, and synthesis to research and record history. Students will explore primary sources including photographs, poems, song lyrics, documents, maps, cartoons, as well as, secondary source texts in print and online.

In this lesson, students pinpoint and list specific problems of the Great Depression using what they have learned from analyzing a variety of primary sources. They will then form research groups to learn about President Frankling Roosevelt and New Deal Legislation using internet sources.

In this lesson, students continue working in their research groups (formed in previous lesson) to learn about additional New Deal programs.

In this lesson, students learn about the draft lottery during the Vietnam War, and how it affected the lives of young men during that time. Students are introduced to the Selective Service’s lottery system through a bell-ringer that asks them to locate their “number” and then segregates the class into the drafted and undrafted. They then read a short description of the Selective Service’s lottery system. The key points from the reading are summarized through a teacher-directed discussion. Finally, students view the oral histories of veterans who discuss the ways the draft impacted their perspectives on the Vietnam War.

In this lesson, students use information and graphics to prepare digital presentations that teach others about energy topics.

Students explore the qualities that make a classic writer"™s work special and then compose newspaper articles celebrating the works of different authors.

Students will be taught the "drill skill and kill" method to be used on grammar concepts within an argumentative paper.

As a way to support teachers with English Language Arts (ELA) instruction during the pandemic, the NCDPI ELA team created choice boards featuring standards-aligned ELA activities.The intended purpose of these choice boards is to provide a way for students to continue standards-based learning while schools are closed. Each activity can be adapted and modified to be completed with or without the use of digital tools. Many activities can also be repeated with different texts. These standards-based activities are meant to be a low-stress approach to reinforcing and enriching the skills learned during the 2019-2020 school year. The choice boards are to be used flexibly by teachers, parents, and students in order to meet the unique needs of each learner.Exploration activities are provided for a more self-directed or guided approach to independent learning for students. These activities and sites should be used as a way to explore concepts, topics, skills, and social and emotional competencies that interest the learner. 

In this lesson, teachers set up an e-mail system whereby students in different classes or schools can communicate research-based questions and answers on a given topic.

In this lesson, students research using computers to gather information on wildlife management and use the information to write a letter to an agency.

This resource is a guideline to evaluating your work for a research paper.

Students will build on their existing knowledge of the solar system as they research one of the planets in order to determine whether a manned mission to that planet would be feasible. Students will collect information about the geology, composition, and orbit of their assigned planet. They will then work collaboratively to create a proposal for or against planning a trip to the planet to be presented to the rest of the class.

This lesson asks students to write a profile of a classmate, with a particular focus on a talent, interest, or passion of that classmate. As an introduction to the feature article, students compare the characteristics of a hard news story to those of a feature story. They then practice writing about the same event in the two different styles.

This resource is a guideline to basic steps in finding sources for a research paper.

Science fiction has the potential to spark lively discussions while inviting students to extrapolate from their own working knowledge of scientific principles. They first define the science fiction genre and then read and discuss science fiction texts. Next, they conduct research to find science facts that support or dispute the science included in the plot of the science fiction book they read. Students then revisit their definition of the genre and revise based on their reading. Finally, students complete a project that examines the science fiction genre in relation to real-world science concepts and topics.

This speech, presented as an address in 1927 to the mayor of Chicago, William Hale Thompson, sought to reform the stereotypical image of American Indians in history textbooks and classes. In this CCSS lesson, students will explore this history through text dependent questions, academic vocabulary, and writing assignments.

This resource is a guideline to focusing a reseach topic for a research paper.

Suggestions on how to guide students through the writing process when writing editorials "” from brainstorming a topic to publishing their work "” and all the steps in between.

In this personal essay by Isaac Asimov, the author relates his journey of becoming a science fiction writer. Asimov explains discovering science fiction through magazines despite his father’s objections. He also recounts publishing his first science fiction story at the age of eighteen and the challenges of being an immigrant. In this CCSS lesson, students will explore this history through text dependent questions, academic vocabulary, and writing assignments.

This lesson will provide eighth grade students with an inquiry-based research project based on C.S. Lewis' classic, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe. Students will determine the author's purpose in writing this story. This will be accomplished by researching material using the Alabama Virtual Library and Gale Resources.