In this lesson, students learn the difference between a narrative and a summary, using Frederick Douglass: The Last Day of Slavery as a the model text for the performance task.

In this lesson, students will use feedback from others to revise and improve their essay.

In this lesson, students will evaluate a children's book in order to evaluate the narrative technique. Students will participate in a Children's Book Scavenger Hunt. Then, using the author's language as a scaffold, they will then write their own theme for two of the episodes they read.

In this lesson, students will discuss their plans for their children's book and work on creating that plan to guide their writing.

In this lesson, students will begin working in groups of three in order to analyze how a particular excerpt conveys Douglass's position about slavery.

In this lesson, students will review their understanding of Excerpt 4 from The Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass and then use storyteller techniques to retell a section of the story.

In this lesson, students will analyze Douglass's position and evidence, working in small groups to complete the Excerpt 4 Analysis note catcher.

In this lesson,students will write book reviews for their independent reading books and work on their children's book illustrations.

This lesson was designed to help students gain social studies/history content knowledge by using textual evidence to answer text-dependent questions.

"Life Without Gravity," a nonfiction selection, is designed to help students become familiar with the characteristics of an expository essay and how weightlessness affects the body. In this CCSS lesson, students will explore this story through text dependent questions, academic vocabulary, and writing assignments.

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.

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.

Students will determine whether the sentences in the handout contain misplaced or dangling modifiers. Students are then asked to fix any problems that they find.

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.

After organizing their thoughts using a graphic organizer, students write a narrative essay which relates an autobiographical incident. Students present their essays in a slideshow which allows their classmates to practice predicting an outcome as they guess the ending of the narrative. Some of the essays will be included in a class newsletter created by the students.

This resource includes six text-dependent questions, one constructed-response writing prompt, and explanatory information for teachers regarding alignment to the CCSS and a mini-assessment.

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.