Students work together in small groups to read, discuss, and analyze fairy tales. After compiling a list of common elements, students collaborate on their own original fairy tales—based on events from their own lives or the lives of someone they know. Each student decides what kind of experience to write about, composes and revises a fairy tale, and then presents their story to the rest of the class.

In this lesson, students analyze and discuss familiar superheroes and super-villains to expand their understanding of character types and conventions. Then students consider social issues that confront their everyday reality and respond by incorporating those issues into the creation of their own superheroes or super-villains as well as the settings the superheroes or super-villains operate in.

In this lesson, students use graphic organizers and note taking to gain understanding and clarify meaning in the novel "Holes" and write daily inferences and generalizations about what they have read in that day's assignment.

This lesson provides hands-on differentiated instruction by guiding students to search for the literal definitions of figurative language using the Internet. It also guides students in understanding figurative meanings through the use of context clues and making inferences.

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.

In this lesson students do a close reading of “Learning to Read,” a poem by Francis Watkins Harper about an elderly former slave which conveys the value of literacy to blacks during and after slavery. The activities also prompt students to examine the nature of literacy in the 21st century and the value they put upon it.

Franklin R. Chang-Diaz is an immigrant from Costa Rica who began thinking about space at age seven when the Soviet Union launched the first satellite into space. After going through many obstacles he was accepted to NASA and became “the first Hispanic to be in the space program for the long run". In this CCSS lesson, students will explore his story through text dependent questions, academic vocabulary, and writing assignments; writing samples included.

In this lesson, students read library books daily for ten to fifteen minutes and then log in information on a Free Reading chart, giving a brief summary of what they just read and then writing a brief reactionary response to the reading.

Two female cousins spend their life doing everything together. One night they realize they are both in love with the Moon and wish to marry him. In this CCSS lesson, students will explore this story through text dependent questions, academic vocabulary, and writing assignments.

Students will use the Web 2.0 tool at glogster.com to create a book report, or the tool may be used to create a summary poster for a short story.

In this assessment students write an analytical mini-essay about mythological elements and theme in The Lightening Thief.

In this lesson students work in small groups to analyze various myths alluded to in the Lightning Thief to determine themes for later literary analysis of the central text.

This lesson begins a sequence of lessons leading up to students’ end of unit assessment, in which they will write a literary analysis connecting a theme of the Cronus myth to a theme in The Lightning Thief. In this lesson students begin planning.

In this lesson students use information about the myth of Cronus to interpret a key allusion to Cronus in the central text.

In this lesson students determine the theme of the myth of Cronus and connect details from the text to allusions and themes in the central text.

In this lesson students consider what makes a myth a myth through comparing “Shrouded in Myth” read in unit 1 to  “Cronus.”

This lesson has two purposes: first, to support students in making connections between informational and literary texts; second, to scaffold students’ thinking in using elements of mythology to determine the theme of a text.

In this lesson students determine the theme of the myth of Prometheus and connect details from the text to allusions and themes in The Lightning Thief.

In Lessons 12–14, students draft their essays. Each lesson will have a similar structure of direct instruction with the Steve Jobs model essay followed by students’ work on their own essays.

This lesson asks students to draft their three body paragraphs based on the model essay, their planning documents, and the instruction provided in Lessons 11 and 12.