Mary Whitebird is about to turn eleven and take part in the Sioux coming of age tradition of Ta-Na-E-Ka. Literally translated as, flowering of adulthood, Ta-Na-E-Ka is a test of survival where participants are sent into the wilderness to survive for five days. In this CCSS lesson, students will explore this story through text dependent questions, academic vocabulary, and writing assignments.

In this lesson, students take a summative assessment, then begin researching and organizing information for an oral presentation on significant leaders in history.

In this lesson, students determine what they need to know in order to become good public speakers.

In this lesson, students respond to a diagnostic assessment to determine what they need to know in order to become good speakers.

In this lesson, students visit library websites from a variety of places, including Hong Kong, Kenya, and Scotland, to develop a global perspective and a broader understanding of the types of library services available throughout the world. They discuss services offered in their community and then form questions regarding the availability of library services in other parts of the world. Working in groups, students access library websites to answer teacher- and student-generated questions. When they have completed their research, students share their findings with classmates and compare the services available in distant libraries to their local services.