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. 

Students will view this slideshow online as the first activity in a blended unit. The activity is meant to introduce the author and some of his works, including several that the students will read as part of the unit. It is primarily intended to spark student interest in the unit. However, it will also aid the students in that they will be better poristioned to read the author's works if they have some sense of what to expect in terms of themes.

     The choice to include such as introductory tool into the unit was based upon prior observations regarding the difficulty of getting students engaged in any lesson when nothing had been done to sprak their interest beforehand.

In this lesson, students explore the historical context of Walt Whitman's concept of "democratic poetry" by reading his poetry and prose and by examining daguerreotypes taken circa 1850. Next, students will compare the poetic concepts and techniques behind Whitman's "I Hear America Singing" and Langston Hughes' "Let America Be America Again," and have an opportunity to apply similar concepts and techniques in creating a poem from their own experience.

During this three week unit, students practice and apply research skills while completing a project on a woman of their choice. Ideally, this project is taught around March, which is Women's History Month. Summative assessments for this unit include the completed project and an annotated bibliography.

Students will complete independent research on a topic (preferably one they have chosen). Then, they will represent their findings in an infographic. Students will need to cite their sources and justify the design (structure) of their infographic. This remix removes content-specific information so it can be used with a variety of grades and content areas. It also includes tech and literacy integration. Collaboration with the School Library Media Coordinator (SLMC) is highly encouraged.