This activity for gifted learners might serve as a writing activity as part of a larger unit focused on scientific and/or historical non-fiction texts. Students will take part in close readings of a variety of informational texts throughout the unit focusing on text structure, sequence of events, cause/effect, use of illustrations/photographs/diagrams/etc. In this activity, gifted learners will work independently to close read Boy Were We Wrong About Dinosaurs! By Kathleen Kudlinski.  Using evidence from the book, students will craft an opinion piece arguing that oftentimes (especially in science) “being wrong is actually right,” in other words…it’s a good thing. They will prove this using evidence from Boy Were We Wrong About Dinosaurs! and extend the idea to another area of science or history…such as early thoughts about the Earth, moon and sun, or another area of science/history in which they already have an intense interest. This lesson was developed by NCDPI as part of the Academically and/or Intellectually Gifted Instructional Resources Project. This lesson plan has been vetted at the state level for standards alignment, AIG focus, and content accuracy.

Students will select their own readings and write short reports about them, they will present their readings and reports in small groups and then, to the class showing presentation skills, such as eye contact, oral fluency, and posture. This resource supports English language development for English language learners.

Examples how to scaffold writing to meet our ELL students where they are, not where we want them to be. Not just reducing amounts of output, but creating models and organization for the students to reach the desired objectives.This is a resource from Daria Witt ElevatED Learning Services  from a session at the 2021 June ASCD Conference.

Students will become engaged learners through this unit that prepares students for studying ancient Greece with digital storytelling skills. First students develop a list of questions to research Greek gods, heroes, and creatures. Then with a partner, they choose the topic of their research and divide the questions between themselves. After conducting research, the partners write scripts for their digital story using the online tool PowToon.

Students will research about events from the world and home country a year in the past, they will make predictions about the same events a year in the future and give a presentation to the class as a whole. This resource supports English language development for English language learners.

This game provides students with simple and friendly explanations of division and fractions. Students are introduced to the terms quarters, halves, eighths, and equal shares. English learners can use this site to practice their listening as well as their math skills.

In this problem-based learning module, students will explore the importance of sleep and the impact sleep has on their lives. During the launch phase students can choose to record sleep data via downloaded apps or in a sleep diary. Days 2 through 4 have students explore the concept and necessity of living organisms need to sleep. On day 2 the participants will take a series of cognitive test for baseline data. Through station rotation and a jigsaw activity learners will become familiar with circadian rhythm and sleeping disorders. Finally, days 5-7 have the students produce a video or infographic to communicate the importance of sleep and its relationship to performance both physically and academically.

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. 

This article presents thirteen web sites that provide resources for ELL students and their teachers. Reprinted from TeacherMagazine.org with author permission.

As part of their ELA coursework, students are reading an autobiography to study author's craft.  In particular, students are exploring how authors use dialogue, transitional phrases/clauses, and sensory details to tell a personal story. The unit will culminate with students writing their own memoirs. The bulk of the unit takes place in the ELA classroom. In the ESL support block, students will receive support with reading an autobiography of their choice, noting examples of author's craft in the autobiography, and integrating this craft into their own writing.

In this first lesson of the unit, students choose from two memoirs 15 on the Road to Freedom and the Big Lie. Students participate in a F2F mini-lesson in how dialogue can develop characters in an autobiography. Students then transition to technology for a book introduction with historical context and a chapter 1 book preview (guided reading). Students in 15 on the Road to Freedom then continue to receive support via Ed Puzzle for identifying dialogue and documenting in a graphic organizer, while students in The Big Lie meet with the teacher for the support. While students in The Big Lie transition to continue completing the graphic organizer independently, students in the 15 on the Road to Freedom meet with the teacher F2F to discuss their completed graphic organizers. Students then return to their autobiographies (written on google docs and organized in google classroom) to include additional dialogue in their stories and peer-review a partnerÅ› story. Students then participate in a full group F2F wrap up/reflection where they share out examples of dialogue their partner included in their writing as a result of the lesson.

Online Lesson for Books: Historical Context/Chapter 1 Intro/Graphic Organizer Support

15 on the Road to Freedom: Book Introduction, Chapter 1 Preview, and Support with Graphic Organizer Task
The Big Lie: Book Introduction, Chapter 1 Preview (Note that support with graphic organizer is given F2F for this group)

Graphic Organizers

I can identify how authors use dialogue to develop characters
I can identify precise language authors use to introduce dialogue
I can identify how authors use sensory details to develop experiences
I can identify how authors use transitional words, phrases, and clauses to convey sequence shifts

Assignment Sheet

ELA Autobiography Assignment Sheet (Created by Julia Koli, Connie Ray, and Elliot Willis-Begley at Scarlett Middle School, Ann Arbor MI)

F2F Mini-Lesson #1

Mini-Lesson on Character Development Through Dialogue

Please email daughertye@aaps.k12.mi.us if you would like me to send you the additional resources I created for the remaining mini-lessons and book chapters!

This activity for gifted learners might serve as a culminating activity as part of a larger poetry unit. Students will take part in close readings of a variety of poems throughout the unit. In this activity, gifted learners would work either individually or with a partner to close read “Autumn” by Emily Dickinson.  They will then work to decipher the poem and it’s meaning, resulting in an audio recording of the original poem and visual display to complement their knowledge/understanding of the poem. They will then create their own humorous adaptation of  “Autumn” by translating the poem into their own nonliteral language, slang, phrases with a newly “remastered” audio recording of the poem and visual display to complement their knowledge/understanding of the poem in their own words. This lesson was developed by NCDPI as part of the Academically and/or Intellectually Gifted Instructional Resources Project. This lesson plan has been vetted at the state level for standards alignment, AIG focus, and content accuracy.

Students will gain an understanding of using contractions in speaking and in written text. They will identify word pairs used to make contractions and create contractions appropriately. They will also have a better understanding of how certain grammatical structures, like contractions, contribute to the overall understanding of a text.

Students will gain an understanding of using contractions in speaking and in written text. They will identify word pairs used to make contractions and create contractions appropriately. They will also have a better understanding of how certain grammatical structures, like contractions, contribute to the overall understanding of a text.

In this lesson, students will explore the uses of the digital course in the classroom and consider how it will help them as learners this year.

In this lesson, students will begin to learn how to use their digital course. How can this technology help them as a learner this year? How can they take advantage of the possibilities it offers?

This resource provides a lesson designed to assist students with identifying the skills they use to read and comprehend with a small group. Afterwards, learners with use some of those strategies to read online, informational texts. As a culminating activty, students will report their discoveries through discussion pertaining to the differences in reading physical and online texts and the strategies they used.

This resource includes a lesson plan designed to assist learners with the concepts of freedom, justice, discrimination and the American Dream. Students will examine the "I Have a Dream Speech" and select powerful words and themes from the text and arrange them into original diamante poems.

This page contains six online fiction books, eight online nonfiction books and puzzles. Each book will read paragraphs, sentences or single words to students as they click on the ear icon or click on what they would like to have read. Nonfiction reading passages include information about nature. Fiction passages are fantasy. This resource supports English language development for English language learners.

This mini lesson and activity assist learners with improving their ability to read and decipher unfamiliar terms by utilizing context clues.

Students read an excerpt from John F. Kennedy's inaugural speech. Afterwards, learners will be responsible for responding to questions whereupon they must attempt to decipher meaning utilizing textual evidence. This activity may be used to support instruction pertaining to drafting constructed responses.