Money Matters with its dual meaning is the title of Module 9 of the 16 modules in the ESL course. Students focus on the financial aspect of their lives. Discussions, assignments, class activities support student comprehension of concepts in the module. Students connect how values and decisions influence financial goals. What are needs and wants? Pronouns and possessive adjectives are the grammar components of the module.  

Goals Revisited is the name of Module 15 of the ESL course. Students looked at their goals briefly in Module 1 and in this module, more in-depth class discussions, worksheets, and assignments give students more structure in their goal setting and achieving plans. Students use relevant future, and infinitive ‘to’ verb tenses in the speaking, reading, and writing activities. Role-play hones in on their writing and speaking skills.

The 11th grade learning experience consists of 7 mostly month-long units aligned to the Common Core State Standards, with available course material for teachers and students easily accessible online. Over the course of the year there is a steady progression in text complexity levels, sophistication of writing tasks, speaking and listening activities, and increased opportunities for independent and collaborative work. Rubrics and student models accompany many writing assignments.Throughout the 11th grade year, in addition to the Common Read texts that the whole class reads together, students each select an Independent Reading book and engage with peers in group Book Talks. Students move from learning the class rituals and routines and genre features of argument writing in Unit 11.1 to learning about narrative and informational genres in Unit 11.2: The American Short Story. Teacher resources provide additional materials to support each unit.

In this unit, students will take a look at the historical vision of the American Dream as put together by our Founding Fathers. They will be asked: How, if at all, has this dream changed? Is this dream your dream? First students will participate in an American Dream Convention, acting as a particular historical figure arguing for his or her vision of the American Dream, and then they will write an argument laying out and defending their personal view of what the American Dream should be.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Students read and annotate closely one of the documents that they feel expresses the American Dream.
Students participate in an American Dream Convention, acting as a particular historical figure arguing his or her vision of the American Dream.
Students write a paper, taking into consideration the different points of view in the documents read, answering the question “What is the American Dream now?”
Students write their own argument describing and defending their vision of what the American Dream should be.

GUIDING QUESTIONS

These questions are a guide to stimulate thinking, discussion, and writing on the themes and ideas in the unit. For complete and thoughtful answers and for meaningful discussions, students must use evidence based on careful reading of the texts.

What has been the historical vision of the American Dream?
What should the American Dream be? (What should we as individuals and as a nation aspire to?)
How would women, former slaves, and other disenfranchised groups living during the time these documents were written respond to them?

BENCHMARK ASSESSMENT: Cold Read

During this unit, on a day of your choosing, we recommend you administer a Cold Read to assess students’ reading comprehension. For this assessment, students read a text they have never seen before and then respond to multiple-choice and constructed-response questions. The assessment is not included in this course materials.

In this lesson, students will think about what rights the Founders felt that the government should guarantee to its citizens. They'll read and analyze the Bill of Rights, the first 10 amendments to the Constitution.

In this lesson, students will contribute to a conversation about what makes a good discussion and discuss with their classmates the ideas in the historical documents they have read so far.

In this lesson, students will go back to the documents they've read, looking through them closely to figure out what the Founders might have said was the “American Dream.”

SYNOPSIS: In this lesson, students explore three different personal perspectives on the effects of climate change, evaluate arguments and reasoning, and advocate for climate change through a personal call to action.

SCIENTIST NOTES: This lesson inspires students to take an active role in combating climate change while also teaching them about various climate change impacts. The initial video talks about climate change from three different angles and gives students various ideas of how they could act such as voting, education, and activism. It introduces the idea of environmental racism and justice. The three videos about New Jersey sea level rise are all accurate and informative. This resource is recommended for teaching.

POSITIVES:
-This lesson can be used in English, persuasive writing, and social studies.
-Students are given voice and choice in this lesson.
-Students become agents of change in their own communities.

ADDITIONAL PREREQUISITES:
-Students should be familiar with the basics of climate change and potential effects to their own region.
-Students will be writing a call to action. The goal of a written call to action is to inspire others to perform a specific act with some urgency.
-Students should understand the basics of persuasive argumentation and using personal connections as evidence and reasoning to support an argument.

DIFFERENTIATION:
-Calls to action can be expressed in different platforms. Students can explore adapting their calls to action in different platforms: creating a video, choosing specific social media outlets, and incorporating supporting artwork. Make sure to follow all school rules and monitor students’ progress if you allow this in the classroom.
-You may allow students to brainstorm and pursue other methods of communication not listed.
-Students can evaluate the effectiveness of using different platforms to make their calls to action.
-Students can present their calls to action to different audiences.

This course is the scientific communications portion of course 7.02, Experimental Biology and Communication. Students develop their skills as writers of scientific research, skills that also contribute to the learning of the 7.02 course materials. Through in class and out of class writing exercises, students explore the genre of the research article and its components while developing an understanding of the materials covered in the 7.02 laboratory.

This course comprises a broad survey of texts, literary and philosophical, which trace the development of the modern world from the seventeenth to the early twentieth century. Intrinsic to this development is the growth of individualism in a world no longer understood to be at the center of the universe. The texts chosen for study exemplify the emergence of a new humanism, at once troubled and dynamic in comparison to the old. The leading theme of this course is thus the question of the difference between the ancient and the modern world. Students who have taken Foundations of Western Culture I will obviously have an advantage in dealing with this question. Classroom discussion approaches this question mainly through consideration of action and characters, voice and form.

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Advancements in metagenomic technology have been a boon to research but may encroach on people’s expectation of privacy. A staggering amount of information can be derived from the cells we leave behind on everyday surfaces, and our ability to interpret this information to learn about YOU will only grow with time. While these advancements are not likely to ever be 100% accurate, they present a potential avenue for discrimination. Genetic privacy is not a new concept, and in the US and elsewhere, there are laws protecting people from some discrimination based on genomic-derived data, but metagenomics is not covered by the existing laws and requires its own ethical and legal scrutiny. Our world is rapidly becoming one with ubiquitous genetic, molecular, and data profiling. In that world, privacy will be difficult to protect unless statutes and laws are brought up to date with the advancement in biotechnology..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

In this activity students will begin by reviewing different signs they learned last semester. Then they will practice asking and answering questions about themselves. The goal is for students to get to know each other better!

This activity introduces geoscientific thinking to a primarily non-geoscience audience. This is the introductory activity of a module designed for pre-service secondary science teachers in a secondary science teaching methods course. Initially, students explore their conceptions of the scientific method. Through readings and discussion, the activity attempts to broaden the students' view of the nature of science by showing how geoscience methods differ from stereotypical experimental science. This introductory activity uses a seminar format (writing/reading/discussing/writing).

This is a great activity for class sizes ranging from small seminars to lecture classes. It's particularly appropriate for courses that relate hazards/volcanism to culture, society, and human interest subjects like risk management. I designed it for a Volcanoes and Society class.

(Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)

This handout guides discussion facilitators in enacting inclusive practices like inclusive introductions, rapport building, and strategies for encouraging conversation.

Drama combines the literary arts of storytelling and poetry with the world of live performance. As a form of ritual as well as entertainment, drama has served to unite communities and challenge social norms, to vitalize and disturb its audiences. In order to understand this rich art form more fully, we will study and discuss a sampling of plays that exemplify different kinds of dramatic structure; class members will also participate in, attend, and review dramatic performances.

A classroom discussion about global climate change designed for a general undergraduate classroom. Discussion is facilitated by a 10-15 minute brainstorming session or gallery walk.

(Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)

In this activity, students are introduced to locating and reading peer-reviewed scientific journal articles. It helps ease students into the process of locating, reading, and using journal publications. This activity can be done entirely in class or a combination of in-class with homework assigned. It is a helpful way to lead students toward searching for and using the peer-reviewed literature in their own research.

(Note: this resource was added to OER Commons as part of a batch upload of over 2,200 records. If you notice an issue with the quality of the metadata, please let us know by using the 'report' button and we will flag it for consideration.)

In this activity, students are introduced to the methods of inquiry in the Earth sciences and how they differ from what is classically taught in school science.