Making Evidence-Based Claims ELA/Literacy Units empower students with a critical reading and writing skill at the heart of the Common Core: making evidence-based claims about complex texts. These units are part of the Developing Core Proficiencies Program. This unit develops students' €abilities to make evidence-based claims through activities based on a close reading of the Commencement Address Steve Jobs delivered at Stanford University on June, 2005.

Find the rest of the EngageNY ELA resources at https://archive.org/details/engageny-ela-archive .

A listing of commonly confused words in the English language. Created by Professor Eileen Cusick for OIT-110, Communications and Editing, at Springfield Technical Community College.

This is a 5th grade lesson which focuses on Compare & Contrast skills. This lesson includes notes on how to rework for e-learning purposes. 

This lesson is an extension of LA lessons teaching compound words.  Once students are introduced to the concept of compound words, they will listen to a picture book and see if they can identify compound words from the book. Take time while reading to discuss the words.  You may consider making a chart as you read.  Be sure students understand that in a compound word, each word has a meaning, and when put together, the new word has a different meaning.

This lesson may be used with Launguge Arts, Writing, and Social Studies.  The students will learn about various people who were influencial in changing the world through civil rights. They students will write a dream about something they would like to do to make the world better.

This resource was created by Kate Chrisman, in collaboration with Lynn Bowder, as part of ESU2's Mastering the Arts project. This project is a four year initiative focused on integrating arts into the core curriculum through teacher education and experiential learning.

This public speaking lesson focuses on presenting and conveying important information, details, facts, and opinions in a concise manner. This lesson presents several different real-world situations where students are asked to share their perspectives, experiences, and stories where they are to give supporting details and facts that are important to the context of different social interactions (talking with peers, colleagues, community, interviews, etc). With the creation of this lesson, different level options of technology integration are offered to allow for flexibility and modifications for this lesson to best serve various classrooms and their students (low tech, medium tech, and high tech options). This lesson will help students analyze a social interaction and/or topic and have them clearly and concisely give an authentic response.

Sentence segmentation, or counting words in a sentence, is the first step in phonological awareness.  Students need to have an understanding that words are made up of letters and sentences are made up of words.  This basic skill will help them later with both reading and writing.Objective: I can break and count words in a sentence.Time required: 20 minutes or lesson can be chunked into managable size bits for your students.

This resource was created by Molli Miller, in collaboration with Dawn DeTurk, Hannah Blomstedt, and Julie Albrecht, as part of ESU2's Integrating the Arts project. This project is a four year initiative focused on integrating arts into the core curriculum through teacher education, practice, and coaching.

This resource was created by Molli Miller, in collaboration with Dawn DeTurk, Hannah Blomstedt, and Julie Albrecht, as part of ESU2's Integrating the Arts project. This project is a four year initiative focused on integrating arts into the core curriculum through teacher education, practice, and coaching.

This resource was created by Lizzy Heiner, in collaboration with Dawn DeTurk, Hannah Blomstedt, and Julie Albrecht, as part of ESU2's Integrating the Arts project. This project is a four year initiative focused on integrating arts into the core curriculum through teacher education, practice, and coaching.

 Overview: In this lesson, students closely examine Crevecoeur’s third letter in order to understand historically early American literature and the culture. Students critically read the letter and answer critical content questions to increase their knowledge. Students will take a quiz demonstrating their understanding of some of the literature of this period. Finally, in the spirit of early America, students will write their own letters defining what an American is, why immigrants should come, and what the American Dream is or if it is still alive. Students will exchange their letters with a partner for feedback and then turn them in for completion points.

Students thoroughly explore identifying synonyms and adjectives before using them to add variety and interest to their own writing.

Learn about Greek gods, heroes, and creatures through digital storytelling produced by students who have learned research techniques.

This resource was created by Molli Miller, in collaboration with Dawn DeTurk, Hannah Blomstedt, and Julie Albrecht, as part of ESU2's Integrating the Arts project. This project is a four year initiative focused on integrating arts into the core curriculum through teacher education, practice, and coaching.

This Empower Learner Activity engages students in self-assessment, preliminary goal setting and reflection on use of learning strategies within the context of 5th Grade English studying Winin Dixie.

This Empower Learner Activity is designed for MS English students studying the book Hoot. Students will self-assess, set preliminary goals, and think through learning strategies.

The attached lesson plan is designed for 1st grade English Language Arts students. Students will identify what end punctuation belongs at the end of sentences with proficiency. This lesson plan addresses the following NDE Standard: NE LA 1.1.1.bIt is expected that this lesson plan will take approximately 30 minutes to complete.

The 12th 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 12th 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. Language study is embedded in every 12th grade unit as students use annotation to closely review aspects of each text. Teacher resources provide additional materials to support each unit.

In our lives, we are constantly telling stories to ourselves and to others in an attempt to both understand our experiences and present our best selves to others.  But how do we tell a story about ourselves that is both true and positive? How do we hold ourselves up in the best possible light, while still being honest about our struggles and our flaws? Students will explore ways of interpreting and portraying personal experiences.  They'll read Chinua Achebe's novel Things Fall Apart , analyzing the text through the eyes of one character. They'll get to know that character's flaws and strengths, and they'll tell part of the story from that character's perspective, doing their best to tell an honest tale that presents their character's best side. Then they'll explore their own stories, crafting a personal narrative about an important moment of learning in his or her life.

ACCOMPLISHMENTS

Students read and analyze Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart , viewing the events and conflicts of the novel through the eyes of one of the central characters.
Students write a two-part narrative project: one narrative told through their character’s perspective and one personal narrative about an incident in their own life.

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.

How do our conflicts shape and show our character?
How can we tell a story about ourselves that’s both honest and positive?
How do definitions of justice change depending on the culture you live in?
What are ways individuals can react to a changing world? To a community that doesn’t accept us?

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.