“Ekphrasis: An Exploration of Poetry Inspired by Art” is a multidisciplinary Open Educational Resource that showcases ekphrastic poems in the public domain alongside the artworks that inspired them. Collections of resources about each poem and the associated artwork both complement and supplement the poems. Resources include biographical information about the poet, and the artist where applicable, as well as articles, videos, audio files, presentations, and podcasts illuminating the historical significance of each work of literature and piece of art.

Secondary educators across Lebanon County, Pennsylvania developed lesson plans to integrate the Pennsylvania Career Education and Work Standards with the content they teach. This work was made possible through a partnership between the South Central PA Workforce Investment Board (SCPa Works) and Lancaster-Lebanon Intermediate Unit 13 (IU13) and was funded by a Teacher in the Workplace Grant Award from the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry. This lesson plan was developed by one of the talented educators who participated in this project during the 2018-2019 school year.

As educators, it's important to create a classroom environment that empowers student voices and provides opportunities for student choice. In the ELA classroom, this can be achieved by offering students choice in what they read, write, and how they demonstrate their understanding. This professional learning activity aims to provide ELA teachers with strategies and resources to effectively provide students with choice and enhance their learning experiences.

In this lesson designed to enhance literacy skills, students examine energy forms in moving objects and discover how changes from one form to another move cars through a roller coaster ride.

Students will create a Google Doc utilizing their school based account or the class created account provided by the teacher. Students will electronically journal their thinking throughout the process of the hands-on group science activity about designing and evaluating a dam to reduce the impact of a flood. Once the activity is complete, students will share their Google Doc with a peer or assigned group in order to discuss findings of the experiment and clarify any unclear statements claimed in his/her journaling. Students will compile journal entries to create a sequential writing appropriate to the task. Students will then create a presentation of their journaling with Google Slides, Prezi, Animoto or a similar electronic presentation tool. This unit was created as part of the ALEX Interdisciplinary Resource Development Summit.

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.

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.

A Scavenger Hunt to identify parts of speech, parts of a sentence, and sentence mechanics.

Vocabulary proficiency plays a crucial role in academic success and language development. Providing opportunities for students to use vocabulary in different contexts can lead to increased engagement, retention, and acquisition of new words.  This professional learning activity aims to provide teachers with strategies and resources to create an environment that encourages the use of vocabulary in various contexts. 

This 90-minute lesson explores the various ways of using renewable energy to mitigate climate change through individual and collective actions. It is designed for upper intermediate/advanced English language learners (B2-C1 CEFR). The content is appropriate for college/university students and adults. The lesson plan includes an article, a presentation, and use of two websites/mobile apps. Students will reflect on an article and use Padlet to showcase ways to combat climate change with renewable energy. Later, they will create infographics through Canva to share on social media and display the printouts on college/university green boards to raise awareness and educate people.

The Essay Map is an interactive graphic organizer that enables students to organize and outline their ideas for an informational, definitional, or descriptive essay.

Evaluating has been called one of the six most important reading comprehension strategies. In this article, it is also considered as a strategy for analyzing and interpreting data. This professional development article appears in the free, online magazine Beyond Weather and the Water Cycle, which integrates science education and literacy instruction for K-grade 5 teachers. Each issue examines one of the recognized essential principles of climate literacy and the climate sciences and one or more reading strategies for elementary teachers and their students.

In this seminar you will be engaged by video, text, and activities that will help you identify evidence that shows support for a particular author's purpose in printed material. You will be using habits of mind which focus on clarity in communication, as well as accessing prior knowledge to make new decisions regarding the purpose of text. Realize that authors of any printed material have a reason for writing. Understanding this purpose will help you develop your own comprehension and writing skills.StandardsCC.1.2.6.D - Determine an author’s point of view or purpose in a text and explain how it is conveyed in the text.

Pairs of students respond to literature alternately in shared journals. Mini-lessons are presented on responding to prompts, creating dialogue, adding drawings, and asking and answering questions.

Students explore the nature and structure of expository texts that focusing on cause and effect and apply what they learned using graphic organizers and writing paragraphs to outline cause-and-effect relationships.

The lesson will begin by students accessing their prior knowledge of weather and climates by completing a warm-up writing prompt. Students will then move to reading texts on the subjects of tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes, and droughts to determine if and how climate affects these weather phenomena. In groups, students will create a half-poster that describes their findings in text and pictures. At the end of the lesson, students will view a graph to extend their learning about tornadoes and hint at a future lesson while also completing an "exit ticket" as a means of summative assessment. This unit was created as part of the ALEX Interdisciplinary Resource Development Summit.

In this lesson, students will explore and construct forest habitats of plants and animals native to Alabama. In the beginning, students will activate their prior knowledge by reviewing the definition of a habitat and discussing what they know about forests to create a KWL chart. Next, the book A Forest Habitat by Bobbie Kalman is used to further the students learning of the components that comprise a forest habitat and how those components interact with one another. The students will demonstrate their learning through animal sorts, habitat construction, and informational writing using the conventions of Standard English such as capitalization and punctuation. For the conclusion, the students will peer edit their writing using the provided writing anchor chart before presenting their learning to others. This lesson was created as part of the ALEX Gap Project.

The activity includes a series of exercises, in which students view the literal representations of idioms and then examine the metaphorical meanings of the idioms.

Fact Fragment Frenzy provides elementary students with an online model for finding facts in nonfiction text, then invites students to find facts in five sample passages.

In this lesson designed to enhance literacy skills, students explore brain injuries called concussions: what they are, how they occur, the challenges in diagnosing them, and ways to protect yourself from them.