Students will identify with characters in stories to understand that feelings can be shared between themselves, other characters, and other students in our World.   Students will also identify the similarities and differences between two different texts in order to understand the main idea.

The Citation Table is a graphic organizer where specific phrases and sentences are analyzed to gather a more broad understanding of a text.

Instructional expert Jim Knight visits Chris Korinek to observe his social science classroom. Chris and Jim discuss scaffolding techniques, and when to use closed versus open questions.

Concept maps are graphical tools for organizing and representing knowledge. They include concepts, usually enclosed in circles or boxes of some type, and relationships between concepts indicated by a connecting line linking two concepts

Students will be introduced to the definition mode of writing. Students will learn to define a particular subject by responding in an editorial format. Students will first compose an editorial graphic organizer, which will aid in composing a completed editorial using the writing process.

This assessment rubric emphasizes the key progressions of the Common Core State Standards. The objective is to clearly outline what it means to achieve at the "next level".

This resource contains an overview of the resource, printable forms, and student samples.

This inquiry takes students through an analysis and evaluation of the Compelling Question “Is protest important in a democracy?” using the Vietnam War as a lens to approach the topic. To accomplish this, students will become more media literate through evaluating sources, biases, perspectives, and the goals of creating media. Throughout the inquiry, students will engage in activities designed to promote and develop media literacy while analzying the Compelling Question and learning about the historical protests of the Vietnam Era.This inquiry is expected to take two weeks (10 periods) to complete: one 45-minute class period to stage the question, introduce the inquiry, and to review media literacy; two 45-minute class periods for each of the three supporting questions; and then three 45-minute class periods for students to write and research their argumentative thesis. If students are as of yet less familiar with media literacy, the instructor should add at least another class period, or more, introducing them more fully to this.The full unit, along with all materials and resources, is available as a PDF attachment.

This unit engages students in a variety of activities that analyze and reflect on the role of social media in our everyday lives. This includes options for collaborative group work, reading nonfiction articles, a design challenge and presentations to communicate ideas. The unit also includes a formal writing assessment option that aligns with the Common Core State Writing Standards. Activities can be adapted or combined in a variety of ways to support student reflection and analysis. These lessons were piloted in 9th grade English classes but are suitable or a range of secondary students. 

In this resource, students will be asked to use a graphic organizer in order to identify and track the development of theme and character in a literary text. Students will use evidence from the text to construct an evidence based response.

In this resource, students will be asked to use a graphic organizer in order to identify and track the development of theme and character in a literary text. Students will use evidence from the text to construct an evidence based response.

In this video segment from WILD TV, a guide describes how to camouflage a personŒë_í_Œ_ body to avoid being detected in the wilderness.

In this lesson, students will be able to compare and contrast three short stories they have read by Edgar Allan Poe. The assignment will be divided into three parts: (1) They will have read and discussed or completed other classroom activities on each of the three stories. (2) They will work in small groups to brainstorm and create comparison/contrast charts that will be shared with the class. (3) Students will create their own graphic organizers based on the ideas shared in step two and then create a draft and final paper.

In this video segment from Nature, animal lovers talk about their experiences having pigs as pets.

2nd grade studens will listen to the book "Shark Lady" during storytime. They will then head to the computer lab to complete the digital/research portion of the project. The project will finale with a paired share activity where students can exchange information and present their findings.