Why do we tell painful stories? In this lesson, students read an article about Chinua Achebe, the writer of Things Fall Apart, in order to figure out his motivation for writing this novel and to learn about the issues facing Nigeria in the late 1800s.

Throughout the 20th and early 21st centuries tribal nations and Indigenous communities have continued to assert their right to self-governance and sovereignty despite numerous efforts to force them to assimilate. By extension, the purposeful erasure of Indigenous peoples as a living and thriving presence in the current, modern-day world also remains a reality.  Tribal sovereignty predates the existence of the U.S. government and the state of Oregon. Tribalgovernments are separate and unique sovereign nations with the power to execute their self-governance to protect the health, safety, and welfare of their citizens and to govern their lands, air, and waters. One of the ways Indigenous communities have been embodying their right to sovereignty is through the establishment of an Indigenous Peoples’ Day. Indigenous Peoples’ Day serves as a reminder of the contributions, both past and present, of Indigenous communities and tribal nations. In this lesson, students will explore the concepts of tribal sovereignty and self-determination and learn about efforts by tribes and other entities to promote and support the celebration of Indigenous Peoples’ Day. This lesson is meant to be used with its companion lesson: Indigenous Peoples’ Day as an Act of Sovereignty Part II.

Fake News on the WebThis unit showcases lessons about Fake News, how students can learn to recongnize legitimate news stories from the fake stuff, and why recognizing the truth on the internet is so important.

In 2016, Oxford Dictionaries chose "post-truth" as the word of the year. As literacy has shifted from published hardcopy to an online landscape, it is more important than ever to engage and empower students in navigating the complicated battleground of fake news verses responsible, fact-based news. In this multi-day lesson, students will 1) examine terms associated with “fake news” and evaluate sources for their reliability and authenticity, and 2) develop a set of norms for responsible use of online news sources that spans academic and personal interaction with media.Cover image: "Fake news" by pixel2013 from Pixabay.com

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.

This unit integrates a series of lessons on justice system based on given statistical facts. The essential question of the unit is: How can complex text and statistical numbers assist in illustrating the truth of our justice system? In Illustrating the truth through powerful colorful graphs that accentuate the statistics hidden in the text and illustrate facts in a dynamic form.

This lesson may be used for language arts and writing. The students will listen to a variety of tall tale stories, learn the characteristics that make up a tall tale, and identify hyperboles in the stories. The teacher will check for understanding by having the students list the hyperboles found.

The First Grade Elementary Framework for Science and Integrated Subjects, Sky Explorers uses observation of the sun and moon in the sky as a phenomena for exploring patterns of objects in the sky.  It is part of Elementary Framework for Science and Integrated Subjects project, a statewide Clime Time collaboration among ESD 123, ESD 105, North Central ESD, and the Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction. Development of the resources is in response to a need for research- based science lessons for elementary teachers that are integrated with English language arts, mathematics and other subjects such as social studies. The template for Elementary Science and Integrated Subjects  can serve as an organized, coherent and research-based roadmap for teachers in the development of their own NGSS aligned science lessons.  Lessons can also be useful for classrooms that have no adopted curriculum as well as to serve as enhancements for  current science curriculum. The EFSIS project brings together grade level teams of teachers to develop lessons or suites of lessons that are 1) pnenomena based, focused on grade level Performance Expectations, and 2) leverage ELA and Mathematics Washington State Learning Standards.

This online lesson provides perspectives from Native American community members and their supporters, images, news footage, an interactive timeline, and other sources about an important campaign to secure the treaty rights and sovereignty of Native Nations of the Pacific Northwest. Scroll to begin an exploration of the actions Native Nations took to address injustices.

In this lesson designed to enhance literacy skills, students learn about the unique environment of southern Florida's Everglades and gain insights into the interrelatedness of living things, nonliving things, and climate.

In this lesson designed to enhance literacy skills, students learn how the forces of gravity and air resistance affect the motion of falling objects.

This lesson on fingerprinting takes a unique approach to a standard topic in Forensic Science. While students will learn the basics of fingerprinting, how to lift a print and learn unique characteristics of fingerprints, they will become aware of the flaws of fingerprinting. By investigating the case of the Madrid Spain Bombing students will discover a match is not always accurate.

Four lesson plans developed by the Coquille Tribe of Oregon for fourth-grade students.
Lessons include:
1) People Groups - This lesson will give students a foundational aware- ness of the Indigenous, sovereign people groups who live in what is now known as Oregon—their history, their culture, and the issues that continue to impact them today. When undertaking the study of Indigenous people, it is important to begin with their long history on the land. Indige- nous people have lived in Oregon for thousands of years, in established communities, with estab- lished social structures, languages, and cultures. They were—and are—deeply and inextricably connected to the land.
2) Sea Otters - In this lesson, students will learn about the import- ant role of the sea otter in the history and tradi- tional life of the Coquille Indian Tribe. They will also learn about the long-term impact the European fur trade had on the population of this magnificent creature and how the sea otter’s virtual extinction damaged the ecosystem of the Oregon Coast. Stu- dents will then learn how to identify and diagram the sea otter’s internal and external structures (i.e., the organization of the inside and outside body parts that form a living thing) and describe how the purpose of these structures supports sea otter survival. Finally, students will create an educational poster or pamphlet that provides an overview of the sea otter and its impact on the traditional life of the Coquille Indian Tribe.
3) History of the Coquille Indian Tribe - This lesson will give students a general knowl- edge of the history, ancestral territory, and traditional lifeways of the Coquille Indian Tribe. Working in groups, students will use maps, make predictions, and participate in a close reading of
a written text that allows them to check their pre- dictions. The text provides other interesting facts about the Tribe, which should provide informa- tion and generate questions that can guide their learning in subsequent lessons about the Coquille Indian Tribe.
4) Coastal Lifeways - The Coquille Indian Tribe flourished on Oregon’s southwestern coast for thousands of years in a homeland encompassing more than a million acres. The Tribe’s ancestral and modern lands of interest include significant portions of Oregon’s Coos, Curry, Douglas, Jackson, Josephine, and Lane counties. The Coquille traditional lifeways are deeply tied to the coastal environment. This lesson provides students with the opportunity to gain specific knowledge about important elements of the Coquille coastal lifeways.

In this 6th grade seasonal lesson, students use teamwork to collectively press cider and learn about apples.

This Lesson Plan was created by Joanna Pruitt as part of the 2020 ESU-NDE Remote Learning Plan Project. This original lesson is for classroom use; however, there is a virtual option as well. Educators worked with coaches to create Remote Learning Plans as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The attached Lesson Plan is designed for Grades 9-12 English Language Arts students; however, this could also be used as a Social Studies project as well. Students will evaluate credible sources through research on genocides post World War II after completing a novel unit covering the Holocaust. Students will also create scrapbooks using summarizing, citation, informative writing, textual evidence, caption writing, and persuasive writing. Students will also be expected to demonstrate oral communication skills as they have to present their projects to the class. Students will use background knowledge to clarify text and also gain a deeper understanding by using relevant evidence from a variety of sources to assist in analysis and reflection of informative text. 

The ocean's resources are slowly being depleted. This curriculum examines the issue of overfishing and its impact on both the environment and human life. In developing sustainable solutions, the students address the driving question: "How can we as youth, sustain the future of the world's ocean through our actions today?"

The Wasted: Don't Trash the Earth curriculum asks students to examine the impact of the waste we locally and globally produce and seek creative solutions to reduce this wastefulness by answering the driving question: "How can we, as youth, rethink waste?"

As the situation in Syria worsens and the number of Syrian refugees increases, the Reimagine Syria curriculum addresses this need to understand the conflict and how this conflict has and will impact a generation of young Syrians. Through media and conflict analysis, students develop knowledge and skills to better understand the multiples ways conflict affects them and are able to address the driving question: "How can we, as youth, develop productive solutions to conflict in our communities?"

In this lesson students will use information from articles about microorganisms and their prior knowledge to identify both the positive and negative aspects of microorganisms.

Image source: "Writing" by Ramdlon at https://pixabay.com/en/writer-writing-paper-letter-author-605764/Unit Overview: The Writers on Writing Unit engages students in reading, analyzing, and creating literacy narratives, or stories about learning to read and write. The unit begins by asking students to view and read literacy narratives, and to analyze author’s literacy narratives through annotation, discussion, and writing a formal analysis essay. As students go through the narratives, they are asked to analyze author technique and purpose, paying close attention to style, syntax, and organization in preparation for writing their own authentic literacy narratives and ultimately creating digital storytelling projects about those narratives. By the end of this unit, students will have composed analysis writing, creative nonfiction, and multimedia stories. They will have had the ability to select certain reading assignments, to work in groups and with partners to brainstorm, edit, and revise, and they will have had guided writing lessons on composing strong sentences. Day 2 Overview:  These plans are for Day 2 of the Writers on Writing Unit. On Day 2, students focus on strong sentences and paragraphs, beginning with student rewriting of mentor sentences, and culminating in analysis of a basic vs. elaborate paragraph from a literacy narrative. Students discuss how description improves meaning in narratives, and look at successful authors to prepare for their own work.Source Citation:  Douglass, Frederick. Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass, an American Slave. Boston: Anti-Slavery Office, 1849.