In this lesson students will complete guided notes while learning about the earth's seasons. Students will learn to describe the relationship between the tilt of Earth's axis and its yearly orbit around the sun.

The objective of this activity is to reinforce the importance of being specific while dealing with events of a sequential nature, such as the phases of the moon.

In this lesson students will practice visualizing and understanding that visualization is an important comprehension strategy. Students will share their visualization of the story through original artwork.

This activity teaches children six question words: who, what, when, where, why and how.

In this lesson, students read informational pieces about whether or not schools should teach cursive writing. They will evaluate the arguments presented and then choose a side of the issue. Finally, they will write their own arguments expressing their points of view.

Real-world writing allows students and teachers to connect the dots between writing in the classroom by classifying writing into six areas: Express and Reflect; Inform and Explain; Evaluate and Judge; Inquire and Explore; Analyze and Interpret; Take a Stand/Propose a Solution.

This activity will help students to connect the numeral (symbol) to the number (quantity in a set).

In this literary unit, students explore rural life during the Great Depression by analyzing Richard Peck's A Year Down Yonder.

In this lesson students use a simple SOAPSTone form (College Board resource) to analyze six aspects of informational texts: subject, occasion, audience, purpose, speaker, and tone.

This set of lessons extends over a few days. Students read and annotate Ernie Pyle's "A Long Thin Line of Anguish." Students complete a SAYS/DOES graphic organizer, working on summarizing the text, noticing the choices the author makes about use of details, and describing the choices the author makes regarding the structure of the article.

Students complete a SOAPStone handout, identifying subject, occasion, author, purpose, speaker and tone (SOAPStone is a pre-AP/AP strategy). Students develop claims about why Ernie Pyle makes the writing choices he makes. Students write an informal, free-response style assessment about the impact of Pyle's choices.

This set of lessons extends over several days. Students work with a partner to read and annotate G.K. Chesterton's "The Fallacy of Success." Students take notes which summarize each section of the text. Students write an objective summary of the text, identifying two claims and determining how those claims are developed in the text.

Reading, analyzing, and evaluating informational text is a challenge for students. Here are some strategies for helping students complete close reading.

This 18 day unit explicitly teaches text structures, summary, text features, reading informational text about Mesopotamia, and writing a book about Mesopotamia. Instruction moves from high scaffolding to moderate scaffolding to independent practice as students become familiar with the various text structures, how to identify them, what graphic organizer will work with each text structure, how to use notes recorded in graphic organizers to write summaries, and how to compile an informational book. Mesopotamia is the content used as an anchor.

In this lesson using the The Tortoise and the Hare fable students will learn basic map skills.

This lesson extends over several class periods. Students view a Prezi presentation on Toulmin's argument and complete an assignment based on the presentation. Students then write an argument essay about the power of prevailing passion over reason.

In this lesson students will collect, record, and graph the sunrise and sunset times.

In this lesson students use a Tuning Protocol to give and receive peer-to-peer feedback on student writing in a structured, safe environment.

In this lesson students will create a graphic organizer that uses the titles and subtitles of an informational text before they begin reading.

In this lessons students identify information from text using titles, subtitles, diagrams, charts, graphs, maps, photographs, illustrations, and captions by using a preview checklist.