Through spatial and graphical analysis of bird populations on a fictional island, students learn the meaning of biodiversity, species richness, endemism, and abundance. With the teacher acting as a facilitator, students use an interactive PDF map to explore various ways to represent and compare biodiversity across ecoregions. Students manipulate information layers to identify, describe, compare and graph bird distribution patterns in the island's different ecoregions. Rather than being given a list of vocabulary words, students grapple with the material to discover the meaning of these words and concepts. Through this experiential process, they combine the newly acquired terminology with complementary skills to evaluate and communicate their findings on bird biodiversity. This lesson prepares students for the more complex use of spatial and graphical analysis in our GIS-based Amazon unit.

Students will use illustrations and photos as a precursor to learning. They will understand that what they think, they can say. What they can say, can be heard ad written. What is written, can be read. It is a cycle of language.

Rather than focusing exclusively on literacy skills, the Common Core State Standards set expectations for the complexity of texts students need to be able to read to be ready for college and careers.

This resource outlines three steps that will help teachers choose texts that are on grade level for the CCSS.

Systematic training in spoken and written skills to improve fluency and style. Oral reports by participants on individual topics. Discussions with native speakers, analyses of selected literary texts, periodicals, and Spanish-language media. Taught in Spanish.

Designed for students of Hispanic descent and raised in the US. Expands oral and written grammar study and increases contact with standard Spanish. Studies recent fiction and poetry as well as specific historical, social, economic, and political aspects of Mexican-American, Puerto Rican, and Cuban cultures. Many of the nonliterary readings are in English; class discussions in Spanish. Taught in Spanish. Fron the course home page: Course Description Spanish for Bilingual Students is an intermediate course designed principally for heritage learners, but which includes other students interested in specific content areas, such as US Latino immigration, identity, ethnicity, education and representation in the media. Linguistic goals include vocabulary acquisition, improvement in writing, and enhancement of formal communicative skills.

Per the author, learning new vocabulary words is important for all readers, and an important part of the learning process is finding the definitions. This lesson teaches students how to track unfamiliar words as they read, link these words to their background knowledge, create new sentences for their words, and finally develop a project that displays their new vocabulary. This lesson could be adapted for ELL students or students in grades 6 to 8.

The following presentation was used during an in-service session with secondary educators. It provides information on how to explicitly teach vocabulary to students across the content areas. This presentation also provides information on how to use vocabulary log notebooks with students.