Through a series of three learning experiences, taking place across multiple weeks, students will participate in inquiry-based learning about the county in which they live and learn. Students will write informative pieces to teach others about the natural and cultural communities of Adams County.

CESA #1EL OER Project: A graphic organizer to be used during country projects. The organizer has sentence frames and ideas on what to research on.

A lesson teaching students how to write a table of contents.  The lesson includes a video from You Tube that explains what a table of contents is.  The included PDF is a compilation of 5 blank templates for the students to use when creating a table of contents for their specific writing piece.

In order to fully comprehend reading materials, students need to understand the cause-and-effect relationships that appear in a variety of fiction and nonfiction texts. In this lesson, students learn cause-and-effect relationships through the sharing of a variety of Laura Joffe Numeroff picture books in a Reader's Workshop format. Using online tools or a printed template, students create an original comic strip via the writing prompt, "If you take a (third) grader to."  Students use various kinds of art to illustrate their strip and publish and present their completed piece to peers in a read-aloud format.

In this module, students will use literacy skills to build expertise—using reading, writing, listening, speaking, and collaborative skills to build and share deep knowledge about a topic. This focus on research intentionally builds on Module 1, in which students explored the superpowers of reading. Specifically, students will seek evidence of culture, which can be thought of as the story of a group of people constructed through the generations; it can be evidenced through ancient and modern-day customs and traditions. The module will begin with a class study of the culture of Japan: Students will read Magic Tree House: Dragon of the Red Dawn, a book set in ancient Japan, paired with Exploring Countries: Japan, an informational text about modern Japan.

Find the rest of the EngageNY ELA resources at https://archive.org/details/engageny-ela-archive .

In this eight-week module, students explore the questions: “Who is the wolf in fiction?” and “Who is the wolf in fact?” They begin by analyzing how the wolf is characterized in traditional stories, folktales, and fables. Then they research real wolves by reading informational text. Finally, for their performance task, students combine their knowledge of narratives with their research on wolves to write a realistic narrative about wolves.

The Iditarod is a dog sled race across Alaska commemorating the Iditarod trail and the sled dog tradition of Alaska. Tour Builder will give students a way to record all the checkpoints that the Iditarod race has taken their musher and it can be a useful tool for students to write about Iditarod topics. Incorporating the race into your classroom during your non-fictional informational text unit can build engagement and motivation with the students.

The resource was developed as a part of the Creating Lessons Using Transformative Technology - Platteville Public Schools OER Grant.

CESA#1 EL OER Project

This presentation provides an outline for students to write a short informative essay about one state in the United States.

This is a lesson for tropical rainforests that fits best for third- through fifth-grade students. There are multiple reading and writing strategies implemented within the lesson. Throughout the lessons, there will be opportunities to build upon prior knowledge, write, draw, and listen to sound effects of the rainforest. Students will use graphic organizers and websites to aid in the understanding and learning of rainforests. There are also extension lessons for students to create a list of questions in small groups to research. Throughout these lessons the students will be exposed to multiple media sources. 

The article discusses a lesson plan where students produce a presentation board, a timeline and an oral presentation in addition to a research paper.