After reading To Kill a Mockingbird, students will continue to study the theme of taking a stand as they finish the novel. They will develop their argument writing skills through scaffolded writing lessons, culminating in a literary analysis essay in which they argue whether or not it made sense, based on Atticus’s character, for him to have taken a stand and defend Tom Robinson.

This unit focuses on aspects of argumentation
involving evidence, reasoning, and logic, rather
than on persuasive writing and speaking. Students are first expected to understand objectively a
complex issue through exploratory inquiry and
close reading of information on the topic, then
study multiple perspectives on the issue before
they establish their own position. From their
reading and research, they are asked to craft an
argumentative plan that explains and supports
their position, acknowledges the perspectives and
positions of others, and uses evidence gleaned
through close reading and analysis to support
their claims.

In my English 10 classroom, students spend several weeks deciding on, researching, and writing about a career of their choosing. As part of this, they are expected to interview someone that is in their career field and learn more about what is required to have this job. Students also will create an infographic about their career, as well as a presentation that they will present to their peers. Attached is the unit plan for this project.

In Module 10.1, students engage with literature and nonfiction texts and explore how complex characters develop through their interactions with each other, and how these interactions develop central ideas such as parental and communal expectations, self-perception and performance, and competition and learning from mistakes.

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

In this module, students will read, discuss, and analyze contemporary and classic texts, focusing on how complex characters develop through interactions with one another and how authors structure text to accomplish that development. There will be a strong emphasis on reading closely and responding to text dependent questions, annotating text, and developing academic vocabulary in context.

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

In this module, students engage with literature and nonfiction texts that develop central ideas of guilt, obsession, and madness, among others. Building on work with evidence-based analysis and debate in Module 1, students will produce evidence-based claims to analyze the development of central ideas and text structure. Students will develop and strengthen their writing by revising and editing, and refine their speaking and listening skills through discussion-based assessments.

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

This webfolio is a follow-up assignment to an Honors English unit on Things Fall Apart by Chinua Achiebe. In this webfolio, students will take on the role of social scientists interested in learning more about the life of Africans in different parts of the continent. They will each have different aspects of African culture and life to research.The webfolio format emphasizes the power of teamwork and the Internet to learn all about an area of Africa. Each team will learn about one region of the continent, and then they will come together to get a better understanding of Africa as a whole by participating in and observing classroom presentations. The culminating project combines individual research and informational genre format into a first-person travel diary, imagining an actual trip through each region of Africa.

We define common assessments as teacher-developed assessments, designed around courses where the same standards are assessed, questions are asked, and scoring rubrics are used by each course teacher. (We say this: if you cannot score another teacher's assessments, then your assessments are not common.)
This document poses a process with questions for content teachers to discuss, so that they can identify the standards they want to build common assessments around, and begin the work of creating together. In addition to content standards, the assessment needs to include a writing task based on standard W9: citing textual evidence when analyzing, reflecting, or researching.

Students develop close reading skills as they examine Lorraine Hansberry's A Raisin in the Sun. The play develops many thematic concepts such as the strength of family, issues with conflicting expectations, and stereotyping and prejudice. Students analyze the play through the close study of scenes and character development as well as the examination of symbolism, language choices, and structure. Students will also view a film version of the play to enhance understanding as well as analyze some poetry.

Remix this template to upload your WISELearn Grant lesson and unit plans into WISELearn

The Text Evidence Analysis Scaffolded Writing Rubric was created for the CESA #1 EL OER Project. This rubric is aligned with 9th grade Common Core writing standards. It is an example of how teachers can create scaffolds using the WIDA CAN DO Descriptors. As a result, ELs of varying language levels will be able to successfully display their knowledge of the 9-12th grade Common Core writing standards.

This interactive website leads students through various sections of an animated replica of the Globe Theatre. Students are prompted to click on highlighted cartoon characters stationed in different areas of the theatre; a written section with background information is then provided in which students will read about the time period, performances, and other aspects of life during Shakespeare's time.

This lesson allows students to explore the different sides associated with the issue of slavery. It can be used for either cross-content lessons between English and Social Studies, as part of an argument unit in English, or as part of a larger unit in Social Studies. The learning objectives for the lesson are that students are able to identify those who are for and against slavery, understand how people used the U.S. Constitution to support their reasons for/against slavery, and the economic argument for or against slavery.