Textbook focusing on American Government and the specificities of the American political system. In covering American government and politics, this text:
• introduces the intricacies of the Constitution, the complexities of federalism, the meanings of civil liberties, and the conflicts over civil rights;
• explains how people are socialized to politics, acquire and express opinions, and participate in political life;
• describes interest groups, political parties, and elections—the intermediaries that link people to government and politics;
• details the branches of government and how they operate; and
• shows how policies are made and affect people’s lives.

Overview: Students will use COPS and the focused edit strategy to practice editing and then edit their opinion paper.W.3.1: Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons. I can write opinion pieces and support my opinion with reasons.W.3.5: With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, and editing. (Editing for conventions should demonstrate command of Language standards 1-3 up to and including grade 3 here.) I can develop and strenghten my writing by planning, revising, and editing with the help of my peers and an adult. 

Overview: Students will use a focused revising choice board to guide peer writing conferences. The teacher and students will use a focused revising choice board to guide teacher writing conferences.W.3.1: Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, supporting a point of view with reasons. I can write an opinion piece and support my opinion with reasons.W.3.5: With guidance and support from peers and adults, develop and strengthen writing as needed by planning, revising, and editing. (Editing for conventions should demonstrate command of Language standards 1-3 up to and including grade 3 here.) I can develop and strengthen my writing by planning, revising, and editing with the help of my peers and an adult.

This is the outline for a third grade writing unit on writing opinion (persuasive) papers. The lessons and materials are linked to the outline, but they also uploaded in a PDF format as sperate lessons in WISELearn. 

Grade 4 Unit 5: Historical Fiction Book Clubs

Concept 3: Readers interpret complex text.

Session 12

5th Grade Historical Literacy Curriculum outlines the content of social-studies integrated units taught within the readers' and writers' workshop framework and taught daily for 90 minutes. Each six week unit contains standards, teaching points, vocabulary, and assessments. Readers' and writers' workshop naturally differentiates for all learners. By June of 2020, each unit will have a slide deck associated with it that contains the teaching points, integrated grammar work, vocabulary, and strategies for partner practice. Our district places careful emphasis on vocabulary, as we have a high percentage of English Language Learners.

Students will be reading and writing myths. They will follow the structure of short stories and eventually publish their work.

This resource is a multi-day lesson plan that guides students through the close reading process of an informational text. Using the 1941 FDR State of the Union address, components of informational text including: organization, context, and rhetoric are analyzed. This resource combines lessons plans, primary text, read aloud of the text, informational video, and text complexity / vocabulary Analysis.

How do the Common Core English language arts standards differ from their predecessors? What do they emphasize? What are logical focus points for early implementation? The English and language arts standards depart radically from their predecessors with their insistence on text complexity and close reading skills.

This session, presented by David Liben from Student Achievement Partners, offered a look at various aspects of text complexity: how it is defined by the standards, as well as a range of measurement tools—including some newly developed and tested by the Race to the Text project—and how to use the tools for professional development. The focus on text complexity, close reading, and informational text has clear education implications as well. The presenter will examine some strategic focus areas for literacy instruction and explore ideas for bringing all constituencies to a fuller understanding of the Common Core standards and the features that make text complex.

In this lesson, students interrogate their own assumptions about Abraham Lincoln in order to arrive at a deeper understanding of who Lincoln was. They investigate primary source documents in order to analyze the elements of Lincoln's life that have become legend and those that have been forgotten by history.

Students form literature circles, read "Esperanza Rising" or "Becoming Naomi Leon" by Pam MuĐoz Ryan, use a Critical Thinking Map to discuss social issues, and use a class wiki.

This three-session lesson focuses on characterization. Students determine how a character's traits reveal particular character traits, using a list of adjectives as a guide. Then, they write descriptions of those characters. Characters from Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone are used for modeling.

The activities in this lesson provide a foundation for using nonfiction resources for developing and answering questions about gathered information. Using a wide variety of nonfiction literature, students learn to sort and categorize books to begin the information-gathering process. Then, working with partners and groups, using pictures and text, students are guided through the process of gathering information, asking clarifying questions, and then enhancing the information with additional details. Students complete the lesson by collaboratively making “Question and Answer” books for the classroom library. This is a high-interest foundation builder for using nonfiction literature in research as well as for pleasure reading

In this lesson students use the Informational Text Analysis Tool to deconstruct the essential elements of informational text. Informational text is more important to teachers than ever before, especially with the rise of the new Core standards. The Library of Congress is an excellent resource for finding and using texts to build students' reading skills.Through a diverse array of classic and contemporary literature as well as challenging informational and primary source texts, students build knowledge, gain insights, explore possibilities, and broaden their perspective.

Video collection of Park rangers discussing the events of the Battles of Lexington and Concord. The unit includes student activities.

After studying utopian literature, students design their own utopian society, publishing the explanation of their ideal world on a blog. As they blog about their utopia, students establish the habits, practices, and organizing social structures that citizens will follow in their utopian societies. They begin by brainstorming ideas about what a perfect society would be like and then, in groups, begin to plan their project. Next, they become familiar with the blogging process, including legal guidelines and the specific site they will be using. Over several class sessions, students work on their blogs comparing their work to a rubric. Finally, after students visit one another's blogs and provide constructive and supportive feedback, they reflect on their own work. The lesson plan includes alternative handouts for classrooms where computer or blog access is limited. In this alternative, students complete the same basic activities, but publish their work using a Flip Book.

In Cold Blood Body Biographies (begins on page 23) Statement of Purpose: Body Biographies can help students to explore the complexity of character within a novel. This activity will allow students to explore personality, physical appearance, motivation, etc. of various characters during reading. Because In Cold Blood has such
interesting and varied characters this activity will be particularly engaging for students. It
will also provide an opportunity for them to share the things that they are learning with
their peers.

This project could be used as a Book Report alternative or as a creative way for students to express their comprehension of a short story.  Students would create a book cover as a single page, or as a complete book jacket.  Teachers could identify the particular information they would require for the full project to be placed in certain sections of the jacket.

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.

Wild edible, medicinal and poisonous plants are an ideal way to connect students to the natural world just outside their door. In this unit, students will be able to identify edible, medicinal and poisonous plants using guide books and plotting them on the Siftr app. Using the collected edibles, students will then follow a procedural text to create food from their wild edibles. Students will then create recipes on their own based on a wild edible of their choice to create community cookbooks.