This mini unit walks students through the question/discovery process of nonfiction literature.  The first lesson encourages students to wonder while reading.  Then students research to find the answers to their questions.  They explore ways to show/write their new learning.  As a class the kids work to publish 1 or 2 classroom books on the research topic.  This is a great way to introduce the nonfiction unit and then let each student write thier own question book based on the process they used with the class book.

Embed a layer of questions, quizzes, and rich media annotations into any reading assignment. Track mastery of literacy skills and Common Core standards in real-time.

In this online tool, students can learn about and write diamante poems, which are diamond-shaped poems that use nouns, adjectives, and gerunds to describe either one central topic or two opposing topics (for example,  or ). Examples of both kinds of diamante poems can be viewed online or printed out.

These lesson ideas can be used to teach the key Digital Technology concepts.

In this intriguing article for American Theater magazine, author Rob Weinert-Kendt interviews American actor Bill Pullman and Norwegian director Stein Winge as they launch a completely revisioned version of Shakespeare's  for a Norwegian audience.

This LearnZillion video models how to select significant and relevant evidence by selecting examples from a written text. The video reviews the writing process and provides an example thesis based on "An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge" and the development of concurrent themes. The process of choosing pieces of texual evidence that best support the thesis will be modeled.

"The easyCBM system was developed by educational researchers at the University of Oregon in close collaboration with school district partners across the United States. It is designed to give teachers insight into which of their students may need additional instructional supports as well as to provide a means by which they can measure the effectiveness of their teaching. System reports provide information that supports evidence-based decision making, and the Interventions interface streamlines the process of keeping track of students' instructional program, a feature that is particularly helpful for student study team meetings and parent conferences.
The full District system includes a variety of curriculum based measures in the content areas of early literacy in both English and Spanish as well as oral reading fluency, vocabulary, and reading comprehension. In addition, it offers mathematics measures with reach to both the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics (NCTM) Focal Point Standards and the Common Core State Standards in Mathematics, with built-in read-aloud and Spanish translation accommodations. The Teacher Deluxe Edition offers the same features as the District version, but is optimized for individual teacher, rather than system-wide adoption. A truncated version, the Lite Edition, is available free of charge for individual teachers."

In this lesson student will perform a close reading of a scene from Shakespeare or other complex text (preferably a play). Student will edit the text by evaluating main idea, plot elements, tone, etc. Then, they will practice and perform their scene for their peers.

Support your students to embrace the larger questions featured in American Creed that ask:

What ideals unite us as a nation?
Where does a nation’s identity come from?
These lesson plans bring together teaching strategies, videos, and activities that will help you explore themes such as common ideals and national identity.

A brief history of conflicting ideas about mankind's relation to the natural environment as exemplified in works of poetry, fiction, and discursive argument from ancient times to the present. What is the overall character of the natural world? Is mankind's relation to it one of stewardship and care, or of hostility and exploitation? Readings include Aristotle, The Book of Genesis, Shakespeare, Descartes, Robinson Crusoe, Swift, Rousseau, Wordsworth, Darwin, Thoreau, Faulkner, and Lovelock's Gaia. This subject offers a broad survey of texts (both literary and philosophical) drawn from the Western tradition and selected to trace the growth of ideas about nature and the natural environment of mankind. The term nature in this context has to do with the varying ways in which the physical world has been conceived as the habitation of mankind, a source of imperatives for the collective organization and conduct of human life. In this sense, nature is less the object of complex scientific investigation than the object of individual experience and direct observation. Using the term "nature" in this sense, we can say that modern reference to "the environment" owes much to three ideas about the relation of mankind to nature. In the first of these, which harks back to ancient medical theories and notions about weather, geographical nature was seen as a neutral agency affecting or transforming agent of mankind's character and institutions. In the second, which derives from religious and classical sources in the Western tradition, the earth was designed as a fit environment for mankind or, at the least, as adequately suited for its abode, and civic or political life was taken to be consonant with the natural world. In the third, which also makes its appearance in the ancient world but becomes important only much later, nature and mankind are regarded as antagonists, and one must conquer the other or be subjugated by it.

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.

Students will create a visual character map examining connections between characters and developing inferences about character motivation in Shakespeare's . The resource contains links to the Folger edition of  as well as the handout on Constructing Character Connections.

This resource offers ELA teachers over 100 exercises to teach a variety of Common Core lessons.  The following are included:  reading comprehesion, figurative language, genre, grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, point of view, text structure, and writing.  The exercises have standards attached, and often there is a power point to present the lesson.  It is also organized by grade level, making use for teachers extremely efficient.

This resource blends nicely with the 1920s and F. Scott Fitzgerald's, The Great Gatsby. The movie is a fictional exploration of Humanities in this time. It also provides benefits on at least three levels. It allows students to visualize famous writers and artists who worked in Paris during the 1920s. The story itself is valuable, raising the issue of how best to use the past. It can also serve to acquaint students with the City of Paris, one of the great cities of the world.

This lesson requires student to evaluate various types of texts including video, visuals, etc. and to communicate their learning in multiple ways (discussions and writing).  Large emphasis on utlizing mutliple reading strategies.

Do worms live underground? Are they good diggers? Can they really read and write? As students read Doreen Cronin's Diary of a Worm in this lesson, they learn to separate the facts from the fictional details. Students begin the lesson by brainstorming what they know about worms. They then begin examining the book in layers. Four read-aloud sessions engage students by focusing attention on different features of the text in each session. In a whole-group setting, students explore the illustrations, fictional details, nonfiction details, and captions and speech bubbles. In this way, students are given concrete strategies that they can use to help differentiate narrative and informational elements in other books they read.

Students use research and observation data (field trip) to objectively rank potential career opportunities to help guide their individual career choice and pathway.

Learning goals/objectives:

After completing this unit, students should be able to utilize an objective method for evaluating potential careers. Students will determine what career types and opportunities are best suited to themselves personally and defend their choices.

This lesson teaches students to understand figurative language and how it effects meaning.   The students will read a nonfiction piece on The Great Chicago Fire.  Students can then work with a partner or small group to answer the questions about the figurative language.

Food is an essential part of our daily life. It is not only important to sustaining life, but it is also important to traditions, celebrations, and personal identity. However, there are many global issues surrounding food today. Food production, consumption, and waste are impacted and impact both local and global economics and well-being. From sustainability practices, to food access, to choices in what we eat, there are many complex issues that we need to answer as a global society in the next few decades.Additionally, in our interconnected world, the food choices made in every community has a global impact. In this unit, we will explore why we eat what we eat and how we can make a difference in ways food is produced, accessed, consumed and wasted in our local and global communities. First, we will investigate food habits around the world and compare them with our own habits through reading various texts, class discussions, and surveying others. Then, we will take action by creating our own texts to share with others and inform them of issues surrounding food at a local and/or global level.Additionally, this unit connects with multiple UN Sustainable Development Goals, including #2 Zero Hunger, #3 Good Health and Well-being, and #12 Responsible Consumption and Production, as well as touching on many others.

Guides a learner who has no previous German experience to gain the ability to accurately understand formal written German prose, aided only by a comprehensive dictionary. Specific objectives include: 1) Explain enough grammatical and syntactical information about the German language to enable you to read any desired text with the aid of a dictionary. 2) Explain elements of word formation to accelerate the process of learning vocabulary. 3) Lead you through practice in small-scale translation as the necessary foundation for dealing with more complex readings.