Using an inquiry based approach has a profound effect on the depth and complexity of classroom discussions. In this video, students share how this is different than what they've previously experienced and we see teacher, Avram Barlowe, use primary source documents to drive discussions about freedom as it existed during Reconstruction following the Civil War. Recognizing that these documents describe both daily life and larger political and social ideas, Avram expects that the discussion will focus on both elements but will be largely driven by student comments and reactions to each text. In preparation for this inquiry based approach, Avram shares how he develops many questions that may never be used and must be ready to use students' comments and questions to facilitate the resulting discussion. Even though he knows ahead of time that there are specific issues that should be explored, he does not come into the discussion with specific answers or outcome for these issues. Avram sees the text as a vehicle in which the students can explore ideas that interest them and requires that students use multiple documents to challenge their thinking and extend their understanding of differing perspectives. In this way, students are prepared to not only discuss these ideas in this informal setting but are also prepared to read analytically and write about these ideas, considering multiple perspectives.

Many students begin to learn about metaphors well before entering high school. This lesson assumes that students will have a basic understanding of what metaphors are; however it is designed to help students begin to engage with metaphors on a deeper and more abstract level. The lesson will begin with a poem containing metaphors accessible at all levels, and with each poem the lesson will progress in difficulty, so that teachers will find material to suit their classes at all skill levels.

This lesson provides an introduction to the language and poetics of the epic poem Beowulf. Although this lesson assumes students will read Beowulf in translation, it introduces students to the poem’s original Old English and explains the relationship between Old, Middle, and Modern English. Students are introduced to the five characters in the Old English alphabet that are no longer used in Modern English. As a class, they translate a short, simple phrase from Old English, and then listen to a passage from the poem being read in Old English. Next, students are introduced to some poetic devices important to Beowulf. They learn about alliteration by reading an excerpt from W. H. Auden’s modern English poem “The Age of Anxiety,” then listen for alliteration in the Old English version of a passage from Beowulf. Finally, students explore the poetic functions of kennings, compounds, and formulas in Beowulf.

A general introduction to manifolds and Lie groups. The role of Lie groups in mathematics and physics. The exponential mapping. Correspondence with Lie algebras. Homogeneous spaces and transformation groups. Adjoint representation. Covering groups. Automorphism groups. Invariant differential forms and cohomology of Lie groups and homogeneous spaces. 18.101 recommended but not required. DThis course is devoted to the theory of Lie Groups with emphasis on its connections with Differential Geometry. The text for this class is Differential Geometry, Lie Groups and Symmetric Spaces by Sigurdur Helgason (American Mathematical Society, 2001). Much of the course material is based on Chapter I (first half) and Chapter II of the text. The text however develops basic Riemannian Geometry, Complex Manifolds, as well as a detailed theory of Semisimple Lie Groups and Symmetric Spaces.

This is an introductory lesson on cells. Student learning begins with the teacher modeling the use of a T-chart graphic organizer while reading an article comparing simple and complex carbohydrates. Students then move to independent practice using the T-chart graphic organizer to compare simple (prokaryotic) cells and complex (eukaryotic) cells.

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.

This packet provides an explanation of Ireland’s Great Hunger and provides ideas for primary source materials to use to describe the event A variety of discussion questions, writing activities, and other activities are provided that allow students to explore the facts and how different Irish artists used art and other media forms to depict the effects of the famine.

A collection of resources supporting an author study of Jacqueline Woodson.  It includes interviews, lesson plans, book trailers, book readings and multiple TeachingBooks.net created meet-the-author videos.  It can be used for student research during an author study or as a resource for educators creating a lesson on the author or one of her works.

This is an activity exploring Shakespeare's use of sonnets in Romeo and Juliet. It explicitly explores the sonnet between Romeo and Juliet in the scene where they meet each other. Students will explore the structure of a Petrarchan sonnet and analyze whether the sonnet in Act 1 fulfills the requirements of the Petrarchan sonnet. This would be a part of a larger Romeo and Juliet unit.

Junie B., as she insists on being called, is an opinionated, lively, character in Barbara Park's series of books, and she is sure to delight primary students. In this unit, the teacher reads aloud selections from Junie B., First Grader (at last!). Students discuss the text with a partner and then individually compose sentences about key events from the story. Each student also creates and adds items to a mystery box, or a box that holds items or pictures referenced in the story. After students have listened to the entire story, they use their mystery boxes to retell the story to a classmate. As a culminating activity, students use the mystery boxes and the sentences they composed to make a related stapleless book about the story.

This is a guided packet used with my Yearbook Publication class.  It was designed to specifically meet standard RI.11-12.8, which is asking for students to read, understand, and evaluate legal reasoning used in US Supreme Court cases.  The cases students are required to look at in this packet are cases specifically related to student journalism and student press rights ( and ).  It is used as a guided Internet search to supplement the information presented in the journalism textbook.

ReadWorks provides a large, high quality library of curated nonfiction and literary articles, along with reading comprehension and vocabulary lessons, formative assessments, and teacher guidance. Most importantly, everything ReadWorks does is based on proven cognitive science research, not unproven academic theory.
This resource is set for a lesson on Civil Rights, connecting Jackie Robinson's letter about civil rights to MLK's letter from the Birmingham Jail.  It includes the texts for each, text dependent comprehension questions, and higher level questioning comparing and contrasting the two texts, as well as vocabulary handouts and a student worksheet.

Lit2Go is a free online collection of stories and poems in Mp3 (audiobook) format. An abstract, citation, playing time, and word count are given for each of the passages. Many of the passages also have a related reading strategy identified. Each reading passage can also be downloaded as a PDF and printed for use as a read-along or as supplemental reading material for your classroom.

The Common Core State Standards in English Language Arts expands the study of literary non-fiction in later grades. This allows English Language Arts teachers to utilize their expertize to cultivate students' deeper understanding of complex and varied texts.

This resource will help you begin the process of understanding literary theory and schools of criticism and how they are used in the academy.

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.

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

This Ted-Ed video, which can be used as a part of a writing lesson in the literature classroom, addresses the idea of finding "deeper meaning" in a literary work. It is an engaging instructional video that takes the perspective of a student who is a beginner in literary analysis writing and needs help understanding how to read with insight and acknowledge complex ideas in their work. Using two example texts (Austen's Pride and Prejudice and Morrison's ), the narrator helps students understand how to think about literature analytically prior to writing about it.

Simple reading log for early elementary students to track their reading.  Includes Date, Title, Fiction or Non-Fiction, Level, and Rating columns.