English Instructional Plan – Individuality and Fictional Characters’ Responses to Injustice: Themes and Symbols 

English Instructional Plan – Identity, Individuality and Society: Themes in History and Literature [Lesson Duration: Approximately 1-2 weeks depending on the length of reading selections.] 

In this unit, students will delve deeper into the genre of myth to access appropriate standards.  The students will use Greek Mythology as a vehicle to master and apply fiction comprehension skills.  Students will also explore the background of Greek philosophers while applying and mastering nonfiction comprehension skills.  The students will show mastery by completing a Persuasive Writing Performance Based Assessment.

In this unit, students will delve deeper into nonfiction with a novel study titled, I Am Malala.  The students will apply nonfiction comprehension skills and close reading strategies to analyze and explore the challenges of an adolescent girl from a different culture analyze while reading.  The students will show mastery by completing a Persuasive Writing Performance Based Assessment. 

In this unit, students will examine the global topic of refugees.  The students will use nonfiction articles that provide students a background knowledge of the topic.  The articles will be the resources used to support learning of nonfiction VDOE Grade 8 standards. Students will apply comprehension skills daily throughout the unit of study.   The acquired background knowledge will support the second half of the unit as students will take part in a novel study using Refugee.   The students will show mastery by completing a persuasive writing performance based assessment. 

In this unit, students will delve into a novel study for Refugee.  The students will use the novel as a vessel to practice and apply comprehension skills.  Students will also explore the challenges of three adolescents who are all faced with the difficult decisions of having to leave their homes.   The students will show mastery by completing a Persuasive Writing Performance Based Assessment. 

This unit will focus on the not-so-distant future of the students - employment.  Students will analyze the process to identify necessary character traits of a strong employee by reading nonfiction and making connections between their lives and the reading by exploring potential careers.  The unit will culminate with a persuasive essay about the qualities of a good employee.

In this unit, students read the novel, Lyddie, by Katherin Patterson.  Students will read a variety of fiction and nonfiction through the novel to make connections between characters and settings.  Additionally, students will engage in character analysis to help them understand author's conventions.  Finally, students will engage in vocabulary study to help them understand the connotations and denotations of words as well as enhance reading comprehension.

In this unit, students read fiction, nonfiction, and poetry selections about acts of courage, big and small, ordinary and extraordinary.  Throughout the unit students will assume the role of a blogger and write expository essay profiles about the people and characters they read about and their acts of courage.  This work will be curated in a Google Site that will serve as the Performance Based Assessment. 

 English Instructional Plan – Using Context to Determine Meaning of Unfamiliar Words Grades 3-5 

English Instructional Plan – Using Details to Determine the Main Idea Grades 3-5 

English Instructional Plan – Using non-fiction texts to make inferences and draw conclusions 8-9 

English Instructional Plan – Using vocabulary skits to connect unfamiliar words by tapping into social emotional memoryAfter being introduced to a series of new words through a cloze reading activity, students will create mind maps (using graphics, word origin maps, and meaningful sentences) to learn a set of words that will be used within a thematic unit. Once students have some time exploring the words, they will be tasked with creating vocabulary skits that connect the words to their personal experiences, so that they will encode the words by tapping into their emotional memory. This activity will include a model lesson, but is intended for teachers to adapt to any set of words. The content of the lesson is best suited for 8th grade

English Instructional Plan –Using Word Maps to Expand Vocabulary (Grade 6, 7, 8)