In this unit, students study the rovers Spirit and Opportunity and their …
In this unit, students study the rovers Spirit and Opportunity and their remarkable missions to Mars. Through a combination of reading, analyzing images and photographs, and participating in engineering and design labs, students will begin to understand the complexity, preparation, and diligence involved in space missions. Students will grapple with why the engineering and design process, particularly continually planning, trying, and evaluating, is a crucial part of a successful mission. This unit also allows students to make connections between content learned in math and content learned in previous science units, solidifying the importance and value of STEM. It is our hope that this unit inspires students to explore engineering and STEM not only in space but in the world around them.
In this unit, students build their skills in consuming scientific and technical texts. Students will practice explaining the connection between two or more scientific ideas or concepts in a text. Additionally, students will be challenged to draw on and integrate information from two or more texts in order to describe a scientific idea, concept, or process in depth. This unit also continues the study of point of view and analyzing how the point of view influences what and how information is presented to a reader. The Mighty Mars Rover is written to captivate and engage a reader, while the NASA press releases are written to inform the public of the progress and findings of the Mars rover missions. Students will be challenged to compare and contrast the point of view of each text and the strategies each author uses based on the point of view and desired audience. Since this is the culminating unit of the course, all other informational standards will be spiraled throughout the unit.
After reading a variety of nonfiction articles, students will select one article …
After reading a variety of nonfiction articles, students will select one article to read, annotate, and complete the Exploring NF Text Graphic Organizer with their chosen text.Students will also summarize their chosen article by creating an objective and true summary including a strong main idea and supporting details.
Students will read nonfiction articles on a topic of their choice to …
Students will read nonfiction articles on a topic of their choice to create an informative article that incorporates important details, evidence, and uses vocabulary that expresses ideas precisely and concisely. Students will include one purposefully crafted visual text feature in their writing. Students will organize their writing in a way that aids comprehension for the reader.
Students will demonstrate their ability to write an expository text by selecting a …
Students will demonstrate their ability to write an expository text by selecting a topic of their choice to write 3-5 short paragraphs, each following a different organizational pattern. The writing should incorporate a main idea and important details while choosing language that expresses ideas precisely and concisely. Students should also show the best tone and voice in their writing to fit each organizational pattern and to vary their sentences to make their writing interesting.
Lessons designed by experts to help students develop skills needed to navigate …
Lessons designed by experts to help students develop skills needed to navigate the digital world, critically consume information and responsibly produce and share content. The source touts that they are designed to be interactive and engaging, these lessons involve group discussion, activities, quizzes, and games that have been built in consultation with teens. They can be used either collectively or individually in the classroom.
Engage students in a discussion about the definition of failure and why …
Engage students in a discussion about the definition of failure and why so many people are afraid of it using Theodore Roosevelt's Man in the Arena speech from 1910.
This lesson remixes a lesson entitled Teach Design: Portkey (developed by Austin …
This lesson remixes a lesson entitled Teach Design: Portkey (developed by Austin Meyer) by employing it as an anticipatory activity for an instructional unit on Ray Bradbury's "Fahrenheit 451." Students follow the steps outlined in the original lesson and then return back to this activity frequently during their reading of the unit text in order to deepen their understanding of the unit text and to reinforce the author's message concerning the power of stories in our lives.
In this unit students explore and experience the works of five award …
In this unit students explore and experience the works of five award winning authors and illustrators; Grace Lin, Yuyi Morales, John Parra, Monica Brown and Jerry Pinkney. Students learn about each author or illustrator's life and his or her inspiration for becoming an author and/or illustrator. Students will think critically and make connections between the author or illustrator's life and the stories he or she writes or illustrates, and how each author's unique personality is reflected in the words or pictures. By studying a wide variety of authors and illustrators, it is our hope that the foundations will be set for a life-long interest in reading and books. Author studies help students develop a deeper attachment to books while also noticing and identifying the many different ways in which authors write. It is also our hope that students will use the authors in this unit as writing mentors, mimicking the author's style while also building confidence in their own writing and unique ideas. Another underlying focus of this unit is on helping students identify and explain why certain books win awards, and the types of awards that are given. In future units and grades students will read additional award winning stories written or illustrated by the different authors and illustrators from the unit.
In reading this unit builds on the first three units and assumes that students are inquisitive consumers of text, asking and answering questions while listening to and enjoying a story. Students will continue to work on retelling a story, including key details about setting, characters and major events. Students will also continue to be challenged to'read' the illustrations and think about how the illustrations help a reader better understand what is happening in the story. At the end of this unit, students should also be able to clearly articulate and define the role of the author and illustrator and why they are both important.
In writing students will continue to write daily in response to the text. At this point, students should be able to draw or write an answer that correctly answers the question. In this unit, students will be challenged to details to their writing to show a deeper understanding of the question. Over the course of the unit students will also write opinion pieces about which book by the author or illustrator was their favorite and why.
This guided reading of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of the House …
This guided reading of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Fall of the House of Usher” (1839) focuses on expanding vocabulary, developing student understanding of imagery and other figurative language, strengthening reading comprehension, and strengthening writing skills.
In this unit, students are exposed to familiar stories with predictable patterns …
In this unit, students are exposed to familiar stories with predictable patterns and illustrations. Exposure to predictable texts is incredibly important for beginning readers as they begin to explore the world of reading independently. Predictable texts are incredibly engaging for students, allowing them to anticipate words, phrases, and events on their own and better follow the storyline sequence of a story. The story patterns also allow students to try and read the stories on their own, using the repetitive texts and pictures as a guide for either reading or pretending to read the story. Predictable texts are also incredibly important for exposing students to phonological awareness concepts in context, particularly rhyme, rhythm, and fluency. In order for students to reap these benefits, however, they need to deeply engage with the stories. This means that the stories need to be read, reread, retold, and reread some more so that students are able to build the confidence they need to pretend to read or read the text on their own. Within the context of this unit, students are only exposed to the text once; therefore, it is the responsibility of the teacher to find ways to bring the stories to life in other parts of the day so that students are able to reap the rewards of engaging with predictable texts or, if necessary, to slow down the pacing of the unit in order to include multiple readings of a text.
In reading, students will continue to be challenged to ask and answer questions about the texts they read daily. Students will begin to work on retelling what happens to the characters in the story, using key details from the text and illustrations. Because the stories are repetitive in nature, this unit provides a strong foundation for teaching how to retell a story. Another focus of this unit is on understanding how authors and illustrators use illustrations and repetition to help a reader understand the main events in a story. Students will learn how to closely'read' illustrations for subtle clues about character feeling or foreshadowing clues for what is going to happen next in a story. In order to engage deeply in the content, students will continue to develop active participation and discussion habits, allowing them to learn from and with one another.
In writing, students will continue to write daily in response to the text. In Unit 1, the focus was on establishing the routines and procedures necessary for daily writing about reading. In this unit, students will continue to write daily in response to the text with a focus on using words and pictures to correctly answer the question.
This lesson reimagines an existing instructional resource, "The Grapes of Wrath by …
This lesson reimagines an existing instructional resource, "The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck" created by Franky Abbott, Digital Public Library of America.
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In this remix, "The Grapes of Wrath" and the related primary source documents are exchanged for "Farewell to Manzanar" and related primary sources accessed through secondary open-source databases.
Discussion questions ask students to consider the memoir in light of its historical context and students gain experience reading and evaluating visual sources including political cartoons and propaganda posters to understand how elements of rhetorical can shape and/or reflect cultural values.
For this summative, students will read a text that speaks to the theme …
For this summative, students will read a text that speaks to the theme of “Overcoming Obstacles”. Using this text, students will explore the development of a theme, figurative language, sound devices, foreshadowing, symbolism, and irony, and other fiction standards.
During this lesson, students will be discussing similarities and differences between fiction …
During this lesson, students will be discussing similarities and differences between fiction and nonfiction texts. Students will classify items by a variety of attributes into sets and subsets on a Venn diagram collaboratively and independently. In addition, students will learn that classifying items and objects into sets and subsets is what Computer Scientists do, others in the Mathematics field, and in many real-world situations.
This is a review lesson of fiction vs. nonfiction. Before completing this …
This is a review lesson of fiction vs. nonfiction. Before completing this activity, students should have prior knowledge of these genres and be able to identify them according to their characteristics.
In this unit students begin to explore the concepts of fairness and …
In this unit students begin to explore the concepts of fairness and justice. Over the course of the unit students are exposed to numerous ordinary people who worked together to overcome injustice and fight for a better future for others. Students will grapple with what it means if something is fair and just, particularly in regard to race, class, gender, and ability. Then students will be challenged to think about the different ways in which people showed courage, patience, and perseverance in order to challenge things that were fundamentally unfair. Over the course of the unit it is our hope that students are able to acknowledge and realize that things aren't always fair in the world around them, but that doesn't mean that it always has to be that way. It is our hope that students see that identifying the problem is only the first step and that anyone who has the right mindset and beliefs can inspire others to work together to create a more just future for everyone. Essentially, we hope that this unit begins to plant the seed within our students that they can be activists and take charge of their own lives and communities. No one is too young to inspire change. It is important to note that this unit primarily focuses on big-scale changes. Additional projects and lessons should be added to help students understand how what they learned connects to change on a smaller scale.
In reading, students will continue to work on developing their informational reading strategies, particularly when reading a collection of narrative nonfiction texts. The focus of this unit is on reinforcing and practicing targeted informational strategies in the context of a narrative structure. In particular, students will be pushed to describe the connection between individuals, events, and pieces of information. Students will also be challenged to think about the reasons an author gives to support a point and how those reasons look slightly different in a narrative informational text than in a scientific or history-based informational text.
In writing, students will continue to work on writing responses to the text that provide relevant and accurate information along with some evidence of inferential or critical thinking.
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