This represents an entire unit designed to be cross curricular in nature for English 11 and VA/US History. The Historical Fiction Research Unit Google Doc can be found here and contains various links to additional resources to support this unit of study.The "before", "during", and "after" are included in each day for this series.  The unit will take approximately 12 days.

Social Media has changed how we gain information about people, places and events. Imagine if there were social media sites furing the time of Columbus, John Smith, or the Civil War.Students will use the Historical Social Media Profile template to create a profile and social media page for a historical figure. Students will use the spaces provided to draw a profile picture, write a biography, and social media posts for the person they have chosen.  

offers educators Park Service resources that help teach about our nation's cultural heritage, and which look at how the NPS is protecting and preserving them. Subjects include archaeology, historic buildings and structures, mapping, military history, and national historic landmarks. The resources may be in the form of learning programs, case studies, lesson plans, teachers' handbooks, and more.

HPOL is a searchable multimedia database documenting and delivering authoritative audio relevant to American history and politics. This project is supported by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities Teaching With Technology Program in collaboration with Michigan State University and the National Gallery of the Spoken Word.

In this lesson, students will consider how weather forecasting can play an important part in their daily lives. They will learn about the history of weather forecasting — from old weather proverbs to modern forecasting equipment — and how improvements in weather technology have saved lives by providing advance warning of natural hazards.

In this science/history-based unit, students learn about the history of the earth by studying fossils and dinosaurs. In the first part of the unit, students learn about how fossils are formed and how paleontologists study fossils in order to learn about ancient history. In the second part of the unit, students study what makes dinosaurs unique and fascinating creatures by learning about various species of dinosaurs and how they adapted in order to meet their basic needs for survival. Students will also be challenged to think about what earth was like at the time of the dinosaurs and how learning about dinosaurs helps them better understand the earth's history. In the last part of the unit, students read a collection of fiction texts, each with a unique perspective on what happened to the dinosaurs and if dinosaurs really are extinct. In this part of the unit, students should be pushed to use what they have learned from the informational texts in order to confirm or deny the statements the author makes in the fiction texts.

In reading, this unit exposes students to both informational and fiction texts. When reading informational texts, students will focus on explaining the connection between two or more pieces of information in a text, particularly in regard to retelling how fossils are formed or how scientists uncover fossils. Students will also be pushed to describe the relationship between the illustrations and the text in which they appear, specifically describing what new or additional information they learn from reading the illustrations. Additionally, students will continue to practice determining the main topic of a text and asking and answering questions about unknown words. When reading fiction texts, students will focus on retelling the story and making connections between the story and the facts they've learned from the informational texts.

In writing, students will continue to write daily in response to the text. Written responses should focus on including an inference or critical thinking that shows understanding of the text and/or question and on using more words than pictures to communicate the answer to a question. This unit also includes two longer writing assignments: one research writing assignment and one narrative writing assignment.

Students will learn about the history of the internet and how it functions today, and create a presentation on the internet based on what they research. Students will be able to explain the history of the internet (the topic of the lesson) using the English skills pertaining to a chronological organizational pattern, namely, the use of a timeline and signal/transitional words and phrases.

Students will read Adolf Hitler's September 1, 1939 Address to the Reichstag to analyze, (1) the rationale Hitler provides for his coming invasion of Poland, (2) causes of WWII, and (3) examples of nationalism.

Dan Meyer has created many mathematics lessons centered around storytelling, along with a methodology for using these with students. Before you do any of his lessons, please see the explanation at his blog: https://blog.mrmeyer.com/2011/the-three-acts-of-a-mathematical-story/ To see all the lessons in a Google Docs spreadsheet, go to https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1jXSt_CoDzyDFeJimZxnhgwOVsWkTQEsfqouLWNN
C6Z4/edit#gid=0

The lessons are all CC BY, and you may edit these to fit your own students’ needs. The links from #GoOpenVA go to his own website because the structure of the lessons (including pertinent videos) is integral to the delivery of the lessons. Some lessons are stored as downloadable zip files, and these are noted as part of the link.

Students will use linear programming techniques to create a plan for a 4H Club to maximize profits selling fir trees. In doing so, learners will Identify the feasible region of a system of linear inequalities, identify the coordinates of the vertices of a feasible region and determine and describe the maximum or minimum value for the function defined over a feasible region.

 This local alternative assessment is designed to cover the history ASOL HS-H 1b. It fulfills the requirements for local alternative assessments. 

Explore how heat transfers within a home through convection and how this process is affected by the state of the home's windows and wind outside. Both the state of the windows (open or closed) and presence of wind will affect this process. Convection is a specific form of heat transfer where heated air or fluid becomes lighter and rises above unheated air or fluid.

This is a learning guide that uses data to investigate the characteristics of the Washington DC, metropolitan area homeless population, and the relationship between homelessness and several measures of health.

A simple assessment or question bank focused on helping students differentiate between the subtleties and functions of various cell types. These questions can be used in a variety of ways for a life science or biology classroom, e.g. as an assessment, a pre-test, or incorporated into a group activity or game.

This minds-on, hands-on activity begins with analysis and discussion questions that develop student understanding of homeostasis and negative feedback and the differences between negative and positive feedback. Next, students develop a model of negative feedback regulation of blood levels of CO2 and O2 as they learn or review basic information about cellular respiration and basic physiology of the respiratory and circulatory systems. Then, students carry out an experiment to test their negative feedback model and analyze the data. In a final optional section, students develop and carry out an independent investigation. This activity helps students meet the Next Generation Science Standards.

This lesson recounts efforts to improve homesteading laws and make land ownership possible for more settlers. The distribution of government lands had been an issue since the Revolutionary War. Preemption -- settling the land first and paying for it later -- became national policy; however, supporting legislation was stymied until the secession of Southern states. See one of the first applications for land under this law. Teaching activities are included.

Students will understand that words that sound the same are called homophones. Students will choose the correct homophone to complete a sentence.

This short video and google slide presentation is to show 2nd graders the correct spelling and meaning of different homophones.

Students will learn what homophones are, look at some commonly used homophones and then practice a few examples. 

I created this activity/game to provide my students with practice using frequently misused homophones. I begin this activity by reviewing what homophones are and having the class identify some examples. This activity/game provides practice for SOL 4.4b.