In this unit students explore the Taliban influence on the Middle East through the eyes of multiple young women. In the core text, The Breadwinner, students experience how the Taliban presence in Afghanistan drastically altered Parvana and her family's life. Students will be challenged to think about what constitutes basic human rights and the way in which the Taliban violated the human rights of many Afghanistan citizens. Students will also be challenged to think about women's rights, especially in regard to education and freedom, and how both were constantly at risk under Taliban rule. Finally, students will realize that a positive attitude, dedication to family, and drive to be self-reliant can help people survive, and thrive, in the worst of situations. In the second part of the unit, students read about the experiences of real children living in Afghanistan after the Taliban left. Through those experiences, students explore how education and women's rights are still restricted in Afghanistan and grapple with what it will take to create a society where women have access to the same basic freedoms as men. In the last part of the unit, students meet Malala Yousafzai and analyze how her positive attitude and drive help her fight for women's rights in Pakistan despite facing incredible challenges and threats. Over the course of the entire unit, it is our hope that students will build a deeper understanding of the importance of women's rights and access to education around the world, particularly in the Middle East.

As readers, this unit builds onto unit one by pushing students to compare and contrast characters and analyze character point of view at an even deeper level. Students will be challenged to close read the text, make accurate annotations, and quote accurately in order to develop theories about key characters in and across texts. In this unit, students will also begin to use informational texts, particularly memories and first-person accounts, to help build a deeper understanding of fiction texts. The focus for informational reading is similar to the focus for fiction, and students will analyze how the point of view influences the way in which events are described.

Students have a lot of British rulers to keep track off. This Flow Chart allows student a visual of the leaders and then to fill in with important details. There are Google Draw and print copy versions. An answer key is included.

Using a Fluffy pancakes recipe students will identify a recipe as a type of algorithm.  Students will identify the part of the recipe that is numbered as the steps or algorithm is numbered.    Students are expected to identify that number one step is done before number 2 and so on.  Students will work in pairs to create their own algorithm for brushing teeth.  Students should work in pairs.  One student should create the algorithm and the other should debug the algorithm.  

This activity will show the sorting process using the Bubble Sort Brute Force algorithm that is used by a computer when sorting data without using a computer.

In this historical fiction unit, students learn about the Great Depression through the eyes of a ten-year-old African-American boy by reading the core text Bud, Not Buddy. In Bud, Not Buddy, students join Bud on his quest to find his father. In doing so, students are exposed to what life was like during the Great Depression, especially for African-Americans. Over the course of the novel, students will grapple with lying, and if lying is always bad or if it can sometimes be a good thing, as they witness Bud lying as a way to survive. Students will also analyze and explore the idea of maturity and what it means to act one's age versus acting more mature as Bud finds himself in situations most ten-year-olds will never experience. The theme of compassion and kindness also arises over the course of the novel. Students will analyze how the compassionate actions of others help Bud on his journey, while deepening their understanding of why it's always important to help others, even when times are tough. It is our hope that this unit, in conjunction with the rest of the fourth-grade sequence, will help students develop empathy and understanding for the experiences of others.

As readers, this unit serves as the culminating unit for the year. Therefore, the majority of the unit focuses on spiraling strategies. Students should be pushed daily to summarize key events, analyze characters and setting, and figure out the meaning of unknown words. Students should also be pushed to use the information they learn from the nonfiction text about the Great Depression to confirm and deepen their understanding of what life was like during the Great Depression.

Students will deconstruct ideas, claims, or concepts presented to them, build understanding of those ideas, and show their understanding.

This is an unplugged worksheet activity to walk students through the process of building strong, easy to remember, passwords.

This slideshow will help students to identify and use strong passwords, and explain why strong passwords should be used (e.g., protect name, address, and telephone number). It walks students through a process that can be used to create strong, easy to remember, passwords.

This is a subject verb sentence building activity. Students with build sentences with regular French ER verbs in steps.

Students will use the base ten blocks to build the number given. Teachers may use this to introduce, model, as guided practice or as an independent activity for students to show what they know. 

This unplugged lesson will allow students to encrypt and decrypt message using the Caesar Cipher letter shift method of encryption. Cover the process of how this method works by doing an example and explaining the process of shifting the plaintext by the letter shift value to create the encrypted cipher text.

This lesson is designed to teach students basic encryption using the Caesar cipher method. This is a simple letter shift cipher that takes a plaintext message and encrypts it into cipher text by shifting each letter of the message by a value between 1 and 25 (1 less than the total number of letters in the English alphabet). This technique was used by Julius Caesar to encrypt messages by shifting each letter of the message by 3 letters. The message would be decrypted by taking each letter and shifting back 3 letters to reveal the plaintext message.

Students will complete a Task Sheet/Choice Board about Capitalism and Socialism. Task choices also include the impact of labor unions. Lesson take around 90 mins. I split it up over two block periods, starting the first day with an introduction lecture on the factors of production, Smith, and Marx. Works well for World History II but could be adapted for Personal Finance or Economics.

This guided reading of Edgar Allan Poe’s “The Cask of Amontillado” (1846) focuses on expanding vocabulary, developing student understanding of imagery and other figurative language, strengthening reading comprehension, and strengthening expository and persuasive writing skills.

Have students learn about the main characters in William Shakespeare's Hamlet. Let THEM become the casting director as they decide who is best fit to play the part!

I created this activity to use during the introduction of cause and effect for my fourth-grade class. I feel that beginning with pictures helps my students distinguish between why and what. This is an engaging way to allow students to practice with cause and effect. This is an engaging activity to practice SOL 4.5j.

Students will read the declarations of secession from each state joining the CSA. Students can be assigned to read all, a few, or just one. Students will then draft a statement summarizing the reason(s) the state is giving for secession. Students can write/share these with the class and then discuss any commonalities among the statements to determine the cause of the Civil War according the states that seceded.

Students will read the declarations of secession from each state joining the CSA. Students can be assigned to read all, a few, or just one. Students will then draft a statement summarizing the reason(s) the state is giving for secession. Students can write/share these with the class and then discuss any commonalities among the statements to determine the cause of the Civil War according the states that seceded.