Students will create a flowchart showing the evolution of a specific technology including failed attempts at advancement. This task includes research and understanding the iterative process. Easily differentiated. 

 Each student writes a one paragraph summary of a chapter of a book and then illustrates their chapter. It can be used for a book the whole class is reading so then all of the summaries are collected and bound together to create a “summary book” of the book read. This activity can be used for both fiction and non-fiction books in any subject and any grade, although this activity is linked to upper primary SOLs. This activity assesses reading comprehension and practices all writing skills. It also includes Art SOLs, and if you have students create their final products on the computer, then you would be incorporating the Computer Technology SOLs as well. If it is used for a non-fiction text in a different content class, then the activity would also cover those SOLs. It can be used for EL classes in middle school also. 

This learning resource provides students insight into combining and subdividing figures as well as utilizing the understanding of quadrilaterals.  Along with the exploration, students will be developing critical thinking through the decisions that are made to create the final mathematical product.  They will also communicate through collaboration to produce a final mathematical product.  They will also develop creative thinking and citizenship by producing a written piece to show their caring and understanding nature.

      Using the picture book The True Story of the Three Pigs by A. Wolf  as told to Jon Scieska, students will complete math word problems that cover the measurement SOLs. They will also write their own “true story” of another fairy tale, which covers the English writing SOLs. An extension of this unit could be to have students create math word problems based on their new story and have their classmates solve them. This lesson can also be used as an art activity if the story is illustrated. If technology is available, it can be an opportunity for students to practice their computer skills to create a final version of their new illustrated fairy tale or to use the computer to illustrate it.  

This lesson sequence offers students and teachers a way to explore gender and cultural identity through analyzing children’s literature and coding with Scratch, specifically exploring the importance of names to our identities. Through read-aloud activities and self-differentiated Scratch projects, students learn about the importance of names in reference to both gender and culture, and have a chance to explore and express ideas about their own names, brainstorm creating school environments supportive of diversity, and reflect on their own bravery and resilience. This sequence is broken into seven lessons, though your students may need additional class time to work on their projects.This lesson sequence is part of CodeVA's committment to the U.S. Department of Education "YOU Belong in STEM" initiative.