The annual Elie Wiesel Writing and Visuals Arts Competition is open to students in grades 6 through 12 and serves to inspire middle and high school students and teachers to learn more about the Holocaust, racism, bigotry, and the dangers of prejudice. The questions posed each year guide students to explore the lessons of the Holocaust while examining contemporary issues such as bullying, peer pressure, unthinking obedience to authority, and indifference.

This resource is a comprehensive unit of instruction created and piloted by the ACSE Region III team over the 2022-23 school year. This unit, which is accessible through multiple links to include worksheets, slidedecks, teacher suggestions and planning documents, includes all components of the instruction with SOL connections and is intended to join Computer Science standards to an ELA content area.

Students will analyze various poems by Langston Hughes and write a constructed response based on the readings.  This task can and should be completed in conjunction with 7th grade history lessons on the Harlem Renaissance.  ** This performance assessment was developed by a collaborative team of teachers and division staff from Middlesex, Poquoson, and West Point school divisions.

By the end of this lesson the student will be able to effectively become knowledgeable in composing a persuasive writing and its techniques, typing in Media Literacy, too.
7.3 The student will understand the elements of media literacy.
7.7 The student will write in a variety of forms with an emphasis on exposition, narration, and persuasion.

We can look at art to analyze and interpret the ideas at play; we can also use art as a prompt for creativity; but these two things don’t have to be mutually exclusive. Use this simple creative writing exercise to help students collaboratively use creative thinking in tandem with critical thinking as they make meaning from an abstract artwork.

A literacy narrative is a piece of writing that describes how you learned something significant about yourself as a reader and/or writer.  Literacy narratives are usually told in story form and are heavily reflective.  Students will work independently to write a literacy narrative that demonstrates their relationship with reading and/or writing. 

Shared narratives can be found in art from many cultures and throughout time. Use this resource to encourage students to explore diverse narratives, discover their own personal narrative, and express that narrative through their own work of art.Using provided engagment strategies students are able to hone Critical, Creative, and Communication skills using works of art in the Virginia Museum of Arts collection. Discussion prompts and activities offer instructional oppotunities for building Collaboration and Citizenship skills. 

Use this resource to help students explore the human experience across time and place, give voice to diverse perspectives found in art, and collaboratively reimagine a museum that presents a new story centered around our shared human interactions.

You are an expert at many aspects of your life. Maybe you bake the best chocolate chip cookies, or know how to hit a homerun in baseball. Perhaps you wrap beautiful presents or do amazing cartwheels or front flips. You will choose a task that you are very familiar with and write step-by-step instructions for someone who has never performed that task. ** This performance assessment was developed by a collaborative team of teachers and division staff from Middlesex, Poquoson, and West Point school divisions.