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 is a virtual learning hyperdoc assignment that could be used in any course to address related careers and/or information literacy skills, though it was developed for use with 9th grade English classes.  If used in a state other than Virginia, the teacher would need to replace the resource Virginia Career View and related questions in phases 3 and 4, as well as in the “Learn More” box at the bottom.

This resource presents a variety of digital resources hosted by Virginia Museum of Fine Arts that students can use to explore the life and work of renowned African-American photographer Louis Draper.  

Give students some freedom, but provide a reasonable workflow with this Genius Hour Workflow HyperDoc.  Also included, a model to help students understand that this is not just free time and that they are expected to master, create, learn, innovate, produce, and maybe even serve.

Spending time with a work of art can be an opportunity for thoughtful inquiry and ideation. For students, documenting their ideas as they work to interpret an artwork offers the chance to exercise metacognition. With this interactive exercise featuring an artwork by Congolese artist Sammy Baloji, students are can gain insight into how they process information and formulate ideas.

Spending time with a work of art can be an opportunity for thoughtful inquiry and ideation. For students, documenting their ideas as they work to interpret an artwork offers the chance to exercise metacognition. With this interactive exercise featuring an artwork from the Mughal Empire, students can gain insight into how they process information and formulate ideas. This activity is good practice for formulating research questions and synthesizing ideas.

Students will find, evaluate, and select credible sources to create a research product.

Last March, schools all around the world were thrust into virtual learning, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.  In the future, do you think virtual learning should continue to be an option for high school students?  Why or why not?** This performance assessment was developed by a collaborative team of teachers and division staff from Middlesex, Poquoson, and West Point school divisions.

This resource presents an approach for reading memoirs with students that examines the role of truth in the genre and in the specific work(s) chosen. It gives suggestions for activities during the reading and focuses on a culminating activity in which students engage in research to investigate the facts behind the accounts the author(s) present in the memoir. Students learn about evaluating sources, locate a reliable source and discuss its credibility and impact on their understanding of the events,. Finally, they present their findings and analysis to the class.