Cluster 2: Craft and StructureArchived

In this lesson,"Cut up, Cover up, and Come Away with Ideas for Writing" by S. Rebecca Leigh through ReadWriteThink.org, a website developed by the International Reading Association, the National Council of Teachers of English, with support from the Verizon Foundation, students rework their forgotten/abandoned drafts by cutting and covering up selected words. By creatively manipulating text, they explore portal writing, a strategy for envisioning a new story or story direction.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson is part three of a three-part unit that describes the importance of teamwork to resolve life's issues and problems. The goal of this lesson is to compare and contrast two editorials that both describe President Barack Obama's State of the Union address. Students will use close reading, questioning, cooperative learning, note-taking, graphic organizers and discussion in order to get ready for the summative assessment: a debate as a culminating performance task to address the issue of working together to achieve unity.

Type: Lesson Plan

This MEA requires students to formulate a comparison-based solution to a problem involving choosing the best neighborhood for Ms. Jasmine to purchase a house. Students are provided the context of the problem, a request letter from a client asking them to provide a recommendation, and data relevant to the situation. Students utilize the data to create a defensible model solution to present to the client.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. Click here to learn more about MEAs and how they can transform your classroom.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this MEA students will explore the different factors that differentiate soils. They will determine, based on the given characteristics, which type of soil will best grow good produce.

Model Eliciting Activities, MEAs, are open-ended, interdisciplinary problem-solving activities that are meant to reveal students’ thinking about the concepts embedded in realistic situations. MEAs resemble engineering problems and encourage students to create solutions in the form of mathematical and scientific models. Students work in teams to apply their knowledge of science and mathematics to solve an open-ended problem, while considering constraints and tradeoffs. Students integrate their ELA skills into MEAs as they are asked to clearly document their thought process. MEAs follow a problem-based, student centered approach to learning, where students are encouraged to grapple with the problem while the teacher acts as a facilitator. To learn more about MEA’s visit: https://www.cpalms.org/cpalms/mea.aspx

Type: Lesson Plan

The goal of this three day exemplar is to give students the opportunity to use the reading and writing habits they've been practicing on a regular basis to explore the historic Great Fire of Chicago. By reading and rereading the passage closely combined with classroom discussion about it, students will explore the historical truths related to poverty, city construction, and city services that led to the disaster. In this reading, students learn about historical disasters, but they may not fully comprehend causes or how human actions, nature, or even luck contributed to them, rendering history a flat subject to be memorized rather than explored. When combined with writing about the passage and teacher feedback, students will better understand the dangers inherent in cities and the government role in mitigating that danger.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students can improve their comprehension of content area textbooks by summarizing chapters in the form of magazine covers. The lesson begins by asking students to examine a magazine and discuss the ways in which the magazine cover's headlines and graphics express the main ideas of its articles. They then review a chapter in a content area textbook and use an interactive tool to create a magazine cover that summarizes the textbook information. This process enables students to form connections and create visual representations to share information. Although the focus is on informational texts, this assignment could potentially be expanded to include other types of text as well.

Type: Lesson Plan

Learn how to use context clues—including definitions, synonyms, and antonyms—to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words in this baseball-themed, interactive tutorial.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Use context clues to determine the meaning of unfamiliar words in an informational text about the Revolutionary War in this interactive tutorial.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn how to identify an author's purpose and attitude toward a specific topic. In this interactive tutorial, you'll practice identifying the key differences between argumentative and informative writing. You'll also practice determining an author's attitude and beliefs toward a topic using several short informational texts.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn about the common text structures used in informational texts. In this interactive tutorial, you'll practice identifying these four frequently used text structures: problem/solution, cause and effect, sequence, and compare and contrast. You'll also learn to recognize the signal words that often accompany each type of text structure.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

In this tutorial from PBS, students will explore the power of personification in non-fiction while analyzing an author's treatment of his subject in a documentary on cowbirds. They will be able to read informational text, learn and practice vocabulary words, and explore content through videos and interactive activities as they begin to understand how this work uses human motives and emotions to tell the cowbird's story.

Type: Tutorial

In this interactive lesson from PBS, students will read informational text, learn and practice vocabulary words, and explore content through videos and interactive activities as they begin to recognize and understand the relationship between symbolism and one's sense of identity.

Type: Tutorial

Tru Confessions is the story of Tru, a teenager whose brother Eddie has special needs. Tru writes in her journal about her wish to find a cure for Eddie and to have her own television show. In this unit, students will examine factors that influence how families, classmates, and people in the community perceive and interact with children with developmental disabilities as they work to summarize key details and events from the text, analyze ways in which the author unfolds the plot, and explain how the author develops the point of view of the narrator and discuss how the text’s characters change.

Type: Unit/Lesson Sequence

This unit plan uses the book "The Bully" by Paul Langan, which is from the Bluford series, to teach tolerance. There are a plethora of resources and activities including graphic organizers, reflective journals, and reader's theater. Students work together to gain an understanding of the effects of bullying and an awareness of this important issue.

Type: Unit/Lesson Sequence

This sixth grade unit is based on the mystery novel Chasing Vermeer by Blue Balliett. Students will analyze clues and motives, study plot, and make predictions while learning about the artist Johannes Vermeer. It includes a complete packet with creative activities, graphic organizers, a pacing guide, and an assessment with answer key and possible student responses.

Type: Unit/Lesson Sequence

This is a sixth grade unit on Laurence Yep's autobiography, The Lost Garden. Students analyze author's purpose and the key characteristics of an autobiography. This unit contains a student packet, pacing guide, and an assessment with answer key and sample student responses. In addition, this unit includes instructional techniques such as a PIES chart, a T chart, and more!

Type: Unit/Lesson Sequence

This sixth grade unit on Rosa Parks is a thorough examination of an autobiographical novel and includes the study of author's purpose, main idea, and fact and opinion. It includes a student packet, graphic organizers, a pacing guide, and a unit assessment with sample responses.

Type: Unit/Lesson Sequence