Standard #: LAFS.5.RI.3.9 (Archived Standard)

Students are presented with this scenario: A horrible forest fire has come through an ecosystem near you! Students will need to provide a detailed news article explaining the effect that this fire had on the food chain and how local citizens can help to restore the ecosystem. In addition to providing steps to rebuild, they must also convince readers that steps need to be taken in advance to prepare ecosystems for similar disasters.

This MEA will deepen students' knowledge of the Bill of Rights through collaborative problem solving. Students are required to analyze data in order to recommend three Amendments to celebrate during a community festival.  They will perform operations with fractions and mixed numbers to recommend advertising options for the festival within a budget.

Students analyze a weekly weather forecast to rank and determine which day would be best for flying a kite.

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.

This model eliciting activity teaches students a common version of the scientific method by making them the judges of a science fair. In order to judge the science fair projects they have to evaluate the importance of each step of the scientific method and assign a value to it.

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.

In this lesson students learn about the American Revolution. Students will be required to use two or more texts to summarize information some aspect of the American Revolution as well as create a timeline of important events leading up to the Revolutionary War.

This Model Eliciting Activity (MEA) is written at a 5th grade level. The Styrofoam Eliminators MEA provides students with an engineering problem in which they must work as a team to design a procedure to select the best alternative to using Styrofoam trays in school cafeterias.

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.

In this lesson, students will apply their knowledge of plant and animal adaptations to create an opinion writing piece. Students will write to convince a fictional nature show producer to film plants and animals in a habitat of the student’s choosing. Students will be assessed on elements of persuasive writing including: strong introduction/conclusion, logical sequencing, strong word choice, and supporting evidence.

Students will research causes leading up to the Revolutionary War and their specific effects. They will use various informational text resources to research a particular central event during this time period and place key points into a cause and effect graphic organizer. Working in small groups, they will compose a reader's theatre script depicting what they gathered in their research. They will rehearse and present their reader's theatre to their classmates.

In this lesson, students will determine the main ideas in two informational texts about the work and dreams of Abraham Lincoln and Martin Luther King Jr. The culminating activity will require students to show understanding of the information presented and the relationship between the two men's dreams by 1) selecting one of three pieces of art to best represent their civil rights dreams, and 2) writing an opinion piece explaining their choice.

This lesson is an instructional routine for informational text in which teachers provide guided practice and students practice mapping details from multiple texts. Mapped details are used to analyze relationships and points of view from texts on the same topic.

Culminating activity options for this lesson include having students work in teams to create detailed geographical maps or write interactive dialogue to be performed for the class using props.

This two-lesson study of American History examines the different tribes and geographic regions that Native Americans inhabited in the United States. Students will learn briefly about each tribe and region during direct instruction and then, in small groups, conduct research on one tribe in depth. Part II of the lesson requires students to present their research to the class and compare their Native American tribe with one from another group presentation.

In this lesson, students will analyze the artist's tone in the painting "Washington Crossing the Delaware, December 1776." Using the same techniques of looking at the details, students will analyze the tone of the primary account and secondary account in the informational text "Washington Crosses the Delaware, 1776" to gain an understanding of how authors create tone in their writing. The culminating activity will require students to demonstrate an understanding of their study of point of view, tone, and information presented in "Washington Crosses the Delaware, 1776" by writing a historically accurate first-person memoir of the event in which the tone reflects their perspective of the event.

Water, Water Everywhere! Research the Water Cycle asks students to conduct their own research on the water cycle (hydrologic cycle). Working collaboratively in small groups, students will research and write about the relationships between stages in the water cycle and the three states of matter relating to water. After completing this lesson, students will be prepared to create a model of the water cycle.

Read about the sinking of the Titanic and learn to identify key ideas in multiple texts, review similarities and differences between those key ideas, and identify the difference between important and interesting key ideas. This interactive tutorial will help you integrate information from several texts on the same topic.

Read about the sinking of the Titanic and learn to identify key ideas in multiple texts, review similarities and differences between those key ideas, and identify the difference between important and interesting key ideas. This interactive tutorial will help you integrate information from several texts on the same topic.