This cluster includes the following access points.
Vetted resources educators can use to teach the concepts and skills in this topic.
| Name |
Description |
| What Did You Say Happened to the Everglades?: | In this lesson, students will conduct a close reading of an informational article about pythons in the Everglades. Students will use a variety of strategies to determine the meaning of selected academic words in context, and they will sort selected tier 3 words into categories and examine the relationships between words in a category. Students will also answer text-dependent questions about the article and identify and describe the cause/effect structure used throughout the article. Students will complete an informational paragraph about the events that are occurring in the Everglades using text evidence to support their ideas. Graphic organizers, answer keys, and a writing rubric have been provided with the lesson. |
| The Amazon Rainforest: | In this lesson, students will read an informational article about the destruction of the Amazon Rainforest. Students will identify and describe the cause/effect structure used throughout the article. Students will write an expository paragraph about events occurring in the Amazon Rainforest. |
| The Tree that Saved the Day!: | In this lesson, students will read an informational picture book about a community in Africa that plants mangrove trees to help the community. Students will use a variety of strategies to determine the meaning of selected academic words in context. Students will also identify and describe the central idea and relevant details used throughout the book in order to write a summary paragraph. |
| Close Reading: Phineas L. MacGuire Gets Slimed: | This is a close reading lesson on Chapter 1 of Phineas L. MacGuire Gets Slimed by Frances O'Roark Dowell. It includes graphic organizers, a writing prompt, and a rubric. Students will use context clues to discover the meaning of unknown words, answer text-dependent questions, complete a character analysis, and write an opinion piece. |
| Aesop's Fable "The Lost Wig": | This lesson on Aesop's Fable "The Lost Wig" will provide students the opportunity to share and discuss their ideas of the fable’s theme. Students will work together in cooperative pairs to determine the theme "The Lost Wig." They will also have the opportunity to add on to the ending of "The Lost Wig" to enhance the theme. |
| Lead Me Into Exciting Writing!: | In this lesson students will practice creating a variety of introductions for narrative writing using fairy tales as the springboard. |
| Using Idioms to Explain the Plot and to Predict Future Events: | In this lesson, students will use idioms to explain a plot and predict what will happen next in a story. The featured text for this lesson is the book In a Pickle and Other Funny Idioms by Marvin Terba. There are also two practice passages provided with the resource. |
| IMAGERY THROUGH THE EYES OF THE OWL MOON BY JANE YOLEN: | This lesson incorporates the use of the book Owl Moon by Jane Yolen to help scaffold student skills by enriching their writing with descriptive words, metaphors, similes, and imagery. Teachers can use the shades of meaning within the text to help students understand the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the story. The book is full of beautiful descriptive passages that stand as excellent exemplars of how a simple scene can be brought to life with the addition of figurative language. In the end of lesson assessment, students will create their own vivid story while writing from their own experience. |
| Owl Moon: Similies and Metaphors: | In this lesson, students will be able to identify similes and metaphors within a piece of literature. Students will be able to determine the meaning of the simile or metaphor and explain how it contributes to the text. The students will be able to then use their understanding of similes and metaphors to apply them to their own narrative writing. |
| Incredible Idioms: | In this lesson, students will listen to and read literature where figurative language (specifically idioms) are used to convey meaning and enhance the writing. Students will have opportunities to explore and discuss idioms, in addition to applying their understanding of idioms by incorporating idioms in their own writing. Students will work in groups, individually, and with direct instruction from the teacher to gain a better understanding of idioms and how they are used in literature. |
| Close Reading Exemplar: "The Making of a Scientist": | The goal of this two to 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 absorb deep lessons from Richard Feynman's recollections of interactions with his father. By reading and rereading the passage closely, and focusing their reading through a series of questions and discussion about the text, students will identify how and why Feynman started to look at the world through the eyes of a scientist. When combined with writing about the passage, students will discover how much they can learn from a memoir. |
| Figurative Language: Interpretation of Similes and Metaphors: | In this resource, students will interpret the meanings of poems using similes and metaphors. The featured resource in the teacher modeling and guided practice sections utilize the text Poetry for Young People: Langston Hughes edited by David Roessel and Arnold Rampersad. The poem (not a Langston Hughes poem) for the independent practice is provided with the lesson. |
| Idioms...Let's "Figure" Them Out!: | In this lesson students will be introduced to commonly used idioms and their meanings. Students will have the opportunity to listen to idioms used in short stories and recognize how they add meaning to the text. Students will be given time to work in small groups and discuss idioms found in stories they will read with one another. Students will also have the opportunity to work individually to create illustrations that depict both the literal meaning and the figurative meaning of the idiom of their choice. |
| Recycle This!: | Students will learn about recycling renewable and nonrenewable resources while completing a model eliciting activity in which they help Sunshine School District to decide which material to start their recycling program with. 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. |
| Name |
Description |
| Vocabulary: Homophone Hunt: | In this activity, students will choose the correct homophone to complete sentences. |
| Vocabulary: Homograph Hitch: | In this activity, students will identify the meanings of homographs by playing a matching game. |
| Vocabulary: Spin Sort: | In this activity, students will identify and sort contractions, synonyms, antonyms, abbreviations, homophones, and homographs. |
| Vocabulary: Rooting for Meaning!: | In this activity, students will identify the meaning of roots while playing a match game. As an extension activity, students will use roots to create words. |
| Vocabulary: Affix Game: | In this activity, students will make words containing affixes and use them in a sentence to show meaning while playing an affix game. |
| Vocabulary: Make it Meaningful: | In this activity, students will determine and record the meanings of words with affixes. They will then sort them by affix meaning. |
| Vocabulary: Word Dissect: | In this activity, students will segment words into base words and affixes to determine the meaning. |
| Vocabulary: Meaningful Affixes: | In this activity, students will make words to match meanings by combining base words and affixes. |
| Vocabulary: Affix Concentration: | In this activity, students will match affixes to their meanings by playing a memory game. |
| Vocabulary: Homophone Go Fish: | In this activity, students will match homophones with their meanings by playing a card game. |
| Vocabulary: Homograph Hoorah!: | In this activity, students will read two meanings and write the matching homograph. |
| Vocabulary: Antonym Concentration: | In this activity, students will match antonyms by playing a memory game. |
| Vocabulary: Antonym Dominoes: | In this activity, students will identify antonyms by playing a domino game. |
| Vocabulary: Synonym Bingo!: | In this activity, students will identify synonyms by playing a bingo-like game. |
| Vocabulary: All For One: | In this activity, students will produce the multiple meanings of words and use the words in sentences that demonstrate understanding of the multiple meanings. |
| Vocabulary: Analogy Soccer: | In this activity, students will identify words to complete analogies. |
| Vocabulary: Ask-A-Word: | In this activity, students will demonstrate a deeper understanding of the meaning of words by completing a questionnaire. |
| Vocabulary: Category Clues: | In this activity, students will produce category labels for related words to demonstrate understanding of their shared attributes/meanings. |
| Vocabulary: Category Creations: | In this activity, students will produce categories and corresponding words. As an adaptation to this activity, the students may sort teacher-selected words into categories and produce a category heading based on shared attributes OR produce words that belong in teacher-selected categories (based on units of study). |
| Vocabulary: Category Tag: | In this activity, students will state words that correspond to specific categories by playing a board game. NOTE: A blank game board is provided to allow teachers to create categories relevant to classroom instruction. As an extension, students may choose the word that does not belong in a set of words and name the category for the remaining words. |
| Vocabulary: Choice Meanings: | In this activity, students will identify the meaning of words in context. |
| Vocabulary: Cloze Encounters: | In this activity, students will choose words based on meaning to complete sentences in a cloze passage. |
| Vocabulary: Compare Extraordinaire: | In this activity, students will identify similarities and differences between the meanings of words using a Venn diagram. |
| Vocabulary: Context Clues: | In this activity, students will read sentences containing context clues and sort by the type of context clue. |
| Vocabulary: Defining Depictions: | In this activity, students will depict words by drawing pictures that relate to their meaning. |
| Vocabulary: Dictionary Cube: |
In this activity, students will identify the meaning of words and word-related information using a dictionary.
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| Vocabulary: Dictionary Digs: | In this activity, students will look up target words in a dictionary and record specific information. |
| Vocabulary: Get a Clue!: | In this activity, students will determine the meanings of unknown words using context clues. |
| Vocabulary: Getting to the Root of It: | In this activity, students will identify words with common roots and related meanings and sort them on a sorting board. |
| Vocabulary: Hink Pink Think!: | In this activity, students will find Hink Pinks that correspond to meanings by playing a matching game. |
| Vocabulary: Homograph Hook: | In this activity, students will match homographs with their corresponding meanings. |
| Vocabulary: Know or No: | In this activity, students will sort words based on their understanding of the words' meanings. They will then determine the meanings of the words and record them. |
| Vocabulary: Looking for Meaning: | In this activity, students will determine the meanings of unknown words and rewrite sentences from text to demonstrate their understanding. |
| Vocabulary: Meaning Extender: | In this activity, students will demonstrate their understanding of words by applying them to a variety of contexts. |
| Vocabulary: Now Featuring: | In this activity, students will distinguish one word from another by completing an attribute analysis grid. As an adaptation to this activity, teachers may create attribute analysis grids that reflect units of study. |
| Vocabulary: Oh My Word!: | In this activity, students will write simple definitions, sentences, and synonyms of words on a recording sheet. |
| Vocabulary: Pun Fun: | In this activity, students will identify examples of non-literal words and phrases in text and record possible meanings. |
| Vocabulary: Root-A-Word: | In this activity, students will identify and sort words containing the same root. |
| Vocabulary: Root-O!: | In this activity, students will produce words containing the same root and identify their meanings. |
| Vocabulary: Synonym-Antonym Creations: | In this activity, students will produce synonyms and antonyms to match targeted words. |
| Vocabulary: Undercover Meanings: | In this activity, students will write simple definitions, sentences, and examples of target words in a graphic organizer. |
| Vocabulary: Up With Words: | In this activity, students will produce more precise alternatives for overused words in context. |
| Vocabulary: What Do You Mean?: |
In this activity, students will match words to their meanings.
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| Vocabulary: Word Clues: |
In this activity, students will use reference materials to develop clues about target words. They will provide the clues to a partner until the target word is identified.
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| Vocabulary: Word Share: | In this activity, students will find, discuss, record, and define selected words in a text. |
| Vocabulary: Word Winner: | In this activity, students will use strategies to identify the meanings of unknown words in context. |
| Vocabulary: Word-by-Word: | In this activity, students will show the relationship among words by placing them on a continuum. |
| Vocabulary: Worn-Out Words: | In this activity, students will produce synonyms as more precise alternatives for overused words. |
Vetted resources caregivers can use to help students learn the concepts and skills in this topic.
