This cluster includes the following access points.
Vetted resources educators can use to teach the concepts and skills in this topic.
| Name |
Description |
| Developing a Central Idea: Spies and the Revolutionary War — Part Four: | Explore excerpts from the nonfiction book George Washington’s Secret Six: The Spies Who Saved America in this interactive tutorial. This tutorial is the final part of a four-part series. In this tutorial, you’ll read two more passages from the book about Washington’s spies. You’ll also determine the central ideas of the passages, identify key details, and practice writing a summary of a text.
You should complete the previous tutorials in this series before beginning Part Four.
Click HERE to launch Part One.
Click HERE to launch Part Two.
Click HERE to launch Part Three. |
| Developing a Central Idea: Spies and the Revolutionary War — Part Three: | Explore excerpts from the nonfiction book George Washington’s Secret Six: The Spies Who Saved America in this interactive tutorial. This tutorial is Part Three of a four-part series. In this tutorial, you'll read another passage from the book, identify the topic, and determine the central idea. Then, you'll review the central ideas from all the passages you've read throughout this series and examine how each central idea helps develop an overarching central idea of all the passages.
Be sure to complete the first two parts before beginning Part Three.
Click HERE to launch Part One.
Click HERE to launch Part Two.
Make sure to do Part Four to complete the series! Click HERE to launch Part Four. |
| Developing a Central Idea: Spies and the Revolutionary War — Part Two: | Explore excerpts from the nonfiction book George Washington’s Secret Six: The Spies Who Saved America with this interactive tutorial. In this four-part series, you'll analyze several passages from the book and learn how to extract key information along the way. In Part Two, you'll read another passage from the book, identify the topic, determine the central idea, and examine how key details help develop the central idea.
Be sure to complete Part One before beginning Part Two.
Click HERE to launch Part One.
Make sure to complete the rest of the series:
Click HERE to launch Part Three.
Click HERE to launch Part Four. |
| Developing a Central Idea: Spies and the Revolutionary War – Part One: | Explore excerpts from the nonfiction book George Washington’s Secret Six: The Spies Who Saved America with this interactive tutorial. In this four-part series, you'll analyze several passages from the book and learn how to extract key information along the way. By the end of Part One, you should be able to distinguish topics from central ideas and identify central ideas and key details in the text.
Make sure to complete all four parts!
Click HERE to launch Part Two.
Click HERE to launch Part Three.
Click HERE to launch Part Four. |
| How Events Shape Ideas in a Text -- Part Three: | Explore excerpts from astronaut Scott Kelly’s autobiography, Endurance: A Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery, in this interactive tutorial. Using these excerpts, you’ll identify several important experiences in Scott Kelly’s young life that had a crucial impact on his later success. You’ll also determine how these events shaped important ideas or life lessons that Scott learned along the way. Finally, you’ll examine the connection between these important life events and the ideas or lessons Scott learned to determine how he discovered what it takes to achieve the nearly impossible.
This tutorial is Part Three of a three-part series. Make sure to complete Part One and Part Two before beginning Part Three.
Click HERE to launch Part One.
Click HERE to launch Part Two. |
| How Events Shape Ideas in a Text -- Part Two: | Explore excerpts from astronaut Scott Kelly’s autobiography, Endurance: A Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery, in this interactive tutorial. Using these excerpts, you’ll identify several important experiences in Scott Kelly’s young life that had a crucial impact on his later success. You’ll also determine how these events shaped important ideas that Scott learned along the way.
This tutorial is Part Two of a three-part series. Make sure to complete all three parts!
Click HERE to launch Part One.
Click HERE to launch Part Three. |
| How Events Shape Ideas in a Text – Part One: | Explore excerpts from astronaut Scott Kelly’s autobiography, Endurance: A Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery, in this interactive tutorial. Using these excerpts, you’ll identify several important experiences in Scott Kelly’s young life that had a crucial impact on his later success. You’ll also determine how these events shaped important ideas or life lessons that Scott learned along the way. Finally, you’ll examine the connection between these important life events and the ideas or lessons Scott learned to determine how he discovered what it takes to achieve the nearly impossible.
This tutorial is Part One of a three-part series. Make sure to complete all three parts!
Click HERE to launch Part Two.
Click HERE to launch Part Three. |
| How a Dream Compares to Reality -- Part Four: | Study excerpts from the essay “America and I” by Anzia Yezierska and learn about how she immigrated to America from Russia in the early 1900s. In this interactive tutorial, you'll analyze the comparisons she makes between her dream of life in America with the reality of her experience as an immigrant in America.
This tutorial is Part Four of a four-part series. Make sure to complete the previous tutorials before beginning Part Four.
Click HERE to launch Part One.
Click HERE to launch Part Two.
Click HERE to launch Part Three. |
| How a Dream Compares to Reality -- Part Two: | Study excerpts from the essay “America and I” by Anzia Yezierska and learn about how she immigrated to America from Russia in the early 1900s. In this interactive tutorial, you'll analyze the comparison she makes between being in America but not being seen as American. Analyzing this comparison will help you better understand how her vision of life in America was different from the reality she experienced after arriving.
This is the second tutorial of a 4-part series, so make sure to complete Part One before beginning Part Two. Then, make sure to complete the rest of the tutorial series.
Click HERE to launch Part One.
Click HERE to launch Part Three.
Click HERE to launch Part Four. |
| How a Dream Compares to Reality -- Part One: | Study excerpts from the essay “America and I” by Anzia Yezierska and learn about how she immigrated to America from Russia in the early 1900s. In this interactive tutorial, you'll analyze the comparison she makes between the reality of living in Russia and her vision of what life will be like in America. You'll also identify her use of vivid contrasts to better understand what motivated her to go to America.
This tutorial is Part One. Make sure to complete the other tutorials in this series!
Click HERE to launch Part Two.
Click HERE to launch Part Three.
Click HERE to launch Part Four. |
| The Truth About Sugar?: | Analyze the central idea in multiple texts in this interactive tutorial. You'll read several short texts in which authors disagree about the effects of sugar consumption. You'll practice identifying their different central ideas and the various types of evidence used to support them. |
| Happy Halloween! Textual Evidence and Inferences: | Cite text evidence and make inferences about the "real" history of Halloween in this spooky interactive tutorial. |
| Cyberwar! Citing Evidence and Making Inferences: | Learn how to cite evidence and draw inferences in this interactive tutorial. Using an informational text about cyber attacks, you'll practice identifying text evidence and making inferences based on the text. |
| Connections and Concussions: Teens and Sports: | Practice making connections between key individuals discussed in an informational text. In this interactive tutorial, you'll read a short text about the connection between high school football and concussions. You'll practice identifying specific details and making connections between individuals based on the text. |
| All Aboard! The Central Idea Express: | Learn how to find the central idea of an informational text in this interactive tutorial! In this train-themed tutorial, you'll learn how to identify the central idea and identify its supporting details. You'll also practice summarizing the text to highlight its most important points. |
| How a Dream Compares to Reality -- Part Three: | Study excerpts from the essay “America and I” by Anzia Yezierska and analyze the comparison she makes between her actual work experience in America and her dream of finding work that would bring out the best in her. Analyzing this comparison in this interactive tutorial will help you understand how Anzia's vision of life in America was different from the reality she experienced after immigrating to America.
This is the third tutorial in a 4-part series. Make sure to complete Parts One and Two first. Then, complete the rest of this tutorial series.
Click HERE to launch Part One.
Click HERE to launch Part Two.
Click HERE to launch Part Four. |
| Name |
Description |
| Gr. 8 Lesson 2-Threats to the Everglades: | Students will be able to:
- Describe three ecosystem services provided by the Everglades
- Explain how these three ecosystem services contribute to the social and economic quality of life for people living in South Florida
- Describe five specific threats to the ecological health of the Everglades incorporating relevant evidence of the impacts of each of these threats
- Present findings on threats to the Everglades based on information derived from various texts/websites
|
| The Link between Photosynthesis and Cellular Respiration: | This is a lesson that addresses standards and misconceptions associated with Big Idea 18 about Matter and Energy Transformations as related to photosynthesis and cellular respiration. The lesson also embeds a review of other related standards for which the students possesses prior knowledge. The lesson is vertically aligned to review classification of organisms, taxonomy, and build from related introductory activities into learning about cell types, organelles and their structures, and functions, with an emphasis on the chloroplast and the mitochondrion and their role in photosynthesis and cellular respiration. The lesson scaffolds text coding, note taking, charting, answering media dependent questions and culminates in a summative written essay assessment. An alternative short response exam has been included which could be used as an exam or the questions could be used as formative questions throughout the lesson. |
| Atomic Theory: | The Purpose of the lesson is to teach the students about five major atomic theories using inquiry-based learning. By allowing the students to be introduced to the historical backgrounds and having each group to create a three dimensional figure and a poster, it allows the learning process to be student-driven, inductive and interactive. |
| It's a Lovely Home, But...Using Multiple Texts to Aid in Decision Making: | In this lesson, students will learn about a subject as they read and analyze multiple text types before writing a business letter explaining a decision they will be asked to make. This lesson incorporates poetry, authentic non-fiction, photography, and writing. |
| Exploring the Future of NASA: | In this lesson, students will read and analyze two nonfiction articles about future work at NASA. Students will track the development of central ideas throughout each text. At the end of the lesson, students will synthesize a written response comparing and contrasting how the two authors establish their purpose. |
| Thank You, Mr. Lincoln!: | This web resource from the Civil War Trust will engage students through an analysis of primary source documents as they work to discuss the meaning and significance of the Emancipation Proclamation. |
| The Effects of the Civil War: | This lesson is intended to help students identify and discuss the effects of the American Civil War, with an emphasis on helping students summarize the 13th, 14th, and 15th Amendments, examine John Wilkes Booth's assassination of President Lincoln, and understand the terms reconstruction and reunification. |
| One for All? Or Not. Letter XII: Distresses of a Frontier Man: | This lesson is based on Letter XII: Distresses of a Frontier Man by J. Hector St. John de Crevecoeur. This "letter" is one of a collection of essays in an epistolary format from the collection, Letters from an American Farmer (1782). In this lesson, students will read and analyze the two central ideas in the text. Students will fill out a graphic organizer on the central ideas and participate in a class debate. |
| Chemical or Physical Change? That is the Question!: | Students will conduct an investigation on the effect of laundry detergent on water temperature, use technology to graph their data, and determine whether a physical or chemical change occurred. Students will also read articles to gather evidence to write an evidence-based claim using the CLEVER method. |
| Forever Alive: | In this close reading lesson, students will be asked to use multiple strategies to respond to informational text in way that is aligned to the state standards, requiring that they respond with explicit details drawn from the passage. With this short, free-standing article, teachers can incorporate this mini-lesson into their already set curriculum to reinforce the standards and skills being taught. This lesson would also make an excellent small group resource. Attachments needed for this lesson are all provided and include text-dependent questions, graphic organizers, and an objective summary writing prompt with rubric. |
| Remembering D-Day: | This is a lesson based on President Obama’s remarks on the 70th anniversary of the D-Day invasion in Normandy. His speech focuses on the anniversary of D-Day and the effect it had on soldiers and civilians who experienced the attack. This lesson provides an opportunity for vocabulary acquisition and an analysis of the meaning of President Obama’s speech. |
| Close Reading Exemplar: Words We Live By: Your Annotated Guide to the Constitution: | The goal of this one to two day exemplar from Student Achievement Partner web resources is to give students the opportunity to observe the dynamic nature of the Constitution through the practice of close reading and writing habits. By reading and re-reading the passage closely, and focusing their reading through a series of questions and discussion about the text, students will explore the questions Monk raises and perhaps even pursue additional avenues of inquiry. When combined with writing about the passage, not only will students form a deeper appreciation of Monk’s argument and the value of struggling with complex text, but of the Preamble of the Constitution itself. |
| Run For Your Life!: | Based on a student-focused scenario encouraging healthier lifestyles, students will perform a close and careful reading of an article encouraging active and healthy lifestyles. During the lesson, students will analyze data from Consumer Reports comparing and contrasting treadmills and elliptical exercisers. Using information gathered, students will compile data and persuade administrators to buy equipment that will align with the provided budget and fit in the given space. 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. |
| Teaching Tolerance: Mary Church Terrell: | This is a Teaching Tolerance lesson centering on Mary Church Terrell. The text shows the role of Mary Church Terrell and the NACW in working for civil rights in the decades before the modern civil rights movement. This lesson is very strong in vocabulary development (including using both context clues and word parts to determine meaning), summarizing, and author's purpose and perspective. The lesson could be used in either Language Arts or Social Studies classrooms and lends itself well to further research. |
| What is Normal? Exploring Connotations and Denotations: | The goal of this lesson is to give students the opportunity to explore the connotations and denotations of the word "normal" and its various meanings. Through the use of "Us and Them," a personal essay by David Sedaris, students will explore the various beliefs and points of view of "normal" based on the picture painted by Sedaris. Students will need to consider the emotional context of words and how diction reveals an author's tone and message, as well as how the use of irony can impact the tone of a piece. Students will also read and analyze a Time article, "An In-Depth View of America by the Numbers," by Nancy Gibbs. For the summative assessment, students will write an explanatory essay (several prompts are provided) about normality using evidence from the texts studied in the lesson for support. |
| A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier-An Intro to Analysis & Argumentation Part I of III: | This is part one in a three part series that covers Ismael Beah's memoir, A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier. In this lesson, students will review chapters 1-7 of by discussing notable quotes, analyzing the development of the central idea, and determining the argument Beah introduces and supports through the telling of his memoir. |
| A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier - An Intro to Analysis & Argumentation Part II of III: | This is part two in a three part series that covers Ismael Beah's memoir, A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier. In this lesson students will have independently read, outside of class, chapters 8-14. In class, students will create position statements as they read several informational articles and speeches about a variety of topics. Students will participate in a whole class discussion to assist them with their creation of position statements. |
| A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier- An Intro to Analysis & Argumentation Part III of III: | This is lesson three in a three part series that covers Ismael Beah's memoir, A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier. Students will have read chapters 15-21 before this lesson. In this lesson, students will use all evidence gleaned from their reading of the memoir, the graphic organizer and student handout information from the first two lessons, and conduct additional research to create a multimedia presentation. |
| Close Reading Exemplar: Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass: | The goal of this two to three day exemplar is to give students the opportunity to explore the point of view of a man who survived slavery. By reading and rereading the passage closely, combined with classroom discussion about it, students will explore the various beliefs and points of view Douglass experienced as he became increasingly aware of the unfairness of his life. Students will need to consider the emotional context of words and how diction (word choice) affects an author's message. When combined with writing about the passage and teacher feedback, students will form a deeper understanding of how slavery affected those involved. |
| Close Reading Exemplar: The Long Night of Little Boats: | In this lesson, students will analyze a rich literary nonfiction text illustrating the rescue of British soldiers at Dunkirk in 1940. Through use of repeated readings, text dependent questions, class discussion, and two writing tasks, students will examine the miraculous nature of what happened at Dunkirk and how shared human values played a part in the outcome of this event. This lesson was designed originally for use in a middle school Social Studies curriculum, where teaching students to go beneath a surface understanding of historical events is at a premium. Although this exemplar was designed to be used in a middle school Social Studies curriculum, it is appropriate for use in an ELA class as well. |
| Graphic Organizers For Science Reading/Writing: | This activity emphasizes the importance of teaching reading and writing strategies for students to use with informational text. |
| Setting A Purpose For Reading Using Informational Text: | Students learn to set a purpose for reading informational text before reading by turning the title and subtitles into questions. |
| Using a Before-Reading Organizer with Informational Text: | Before reading, create a graphic organizer that uses the titles and subtitles of an informational text. |
Vetted resources students can use to learn the concepts and skills in this topic.
| Title |
Description |
| Developing a Central Idea: Spies and the Revolutionary War — Part Four: | Explore excerpts from the nonfiction book George Washington’s Secret Six: The Spies Who Saved America in this interactive tutorial. This tutorial is the final part of a four-part series. In this tutorial, you’ll read two more passages from the book about Washington’s spies. You’ll also determine the central ideas of the passages, identify key details, and practice writing a summary of a text.
You should complete the previous tutorials in this series before beginning Part Four.
Click HERE to launch Part One.
Click HERE to launch Part Two.
Click HERE to launch Part Three. |
| Developing a Central Idea: Spies and the Revolutionary War — Part Three: | Explore excerpts from the nonfiction book George Washington’s Secret Six: The Spies Who Saved America in this interactive tutorial. This tutorial is Part Three of a four-part series. In this tutorial, you'll read another passage from the book, identify the topic, and determine the central idea. Then, you'll review the central ideas from all the passages you've read throughout this series and examine how each central idea helps develop an overarching central idea of all the passages.
Be sure to complete the first two parts before beginning Part Three.
Click HERE to launch Part One.
Click HERE to launch Part Two.
Make sure to do Part Four to complete the series! Click HERE to launch Part Four. |
| Developing a Central Idea: Spies and the Revolutionary War — Part Two: | Explore excerpts from the nonfiction book George Washington’s Secret Six: The Spies Who Saved America with this interactive tutorial. In this four-part series, you'll analyze several passages from the book and learn how to extract key information along the way. In Part Two, you'll read another passage from the book, identify the topic, determine the central idea, and examine how key details help develop the central idea.
Be sure to complete Part One before beginning Part Two.
Click HERE to launch Part One.
Make sure to complete the rest of the series:
Click HERE to launch Part Three.
Click HERE to launch Part Four. |
| Developing a Central Idea: Spies and the Revolutionary War – Part One: | Explore excerpts from the nonfiction book George Washington’s Secret Six: The Spies Who Saved America with this interactive tutorial. In this four-part series, you'll analyze several passages from the book and learn how to extract key information along the way. By the end of Part One, you should be able to distinguish topics from central ideas and identify central ideas and key details in the text.
Make sure to complete all four parts!
Click HERE to launch Part Two.
Click HERE to launch Part Three.
Click HERE to launch Part Four. |
| How Events Shape Ideas in a Text -- Part Three: | Explore excerpts from astronaut Scott Kelly’s autobiography, Endurance: A Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery, in this interactive tutorial. Using these excerpts, you’ll identify several important experiences in Scott Kelly’s young life that had a crucial impact on his later success. You’ll also determine how these events shaped important ideas or life lessons that Scott learned along the way. Finally, you’ll examine the connection between these important life events and the ideas or lessons Scott learned to determine how he discovered what it takes to achieve the nearly impossible.
This tutorial is Part Three of a three-part series. Make sure to complete Part One and Part Two before beginning Part Three.
Click HERE to launch Part One.
Click HERE to launch Part Two. |
| How Events Shape Ideas in a Text -- Part Two: | Explore excerpts from astronaut Scott Kelly’s autobiography, Endurance: A Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery, in this interactive tutorial. Using these excerpts, you’ll identify several important experiences in Scott Kelly’s young life that had a crucial impact on his later success. You’ll also determine how these events shaped important ideas that Scott learned along the way.
This tutorial is Part Two of a three-part series. Make sure to complete all three parts!
Click HERE to launch Part One.
Click HERE to launch Part Three. |
| How Events Shape Ideas in a Text – Part One: | Explore excerpts from astronaut Scott Kelly’s autobiography, Endurance: A Year in Space, A Lifetime of Discovery, in this interactive tutorial. Using these excerpts, you’ll identify several important experiences in Scott Kelly’s young life that had a crucial impact on his later success. You’ll also determine how these events shaped important ideas or life lessons that Scott learned along the way. Finally, you’ll examine the connection between these important life events and the ideas or lessons Scott learned to determine how he discovered what it takes to achieve the nearly impossible.
This tutorial is Part One of a three-part series. Make sure to complete all three parts!
Click HERE to launch Part Two.
Click HERE to launch Part Three. |
| How a Dream Compares to Reality -- Part Four: | Study excerpts from the essay “America and I” by Anzia Yezierska and learn about how she immigrated to America from Russia in the early 1900s. In this interactive tutorial, you'll analyze the comparisons she makes between her dream of life in America with the reality of her experience as an immigrant in America.
This tutorial is Part Four of a four-part series. Make sure to complete the previous tutorials before beginning Part Four.
Click HERE to launch Part One.
Click HERE to launch Part Two.
Click HERE to launch Part Three. |
| How a Dream Compares to Reality -- Part Two: | Study excerpts from the essay “America and I” by Anzia Yezierska and learn about how she immigrated to America from Russia in the early 1900s. In this interactive tutorial, you'll analyze the comparison she makes between being in America but not being seen as American. Analyzing this comparison will help you better understand how her vision of life in America was different from the reality she experienced after arriving.
This is the second tutorial of a 4-part series, so make sure to complete Part One before beginning Part Two. Then, make sure to complete the rest of the tutorial series.
Click HERE to launch Part One.
Click HERE to launch Part Three.
Click HERE to launch Part Four. |
| How a Dream Compares to Reality -- Part One: | Study excerpts from the essay “America and I” by Anzia Yezierska and learn about how she immigrated to America from Russia in the early 1900s. In this interactive tutorial, you'll analyze the comparison she makes between the reality of living in Russia and her vision of what life will be like in America. You'll also identify her use of vivid contrasts to better understand what motivated her to go to America.
This tutorial is Part One. Make sure to complete the other tutorials in this series!
Click HERE to launch Part Two.
Click HERE to launch Part Three.
Click HERE to launch Part Four. |
| The Truth About Sugar?: | Analyze the central idea in multiple texts in this interactive tutorial. You'll read several short texts in which authors disagree about the effects of sugar consumption. You'll practice identifying their different central ideas and the various types of evidence used to support them. |
| Happy Halloween! Textual Evidence and Inferences: | Cite text evidence and make inferences about the "real" history of Halloween in this spooky interactive tutorial. |
| Cyberwar! Citing Evidence and Making Inferences: | Learn how to cite evidence and draw inferences in this interactive tutorial. Using an informational text about cyber attacks, you'll practice identifying text evidence and making inferences based on the text. |
| Connections and Concussions: Teens and Sports: | Practice making connections between key individuals discussed in an informational text. In this interactive tutorial, you'll read a short text about the connection between high school football and concussions. You'll practice identifying specific details and making connections between individuals based on the text. |
| All Aboard! The Central Idea Express: | Learn how to find the central idea of an informational text in this interactive tutorial! In this train-themed tutorial, you'll learn how to identify the central idea and identify its supporting details. You'll also practice summarizing the text to highlight its most important points. |
| How a Dream Compares to Reality -- Part Three: | Study excerpts from the essay “America and I” by Anzia Yezierska and analyze the comparison she makes between her actual work experience in America and her dream of finding work that would bring out the best in her. Analyzing this comparison in this interactive tutorial will help you understand how Anzia's vision of life in America was different from the reality she experienced after immigrating to America.
This is the third tutorial in a 4-part series. Make sure to complete Parts One and Two first. Then, complete the rest of this tutorial series.
Click HERE to launch Part One.
Click HERE to launch Part Two.
Click HERE to launch Part Four. |
