This cluster includes the following access points.
Vetted resources educators can use to teach the concepts and skills in this topic.
| 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
|
| Delivering a Presentation: | In this lesson, students will learn about the messages that a speaker can knowingly (or unknowingly!) convey to the audience through body language, eye contact, posture, voice inflection, and gestures. Students will participate in a short activity to practice voice inflection, volume, and tone. Students will also deliver a presentation about how the speech they selected is an effective example of how to deliver a speech. |
| Pack It Up: | Students use geometry formulas to solve a fruit growing company's dilemma of packing fruit into crates of varying dimensions. Students calculate the volume of the crates and the volume of the given fruit when given certain numerical facts about the fruit and the crates. 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. |
| To the Heart of Human Experience: Structure and Theme (Part 3 of 3): | In this third lesson of a three-part unit, students will explore structure and its affect on theme in poetry. Using pairs of poems about the Holocaust, students will use graphic organizers and rubrics to help them organize their observations into a comparison/contrast essay and Socratic Seminar contributions. The summative assessment for the three-lesson unit is a final draft of an essay (drafted in Part I of the unit) about what separates poetry from prose. |
| Exactly What are You Alluding to?: | Allusions can be difficult for students and hard to teach because not all students have identical or equally extensive exposure to literature, history, and/or popular culture. To overcome this barrier, this lesson builds a "collective consciousness" in each classroom. Students research an allusion and prepare a visual and oral presentation to each explain their allusions. Students are then assessed on their understanding of the allusions taught in one another's presentations. |
| Quest For Life: Space Exploration: | Students must decide the destination of a multi-billion dollar space flight to an unexplored world. The location must be selected based on its potential for valuable research opportunities. Some locations may have life, while others could hold the answers to global warming or our energy crisis. Students must choose the destination that they feel will be most helpful to human-kind.
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 |
| A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier - An Intro to Analysis & Argumentation Part II of III: | In this lesson students will independently read, outside of class, chapters 8-14 of Ismael Beah's memoir, A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier. In class, students will learn how to create position statements as they read several informational articles and speeches about a variety of topics. Students will also participate in a Philosophical Chairs discussion and use a SOAPTone strategy to help them with their creation of position statements. |
| From Text to Film: Exploring Classic Literature Adaptations: | Students learn about movie adaptations of books through a series of activities exploring the relationship between literature and film. |
| A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier- An Intro to Analysis & Argumentation Part III of III: | In this lesson (part 3 of 3 in a unit), students will read chapters 15-21 of Ismael Beah's memoir, A Long Way Gone: Memoirs of a Boy Soldier while learning how to create an argumentation essay using a Socratic Seminar discussion, a SOAPTone Strategy, Opinion/Proof Two Column Notes, reading articles and graphics. |
| Superhero Debate: | In this lesson, students will gather research and engage in a series of debates to determine the "Supreme Superhero." As students debate and the class progresses to a "final four" and then a National Championship, several debate methods will be used: Socratic Seminar, Philosophical Chairs, and a Fishbowl activity. After the "Supreme Superhero" is chosen, students will individually write an essay arguing why the hero deserved to win and include counter arguments for an additional hero. |
| Name |
Description |
| Modeling Reading and Analysis Processes with the Works of Edgar Allan Poe: | "Explore reading strategies using the think-aloud process as students investigate connections between the life and writings of Edgar Allan Poe. The unit, which begins with an in-depth exploration of "The Raven," then moves students from a full-class reading of the poem to small-group readings of Poe's short stories ("The Black Cat," "Hop-Frog," "Masque of the Red Death," and "The Fall of the House of Usher"). The unit concludes with individual projects that explore the readings in more detail. Students have the opportunity to choose among the following [three] activities: write a narrative in Poe's style; design a sales brochure for the House of Usher; ...or investigate the author further by exploring biographical and background information in more detail. The lesson includes options for both students who need direct instruction and those who can explore with less structure." |
| Using Technology to Analyze and Illustrate Symbolism in Night: | What images symbolize hatred, peace, freedom, or confinement? What feelings do these images evoke in the viewer? What power do images have? These and many other questions provide the framework for students to use technology to explore symbolism in Elie Wiesel's Night. Students begin with a discussion of everyday symbols, such as street signs and hand gestures, to help them come up with their own definition for symbolism. Students then choose and analyze a passage from Night that uses darkness as a symbol, and then brainstorm how they might reinterpret their selected passage as an image. After learning about symbolism and discussing its use in the book, students create visual representations using an interactive tool. Students then express their response to the symbolism in the book by creating a photo montage using images from multiple websites about the Holocaust, text from survivor stories, articles about hate crimes, and Night. |
