Cluster 4: Range of WritingArchived

This lesson is the first in a series of three focusing on the importance of freedom. In this lesson, students begin with a journal entry about freedom. Students then read the poem - "Sympathy" by Paul Laurence Dunbar - analyzing the poem according to literary and poetic elements. Text questions, a poetry chart, sample answer keys, and a PowerPoint are included.

Type: Lesson Plan

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 three-block lesson includes an interactive collaborative vocabulary activity, a guided read of the short story "The Enchanted Raisin," and culminates in a narrative storyboard planning activity and creation of a picture book with the goal of retelling the story to a younger audience.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is a Library of Congress lesson plan about "seeing" the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl through the eyes of children by reading the novel Out of the Dust.

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

The objective of this lesson is to review and reinforce the elements of a short story. The importance of the conflict is emphasized to show how it fuels the action of the story to keep it moving toward the resolution. The setting and characters are also important elements that affect the plot. The students will use a variety of illustrations, sentence descriptions, and quotes from the story to portray the action chronologically in a plot diagram. The students will also write a paragraph explaining how the conflict drives the plot toward the resolution using support from the text.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students create text sets and use them to practice three strategies for reading for information. Students select a topic they want to explore and work in small groups to compile a set of texts related to their topic. Each group discusses their topic, jotting notes and images on a large piece of paper as they talk. They then explore the texts they have gathered, adding more information to the paper to create a "graffiti board" focusing on their topic. Next, students generate a list of key words they think that they'll find if a text contains specific information that they're looking for. After the teacher models skimming text for key words, students use the strategy on their own text sets. Finally, students are given sustained reading time, followed by writing time without the text, allowing them to put the information they have learned into their own words.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will read the short story "Eleven" by Sandra Cisneros to collect text evidence about the character’s perspective on her birthday and age. After collecting text evidence, students will develop their own claim about the character’s perspective in the story through discussion and writing.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson contains three student experiments: How Light Travels, Comparing Light Sources, and Reflective Surfaces.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this second part of a three-part unit, students will read and analyze the folktale "The People Could Fly" for its use of figurative language and literary elements using a chart similar to the poetry chart from Lesson #1 (resource ID 43909). Short answer questions have also been included. In the closure activity students will compare and contrast the folktale with a poem they read in the first lesson in the unit as to how each text approaches the topic of freedom.

Type: Lesson Plan

This resource is a teaching idea that describes an interdisciplinary project completed by sixth grade students, combining writing, math, and art. The students worked together to write and illustrate a book that combines a fictional story with art to illustrate mathematical concepts.

Type: Teaching Idea

In this teaching idea, sixth grade students wrote their own novel after reading "The Number Devil" by Hans Magnus Enzenberger in their math class. Students presented their own proposals for a class story idea, and worked collaboratively to explain the mathematical concepts found within the context of their story.

Type: Teaching Idea

This teaching idea describes a project sixth graders participated in after studying Ancient Egypt. Students created topics to feature in a children's alphabet book, and they researched, wrote, and illustrated a page for each letter of the alphabet on Egyptian related topics.

Type: Teaching Idea

This teaching idea describes a project for the creation of a book sixth graders completed after collecting microorganisms from a nearby pond. Each page contains an illustration of the microorganism, its scientific name and classification, a written description and facts geared toward further engaging the students.

Type: Teaching Idea

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

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 is a sixth grade unit using the collection of short stories in "America Street: A Multicultural Anthology of Stories" by Anne Mazer. Students will examine point of view, multiple perspectives, character development, and setting in these varied texts. This unit includes a complete packet with graphic organizers, a pacing guide, and an assessment with answer key and possible student responses.

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 the sci-fi novel A Wrinkle in Time by Madeline L'Engle. Students will examine the characteristics of scientific and futuristic fiction including vocabulary, setting, and plot development. This unit includes a complete packet with 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 the verse novels Keeping the Night Watch by Hope Anita Smith and Chess Rumble by G. Neri. This unit explores narrative and lyric poetry, figurative language, author's purpose, voice, and symbolism. It includes games, graphic organizers, and a complete student packet, and includes a pacing guide and assessment with sample student answers.

Type: Unit/Lesson Sequence

This is a sixth grade unit on the verse novel Home of the Brave by Katherine Applegate. This unit explores narrative and lyric poetry, figurative language, author's purpose, voice, and symbolism. It is rich with games, graphic organizers, and a complete student packet and includes a pacing guide and assessment with sample student answers.

Type: Unit/Lesson Sequence

This is a sixth grade unit on the mystery novel Sammy Keyes and the Hollywood Mummy by Wendelin Van Draanen. Students will analyze characters, study the plot, make predictions, and draw conclusions to solve a mystery in this forensic-themed unit. This unit includes a complete packet with 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 the mystery novel Sammy Keyes and the Hotel Thief by Wendelin Van Draanen. Students will analyze characters, study the plot, and make predictions in this forensic-themed unit. This unit includes a complete packet with 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 using the short stories in The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros to identify point of view, interpret a character's perspective, and utilize plot elements to retell a story. This unit includes several graphic organizers, an assessment, and an answer key with sample 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