Cluster 1: Comprehension and CollaborationArchived

In this lesson, students will listen to a song, read a biography, and then view a speech, all from a former child soldier from the Sudan and current international hip-hop star Emmanuel Jal. Students will examine the information presented in all three formats by taking Cornell Notes and then participate in a fishbowl discussion based on the lesson's guiding questions. As a summative assessment, students will write a paragraph answering one of the guiding questions, supporting their ideas with text evidence. This is the second lesson of a three-part unit that will build towards having the students research and write a paper on child soldiers.

Unit overview: This unit will guide students though the process of reading multiple texts to develop knowledge about the topic of child soldiers and will culminate in a final research project. The first lesson focuses on news articles while the second lesson concentrates on one former child soldier's story as portrayed through interviews and his music. As a whole, the unit integrates close reading of multiple sources with speaking and listening activities and provides students with opportunities to write routinely from sources throughout the unit. The unit provides ample occasions for students to read, evaluate, and analyze complex texts as well as routine writing opportunities that encourage reflection.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will read a series of three news articles about Sudanese efforts to disband child soldier units. Working in small groups, then partners, and finally independently, students will work to determine the meaning of selected vocabulary from each article, respond to text-dependent questions, and complete a graphic organizer answering the lesson's guiding questions and citing evidence from the text in support of their analysis. Students will then write an extended paragraph in response to one guiding question of their choosing. This is the first lesson of a three part unit that will build towards having the students research and write a paper on child soldiers.

Unit overview: This unit will guide students though the process of reading multiple texts to develop knowledge about the topic of child soldiers and will culminate in a final research project. The first lesson focuses on news articles while the second lesson concentrates on one former child soldier's story as portrayed through interviews and his music. As a whole, the unit integrates close reading of multiple sources with speaking and listening activities and provides students with opportunities to write routinely from sources throughout the unit. The unit provides ample occasions for students to read, evaluate, and analyze complex texts as well as routine writing opportunities that encourage reflection.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will be challenged with self-discovery as they use the Socratic discussion method to gain a deeper understanding of the poem, "The Hangman," by Maurice Ogden. Teachers will guide students using text annotation to focus on specific word choice and examine its impact on the poem. Further, students will gain a deeper understanding of the poem through responding to text-dependent questions. In the culminating writing assignment, students will choose from two topics to demonstrate their understanding through a written response that is supported by details from the text. A PowerPoint, text-dependent questions and key, rubrics for the writing tasks, and other handouts are included as attachments with the lesson.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this MEA, students must work as a team to design a procedure to select the best storage cooler for their frozen treats. The main focus of the MEA is to apply scientific knowledge and describe that heat flows in predictable ways. Students will analyze data in order to arrive at a scientifically sound solution to the problem.

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.

Type: Lesson Plan

This two-day lesson, "A Picture's Worth A Thousand Words: From Image to Detailed Narrative," by Traci Gardner, is provided by ReadWriteThink.org, a website developed by the International Reading Association, the National Council of Teachers of English, with support from the Verizon Foundation.

In the lesson, students view an image that tells a story and brainstorm the possible event or situation the image illustrates. Each student then writes a narrative from the point of view of one of the characters, revealing the character's thoughts/feelings and the events that led up to the image or the events that will follow.

Type: Lesson Plan

This close reading exemplar uses an excerpt from Michael Pollan's The Omnivore's Dilemma: The Secrets Behind What You Eat. The goal of this two day exemplar from Student Achievement Partners web resources is to give students the opportunity to use reading and writing habits to unpack Pollan's investigative journalism of industrial farms. By reading and rereading the passage closely combined with classroom discussion about it, students will identify why and how farming practices have changed, as well as identify Pollan's point of view on the subject. When combined with writing about the passage and teacher feedback, students will begin to appreciate investigative journalism, as well as question from where their food is coming.

Type: Lesson Plan

The goal of this three day exemplar from Student Achievement Partner web resources is to give students the opportunity to use reading and writing habits to absorb deep lessons from Charles Hirshberg's recollections of his mother. By reading and rereading the passage closely and focusing their reading through a series of questions and discussions about the text, students will identify how much his mother's struggles and accomplishments meant to both Hirshberg and the wider world. When combined with writing about the passage, and possibly pairing this exemplar study with Richard Feynman's memoir "The Making of a Scientist," students will discover how much they can learn from this mixed genre memoir/biography about what inspires life choices.

Type: Lesson Plan

The goal of this two day exemplar is to give students the opportunity to use the reading and writing habits they've been practicing on a regular basis to unpack the meaning of Jacques' soliloquy from William Shakespeare's As You Like It. By reading and rereading the passage closely and focusing their reading through a series of questions and discussion about the text, students will be able to understand the structure and purpose of this particular soliloquy and how it delves into universal themes regarding the human condition. When combined with writing about the soliloquy, students will discover how much they can learn from even a very short selection of a text.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will read and analyze “Annabel Lee” by Edgar Allan Poe and will analyze and discuss the poetic devices and figurative language used in the poem as it supports the topic of “The Death of a Beautiful Woman.” Students will write a short response to explain their analysis.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will choose from high-interest award winning novels to conduct their own literature circle novel study. They will prepare a comprehensive summary of their literature circle learning. Then, students will conduct research about the author and prepare a PowerPoint Presentation to share their learning with the class. Finally, students will create author interview questions and answers which will be used as part of their script for their culminating podcast presentation.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will read and analyze the poem "Jabberwocky" by Lewis Carroll as they focus on how the nonsense words and use of figurative language create tone and meaning. They will use context clues to determine the meaning of unknown words and phrases and explore how Carroll’s use of figurative language affects the tone.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students must choose which type of automotive power plant is the best choice for a car company to use in its upcoming eco-friendly model. The students must make this decision based on characteristics of each power plant, such as efficiency, production cost, and production energy. Students must decide what they feel makes the car most “ecological.” They may choose a very low-polluting car that is very difficult and costly to produce, or one that has more emissions, but uses very limited resources to develop. This lesson could be used to either as an introduction or a follow-up to a lesson about ecology, energy use and conservation, or human environmental impacts.

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.

Type: Lesson Plan

The goal of this one day exemplar is to give students the opportunity to use the reading and writing habits they've been practicing on a regular basis to discover the rich humor and moral lesson embedded in Twain's text. By reading and rereading the passage closely, and focusing their reading through a series of questions and discussion about the text, students will explore the problem Tom Sawyer faced and how he "solved" his conundrum. When combined with writing about the passage, students will learn to appreciate how Twain's humor contains a deeper message and derive satisfaction from the struggle to master complex text. At the end of the lesson, students are provided two writing prompts to constructive a narrative inspired by Twain's text.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will practice visualizing and understanding that visualization is an important comprehension strategy. Students will share their visualization of the story through original artwork.

Type: Lesson Plan

The purpose of this MEA is to have students explore human impact on Earth as well as to look at workable solutions that they can implement in order to minimize this impact. This MEA focuses on water sustainability as defined by the EPA and requires that the students explore several Low Impact Development (LID) options to implement at school.

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.

Type: Lesson Plan

Practice identifying and examining the evidence used to support a specific argument. In this interactive tutorial, you'll read several short texts about the exploration of Mars to practice distinguishing relevant from irrelevant evidence. You'll also practice determining whether the evidence presented is sufficient or insufficient.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

This activity aids students' reading comprehension and is an investigation of meaning in any short story through peer collaboration. Students work independently to choose quotations that exemplify significant events of the text, come to a consensus about the quotations' significance in collaborative groups, and then formulate analytical quiz questions for peers to answer. A final reflection writing ties all parts of the activity together at the end.

Type: Teaching Idea

In this ReadWriteThink.org lesson, students will be able to explore the genre of science fiction, while learning more about the science integrated into the plot of the story using nonfiction texts and resources. First, students define the science fiction genre and then read and discuss science fiction texts. Next, they conduct research to find science facts that support or dispute the science included in the plot of the science fiction book they read. Students then revisit their definition of the genre and revise based on their reading. Finally, students complete a project that examines the science fiction genre in relation to real-world science concepts and topics. This lesson plan makes the connections between the worlds in science fiction and students' real world explicit by asking them to explore the underlying science that supports the fictional world and considering its relationship to the real science in today's society.

Type: Teaching Idea

Students read a short story of high interest and doodle in either a journal or using an online tool, responding in images, symbols, shapes, and colors. Students have to include the plot, characters, point of view, and theme. Then students work in small groups to construct graphics for the story. Each group then presents to the class. The presentations can be displayed on a class bulletin board or scanned into a Web page.

Type: Teaching Idea

This article outlines the steps used to facilitate a mind mirror project that analyzes characters from the short story "The Lottery" (Jackson 1982). Additionally, this article describes reflective activities that enabled students to monitor and improve critical thinking skills throughout the project and concludes by offering insights for teachers interested in using mind mirror projects in their classrooms.

Type: Teaching Idea

This web resource is a step-by-step guide to using Literature Circles in the classroom. While a specific lesson plan is not included, it is a clear guide for anyone wishing to incorporate this discussion strategy in the classroom.

Type: Tutorial