Standard 1: Communicating Through Writing

In this lesson plan, students will use the Case Study "Fire Safety" (See CPALMS Resource ID 219978) to relate fire evacuation steps (R.A.C.E.) to school fire safety procedures. Students will write a short story about a fire emergency at a school.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson plan, students will use the Case Study "Lifestyle Choices: Nutrition and Wellness" (Resource ID#: 218928) to introduce a family with dietary restrictions. Students will review what information is on a nutrition facts label and guidelines for making good choices. Then, students will analyze nutrition facts labels.

Type: Lesson Plan

Using the case study, "It’s the Environment," students will engage in a class discussion about bullying in the workplace. Students will discuss the similarities of bullying in the workplace to the school environment and write a narrative outcome to a case study situation involving bullying in the workplace.

Type: Lesson Plan

Using the case study, We Need to Hire, students will evaluate current staffing at a pediatrician’s office and determine what position should be hired to resolve issues described in the passage. Students will be able to justify their choice. Students will relate careers in the story to the medical career pathways.

Type: Lesson Plan

Using the case study, "Risk Factors for Illness" (CPALMS Resource ID # 214980), students will be introduced to the lifestyle of a family and medical problems that develop for two family members (insulin resistance and high blood pressure). Students will explore causes of illness, risk factors, and two illnesses that result from multiple factors, insulin resistance and high blood pressure.

Type: Lesson Plan

In groups, students will brainstorm school and community needs then write a letter to the principal or mayor about how the group can address the need. The letter will include details on how the technology will address the need and the positive impacts on the community.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is lesson #2 in the text unit series for The Democratic Process by Mark Friedman. Students will build on to the knowledge gained from the previous lesson. The lesson and activities will allow students to be more autonomous with their learning and apply knowledge of primary vs. secondary sources, reliable and unreliable sources, and facts and opinions to identify influences of ancient Greece and Rome on modern day U.S. Democratic Republic through a collaborative research project. Students will identify similarities and differences between ancient Greek and Roman democracies and identify their influences on modern day U.S. Democratic Republic.

The unit will prepare students to understand Greek and Roman influences on democracy in the United States, identify individual rights and freedoms, determine the difference between protected and unprotected rights, examine the rule of law, and evaluate the relevance of modern-day government. The activities in the unit will allow students the opportunity to participate in close reading, annotate text, and collaborate on research projects to gain a deeper understanding of democracy, government, and the rule of law

This resource uses a book that is on the Florida Department of Education's reading list. This book is not provided with this resource.

Type: Lesson Plan

In groups, students will decide how to promote their technology. Students will develop an impromptu 2-minute presentation in a format of their choice to share information about their technology with the school and community in this lesson.

Type: Lesson Plan

In the fourth and final part of this four-part lesson, students will individually use the research that they and their peers have conducted and presented to respond to a writing prompt. Students will need to analyze the influences of the ancient Roman Republic on America’s constitutional republic, paying special attention to Rome’s representative government and democratic principles.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will build, share, and revise an interactive program in Scratch to present information about ancient Roman and ancient Greek leaders' influence on civic participation and governance in the ancient world, in this lesson plan.

This is part 3 of a 4 part series that integrates Civics with Computer Science and Coding.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will summarize and compare the contributions of Marcus Tullius Cicero, Marcus Aurelius, Pericles, Solon, and Cleisthenes to explain each person’s influence on civic participation and governance in the ancient world. Students will also explore how these leaders' ideas influenced modern day United States government.

This is part 4 of a 4 part series that integrates Civics with Computer Science and Coding.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is lesson 3 of a 6-lesson unit plan. Students will create specific questions to ask individuals invited to a Career showcase event, using one of the attached KWLH charts. Students will be tasked with writing and asking questions regarding one individual’s career such as their skills, abilities, and talents, and the level of training and education they have received. Additionally, using a timeline template, students will prepare questions pertaining to how much time was spent progressing through different stages of their career.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is lesson two in a three-part lesson series where students research and develop appropriate conflict resolution strategies to be applied in the workplace. In part one of the series, students researched conflict resolution and reviewed examples of both proper and improper workplace conflict resolution strategies. In this lesson, part two of the series, students use the research they conducted in part one to create a conflict resolution plan to use in the workplace. In part three of the series, students will be presented with a conflict and will need to use the plan they’ve created to resolve the conflict.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will work with two informational texts in the form of brochures, texts about Burmese pythons and lionfish. With the lionfish brochure, students will identify the text features used, determine the central ideas and key supporting details, and work with selected vocabulary. Students will then be provided with informational text on a different animal and they will put their skills to use to create a brochure of their own. Various graphic organizers and teacher resources have been included as attachments. Additional resources have also been provided in the Further Recommendations section to help teachers gather resources for students to use to create their own brochure.

Type: Lesson Plan

This final lesson in three-lesson unit guides students through the process of writing and revising an essay based on the concept of freedom and using text evidence from two sources - the poem "Sympathy," and the folk tale "The People Could Fly." The lesson consists of a review of the two previous lessons in the series, three days of organizing thoughts and getting teacher and peer feedback on each step in the essay and producing a final copy. An assignment sheet and detailed organizer are all provided. Students must have completed lessons #1 and #2 in this series to complete this lesson.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will read an excerpt from A Corner of the Universe by Ann M. Martin. Students will explore how a character's point of view can influence how events are described and shape a text. Upon completion of the close reading activities, students will practice their narrative writing skills by creating an original dialogue between the main character and her mother.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students have an opportunity to make real-world connections by choosing words and phrases for effect and determining an audience and purpose for writing. They will practice using common persuasive techniques used in argumentative writing and advertisements. The lesson includes a summative assessment and rubric in which students design their own ads for a vacation destination of their choice.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will formulate a research question, practice analyzing the central ideas and relevant details of informational texts they locate during a partner research activity, and then synthesize this information into an expository paragraph.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will work in small groups to identify and interpret the personification used in "blessing the boats" by Lucille Clifton. At the end of the lesson, students will individually write an expository response about the poet’s use of personification and how it contributes to the meaning of the poem.

Type: Lesson Plan

After students read James Thurber's short story "The Secret Life of Walter Mitty," they will write a narrative of a daydream to add to the text using narrative techniques and incorporating multimedia elements.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this Model Eliciting Activity, MEA, students are to decide on a pressure cleaning machine that will provide the Sidewalks and Roof Cleaning Services Incorporated with the best value for their money. Students are asked to provide a "Best Value" pressure cleaner to the company owner and explain how they arrived at their solution.

Model Eliciting Activities 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

Type: Lesson Plan

Using excerpts from Roald Dahl's Boy: Tales of Childhood and D is for Dahl: A Gloriumptious A-Z Guide to the World of Roald Dahl compiled by Wendy Cooling the students will examine the elements of personal narrative writing, including first person point of view. Then students will compose their own personal narratives using their initials to begin each paragraph.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will use the topic of "Banning Cell Phones in Schools" to practice identifying a topic, exploring the PROS and CONS of the topic, identifying arguments, and then supporting those arguments with details and evidence. Students will write a claim and will choose effective supporting evidence to support their claims as they write an argumentative letter.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will plan a fictional narrative focusing on the parts of the plot diagram- exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and resolution. They will create a storyboard to illustrate each element of their fictional narrative.

Type: Lesson Plan

Learn how to define and identify claims being made within a text. This tutorial will also show you how evidence can be used effectively to support the claim being made. Lastly, this tutorial will help you write strong, convincing claims of your own.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Learn how to state your claim effectively in this interactive tutorial. This argumentative writing lesson will also teach you how to capture readers' attention using "grabbers" before stating your claim.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

Students will participate in a debate using the arguments of the Federalists and Anti-Federalists. This could be a verbal, silent, or alley debate. One group will represent the Federalists and be given information relating to their arguments. The other group will act as the Anti-Federalists and be given information relating to their arguments. Provide students time to prepare their arguments either individually or as a team, then commence the debate.

Type: Teaching Idea

In this activity intended for the debate classroom, students will break up into groups of four and select a stance for debate from the list provided. They will be arguing that the group/individual they selected has the most influence over the government.

Type: Teaching Idea

In this activity intended for the debate classroom, students will examine the U.S. Constitution and the Bill of Rights to determine if an assigned fairy tale character is innocent or guilty according to their rights in a simulated court of law.

Type: Teaching Idea

This text is intended to support reading in the content area. The text describes future possible outcomes for the tectonic plates and the movement of the Earth’s crust. Using computer models, the article first discusses when crustal plate movement is thought to have begun. Then, it provides the reader with an account of some of the ways the Earth has changed due to the movement of plate tectonics. It then continues to use computer models to produce a simulation to show that these plate movements may stop millions of years from now.

Type: Text Resource

This informational text resource is intended to support reading in the content area. The article highlights the work of cell biologist, Yoshinori Ohsumi, who won the Nobel Prize for physiology for his research on how cells recycle unused materials in order to maintain homeostasis. Ohsumi studied what the cell did if it started to "starve." He noticed how the cell would start "eating" some of the parts it didn't really need in order to survive. This process is called autophagy. Scientists hope that Ohsumi’s discovery will help find a cure for diseases like Alzheimer's, which is caused by cell trash buildup in the brain.

Type: Text Resource

This fun and interactive exercise will give you practice fixing comma errors in sentences. For each practice item, you must select the best choice to revise a sentence so that it uses commas correctly. After every response, you will get immediate feedback. 

Type: Tutorial

This fun and interactive exercise will give you practice fixing comma errors in sentences. For each practice item, you must correct the comma error in a sentence. After every response, you will get immediate feedback. The site also provides an explanation of the rules of proper sentence structure for you to study, simply click the hyperlinked "Comma Tip” that appears with feedback.

Type: Tutorial

This interactive exercise will give you practice in correcting sentence fragments. For each practice item, you must select the best choice to correct a fragment in a short passage. After every response, you will get immediate feedback. Explanations of each correct answer are also provided. There's also an explanation of the rules of proper sentence structure for you to study; simply click the hyperlinked word "rules."

Type: Tutorial

This fun and interactive exercise will give you practice in correcting sentence fragments. For each practice item, you must select the best choice to correct a fragment in a short passage. After every response, you will get immediate feedback. Explanations of each correct answer are also provided. There's also an explanation of the rules of proper sentence structure for you to study, simply click the hyperlinked word "rules."

Type: Tutorial

This fun and interactive exercise will give you practice in correcting sentence fragments. For each practice item, you must select the best choice to correct a fragment in a short passage. After every response, you will get immediate feedback. Explanations of each correct answer are also provided. There's also an explanation of the rules of proper sentence structure for you to study, simply click the hyperlinked word "rules."

Type: Tutorial

Alejandro Brice and his family immigrated from Cuba at the beginning of the Cuban Revolution. His father was jailed as a counter-revolutionary sympathizer and upon release, the family fled the country. Dr. Brice shares his memories of his “freedom wings”, the culture shock of growing up in Ohio as immigrants, learning English in elementary school, watching his family start over, and becoming a U.S. Citizen. Dr. Brice is a college professor specializing in the education of immigrant children and English language learners.

Type: Video/Audio/Animation