LAFS.68.RH.3.7

In this short lesson plan, students will explore and analyze a variety of interactive sources (texts and visuals) to answer the compelling question: Why was ice cream an exclusive treat at Mount Vernon long ago?

The lesson is presented as a module for students to navigate through on computers. Text resources, assessments, answer keys, and rubrics for students and teachers are attached.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this Model Eliciting Activity (MEA), students will understand how global patterns affect the temperature of an area by studying the features of an application's virtual creatures called the "Pokemontures." These creatures have the ability to match the temperature of their environment. As students study the Pokemontures' features and calculate their approximate temperature, they will apply concepts linked to the patterns that affect temperature. Students will also review heat transfers and sea/land breezes with the use of this MEA.

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

In this lesson, students will analyze a criminal case in Mexico involving an innocent man convicted of homicide. Students will identify and explain the protections for the accused that are outlined in the United States Constitution and infer how such protections might have affected the case in Mexico. This lesson features excerpts (note: the film is in Spanish with English subtitles) from the program Presumed Guilty, the story of a man wrongfully sent to prison in Mexico for a murder he did not commit.

Type: Lesson Plan

Through this lesson, students will use play dough to create a relief map of Greece. Through personal investigation and class discussion, they will draw conclusions about the impact of the geography of Greece on daily life and culture in Ancient Greece. Graphic organizers and a recipe for homemade play dough are provided.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will focus on learning about some of ancient Egypt's great queens Nefertiti, Tiy, and Nefertari. Students will learn about what made these women powerful as well as how they influenced the lives of the common people by being held in such high regard by their husbands, the pharaohs.

Type: Lesson Plan

Teacher will use students’ responses to their selection of the most efficient car to create and introduce ratio concepts and reasoning. The activities can be completed as a whole group, a few groups, or individually. The teacher may also alternate so that certain parts of the activities can be whole group, few groups, or individually according to the classrooms functional, behavioral, and academic levels.

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

In this lesson, students will learn about seven of Egypt's most famous pharaohs. They will discuss leadership styles and draw conclusions about the success of each of these pharaohs. After learning about the personality and life of each pharaoh, students will break into groups to create in-depth projects about one of these seven pharaohs and will teach others in the class about this leader.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson developed by the PBS documentary series POV (Point of View), students will explore how the United States' immigration policy affects families with mixed citizenship status. They will first discuss the challenges faced by a mixed-status family when U.S. immigration authorities schedule undocumented parents to be deported. Students will also explain how the circumstances of such families could impact the United States politically, socially and economically. Finally, they will analyze public policies that address the needs of mixed-status families.

This lesson features a clip from the film Sin País (Without Country), a documentary that tells the emotional story of a family with members of mixed citizenship status who separate when the undocumented parents are deported from the United States and their teenage children stay behind to continue their education.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will learn about the daily lives of ancient Egyptians from every social class. Life varied dramatically for people based upon their rank in the social order, and students will examine how people from all walks of life lived. Students will use creative means to present what they have learned about the lives of Egyptians from all social classes.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this first lesson of five in a unit on the Six Essential Elements of Geography students will be introduced to geographic concepts that are used to "make sense of the world" and will have a rudimentary understanding of the Elements and their application at the end of of the lesson. Students will begin to associate the Elements with real world examples. Students will engage in note-taking. These concepts cannot be mastered in a single lesson so it is recommended that the Six Essential Elements of Geography be taught as a unit.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is a lesson to energize your classroom with real world, hands-on advanced science equipment. This lesson could work well at the beginning of the school year when students learn about the Nature of Science or to start off the second semester with an exciting exploration of the objects invisible to the unaided eye.

Type: Lesson Plan

The goal of this three day exemplar is to give students the opportunity to use the reading and writing habits they've been practicing on a regular basis to explore the historic Great Fire of Chicago. By reading and rereading the passage closely combined with classroom discussion about it, students will explore the historical truths related to poverty, city construction, and city services that led to the disaster. In this reading, students learn about historical disasters, but they may not fully comprehend causes or how human actions, nature, or even luck contributed to them, rendering history a flat subject to be memorized rather than explored. When combined with writing about the passage and teacher feedback, students will better understand the dangers inherent in cities and the government role in mitigating that danger.

Type: Lesson Plan

As students will have previous exposure to the historical themes and factual information about the attacks on Pearl Harbor, the United States involvement in WWII, and the internment of Japanese in camps throughout the western United States, this lesson exemplar will allow students to participate in critical discussion of two stories that illuminate important, yet divergent, experiences of war and conflict. This lesson exemplar will push students to think critically about the experience of wartime as felt by both soldiers and civilians as they navigated specific trials that were a part of their direct or peripheral involvement in WWII.

Type: Lesson Plan

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.

Type: Lesson Plan

This is lesson five of a five-part unit on the Six Essential Elements of Geography. Students will conduct a short research project and select textual evidence and images from their research as they apply the 6 Essential Elements to a city as a framework for understanding it and the people who live there. They will synthesize their research into a poster or PowerPoint and present their work to the class.

Type: Lesson Plan

This WebQuest allows students to investigate ten aspects of ancient Egyptian life through stories, exploration, and interactive challenges. Students will have a chance to "wander" around an ancient Egyptian temple, learning some of its secrets.

Type: WebQuest

This WebQuest provides students with an interactive experience as they learn about Ancient China. Students will "travel" along the Silk Road in Ancient China assuming the role of National Geographic journalists. They will research stops along the Silk Road, ultimately drafting an informative article. Links to webpages, videos, and maps are included for students to use along their journey. Detailed teaching plans and rubrics are included to support teachers' scaffolding of the content.

Type: WebQuest