LAFS.7.RI.1.2Archived Standard

In this lesson, students will read Elizabeth Cady Stanton’s speech “The Destructive Male,” delivered at the Women’s Suffrage Convention in 1868. Students will analyze the two distinct central ideas that emerge in the speech. They will also examine the textual evidence within the speech that supports each central idea. This ELA lesson will also make connections to civics by exploring an example of citizen activism: When Stanton delivered this speech, she was an individual who was speaking/petitioning in an effort to influence her government’s policy, specifically regarding suffrage and a new amendment.

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 with the lesson plan, including a rubric for the students' brochure. 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 series of lessons/unit is a short research project designed to help students learn more about the experience of foot binding discussed in the short story "Ribbons" by Laurence Yep. Students will research foot binding using provided sources as well as reliable sources they have chosen on their own. Students will use digital media in addition to speaking and listening skills to present their findings to the class. The project assignment, various checklists, and a project/presentation rubric have been provided, as well as several sites that students can use to begin their research.

Type: Lesson Plan

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

This lesson plan is a short research project designed to help students learn more about Kevin’s disease in Freak the Mighty.  Students will research Morquio syndrome using provided sources as well as reliable sources they have chosen on their own. Students will use digital media in addition to speaking and listening skills to present their findings to the class. Throughout the lesson, students will have ample opportunity to develop and refine reading, writing and speaking and listening skills to work towards mastery of the lesson objectives. Checklists and a project/presentation rubric have been provided with the lesson, as well as several sites that students can use to begin their research.  

Type: Lesson Plan

Who knew the eldest Oyster could have saved them all? This lesson is the final lesson in a three-lesson series and can be used on its own or as the culmination of a unit using the poem "The Walrus and the Carpenter" by Lewis Carroll. In this final lesson, the poem's lessons are used to introduce an informational text on bullying and the bystander effect. The lesson involves close reading, chunking the text into digestible parts using a graphic organizer, text-dependent questions, and a narrative essay summative assessment.

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

Students will read a news article on an immigration policy being presented by the President just prior to election. Students will determine the essential message of the article, examine the information presented to determine author intent, and write a written response citing evidence from the text.

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

This activity emphasizes the importance of teaching reading and writing strategies for students to use with informational text.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students learn to set a purpose for reading informational text before reading by turning the title and subtitles into questions.

Type: Lesson Plan

The setting of the novel The Wednesday Wars occurs during a significant period of American history. As an introduction to this novel, students will research the Vietnam War using provided sources as well as reliable sources they have chosen on their own. Students will use digital media in addition to speaking and listening skills to present their findings to the class. Links to selected introductory videos about the Vietnam War, student checklists, a presentation/project rubric, and a digital project sample have been provided with the lesson, as well as several sites that students can use to begin their research.

Type: Lesson Plan

Before reading, create a graphic organizer that uses the titles and subtitles of an informational text.

Type: Lesson Plan

Learn how to identify the central idea within a text. In this interactive tutorial, you'll read an article about video games to practice identifying and explaining the central idea of a passage or text.

Type: Original Student Tutorial

The first ELL teaching idea on this site (found under "Articles") focuses on the understanding of the word "perseverance" as it relates to Olympic athletes who have had to overcome various challenges to be able to compete. Multiple text types (photo, video, articles) address a variety of learners' modalities. Other teaching ideas focus on health and fitness, what inspires you, and even public interest in sports being motivated by popular books and movies. Each idea can stand on its own or multiple ideas can be combined into a thematic unit.

Type: Teaching Idea

In this hands-on activity, students explore the skill of summarizing through peer writings as they travel the classroom a la musical chairs.

Type: Teaching Idea