Cluster 1: Text Types and PurposesArchived

This is a Project-Based Learning Project, intended for second grade. It can be adapted and changed for other grades.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this project based learning experience, students explore and sort different candies based on their physical properties and how they can be altered and changed. They will determine which properties of the candy would be most beneficial to build a successful home/structure. Students will create a model of their home using their chosen candy and support their choice by writing an opinion and preparing a presentation.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson helps students learn how to offer and accept help from others. The story is about Davey, a new student who is blind and very independent. The students learn how to offer help, and Davey learns how to accept it. This lesson also addresses the following: answering questions about text, identifying how characters respond to events, and writing a narrative.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will work with their teacher and their classmates to read chapter one from the book, Charlotte's Web by E.B. White. Students will be asked to take a close look at characters' actions and motivations. As a summative assessment, students will identify and agree with a specific character's point of view, supporting their opinions with text-based evidence.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will research the effects of sugary drinks on their health.  They will interpret data on a variety of beverages presented in the form of bar graphs and decide which beverages should be included in school vending machines to ensure students have healthy drink options.

Type: Lesson Plan

The Junior League needs the students' help to determine which table rental company to use for their Charity Auction. With a tight budget, limited time, and a mistake in the order, students must create a procedure for determining the best rental company, write an explanation about their procedure, and present their recommendations to the class.

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 second grade MEA Lesson, Science will be a focus as students work collaboratively to decide what air conditioning cooling refrigerant brand will be the primary choice for an air conditioning company.

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

Collaboration is key! In this MEA lesson, students will have the opportunity to work in collaborative groups to decide what items to include inside a guest goodie bag. The students will be able to interpret data from a table chart, create a bar graph, present their decisions orally in teams, and write an extension letter.

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. 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

Everyone loves donuts. It is the students' task to help the Sweet Donut Shop determine what will be their newest donut shape- square, circle, or triangle. Based on the criteria provided, students will use their mathematical skills to determine what the donut will be.

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

During these lessons, students will read The Great Kapok Tree: A Tale of the Amazon Rain Forest by Lynne Cherry. They will learn about the importance of trees by learning new vocabulary, analyzing characters, and finding the theme of the story.

Type: Lesson Plan

Using the books Animals Should Definitely Not Wear Clothing by Judi Barrett and A Pig Parade Is A Terrible Idea by Michael Ian Black, students will have an opportunity to practice writing opinion paragraphs.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will listen to the stories Franklin in the Dark and Franklin Wants a Pet. Students will analyze story elements and story structure, which will assist them in writing an opinion piece about their favorite Franklin story.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will learn about opinion writing using a classic text, Sarah, Plain and Tall. Students will differentiate between fact and opinion and use a graphic organizer to plan an opinion piece about a favorite character. They will also use an editing checklist to peer review their written pieces before writing a final draft to share with the class.

Type: Lesson Plan

A Chair for My Mother by Vera B. Williams is a delightful story of a family who faces the hardships of life together. The focus of these reading lessons is to identify story structure and discuss how the characters responded to challenges. After students complete several learning centers about the book, they will retell the story through writing using grade-appropriate conventions.

Type: Lesson Plan

This story is an informational text that is sure to get the attention of any second grader. The author takes the reader around the world to examine different traditions children have when they lose a tooth. A series discussion questions are provided along with practice on text features and author's purpose. Also included is a culminating writing task along with a rubric for scoring.

Type: Lesson Plan

Using David Shannon's book Too Many Toys, students will practice writing an opinion paragraph.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will work with their teacher and their classmates to read Fly Away Home by Eve Bunting. Students will tackle the idea of theme and symbolizim in this story by studying what a little brown bird means to the main character. Students will write about the theme of the story in an expository paragraph.

Type: Lesson Plan

Introduce your primary students to the rhythmic story of the African plains, Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain by Verna Aardema. This story is filled with rich vocabulary and rhyming patterns that allow students to interact with context clues and and answer questions about the story elements.

Type: Lesson Plan

During this lesson, the students will become highly involved with the text Charlie Anderson by Barbara Abercrombie. The students will identify and describe the story elements with a focus on the character of Elizabeth. Students will write an expository paragraph about how she felt at the end of the story when she learned the truth.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will have an opportunity to respond to a prompt based on the perspective of one of the characters from the book I Am the Dog, I Am the Cat by Donald Hall. Students will write a narrative paragraph from the perspective of either the cat or the dog from the story.

Type: Lesson Plan

Yum Pizza is looking for a better and healthier pizza to sell in stores around town. They are only able to promote one style and need help figuring out which one that should be. Students will practice subtracting dollar amounts and writing a letter explaining their reasoning.

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 MEA focuses on what and how human actives may impact ocean life and what actions students may take in protecting our ocean. The Supplemental Reading passage serves as a springboard to elicit students understanding of real issues around them.

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

Students will be delighted to be introduced to the world of fractured fairy tales. They will compare classic versions of fairy tales with the new versions that author's have created. The students will have their own chance to think about a different point of view when they explore wolf's perspective in The Three Little Pigs. After writing a short Readers' Theatre script, students will perform their creations for the class.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will practice identifying character traits from two classic fairy tales. They will then find evidence from the text to support those traits. Students will complete the lessons by choosing a character and a trait to write about in an expository paragraph.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson students will listen to a reading of the story of The Mixed-Up Chameleon by Eric Carle and discuss the story. After the discussion, students will write their own opinion piece about an animal they would like to be and why.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will use the book Stellaluna, along with informational text, to create a Venn diagram comparing and contrasting bats and birds. They will then compare and contrast two other similar animals using the text A Whale Is Not a Fish and Other Animal Mix-ups, completing a Venn diagram and writing an expository paragraph that describes the similarities and differences between the two animals.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will work with teacher and peer support on an informational text about whales to study the text features and determine the central idea. Students will use information from the text to complete a brainstorming organizer to prepare to write an expository paragraph. In the end, through this scaffolded practice, students will become Ace High Flying Writers!

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will read the story Wemberly Worried by Kevin Henkes. Students will identify and discuss some of Wemberly's worries and share their opinion about them. The lesson will conclude with the students writing an opinion piece about Wemberly's school experience.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will take their research and turn it into an expository writing piece about ants. They will learn about how to structure a five paragraph text and what needs to be present in each paragraph. Students will take this text through the writing process, ending with a published piece that they can share with the class.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this model eliciting activity, students are asked to help the International Olympic Committee rank prospective host cities for upcoming Summer Olympic Games. Students are provided with data about a list of applicant cities and then must rank the cities and write a proposal to the IOC explaining their rankings. At the end of the MEA, the students will write an opinion piece for the International Olympic Committee that tells their final decision about which city should be the next host of the Summer Olympic Games.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will learn all about the life cycle of plants. They will work in a whole group setting while completing a K-W-L graphic organizer with the teacher and building meaning for vocabulary words relevant to the understanding of the text. They will have an opportunity to work in small groups and share the information they have learned by writing an expository paragraph.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will describe how characters in a story respond to events and challenges after reading the story, Stellaluna. Students will answer comprehension questions pertaining to the story and demonstrate an understanding of key details. In addition, students will write an opinion piece in which they will introduce a topic, state an opinion, provide reasons to support their opinion, and end their writing with a closing statement.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will learn to identify central idea and relevant details while learning about immigration in the early 1900s. After reading informational texts about immigration, students will write an expository paragraph about why immigrants came to America.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will define wind as they read informational text about the wind. They will learn new vocabulary and identify the main idea, key details, and main topic of a text. Students will write an informational paragraph in which they define wind using details from the texts they have read.

Type: Lesson Plan

Manatees live in many places in the state of Florida. Sea World rescues injured manatees and then releases them back into the wild. Sea World needs help determining safe places to release them. The factors students need to consider will be distance from Sea World, depth of water, and the population of humans living on and using the water source.

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 all about ants by reading National Geographic Kids: Ants. They will investigate the use of various text features in the book and describe how they help readers to understand a text. Students will use their new knowledge to compose an expository paragraph explaining how ants live and work together in their colony.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will participate in a research study of our world’s habitats using texts and sources from the internet. Students will demonstrate their new learning by writing an expository paragraph, completing a checklist about their writing, and sharing a favorite fact about their habitat with the class.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will help choose the best value of connecting blocks by developing a procedure based on the following criteria: color, ease of use, variety of blocks, and number of blocks per set. They will reassess these blocks during the twist incorporating a new type of block. They will need to calculate the total costs of each set of blocks.

Students may arrange the criteria based on their teams’ interpretation of most important to least important. Students may have to make trade-offs based on these interpretations (i.e., price versus the other criteria in the data sets).

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

After reading, Officer Buckle and Gloria the students will be given a problem showing different ways safety problems have been solved at area schools. Through ranking, they will have to determine which manner was the most effective.

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

There are stories that make you feel like you are there experiencing everything along with the characters. Often times, this is because the writer is describing the setting in vivid detail. These lessons will look at the componants of a setting and give students the opportunity to write the beginning of a story based upon a setting of their choosing.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson is designed to teach students about adding description to their writing. They will be exposed to the word adjective as they practice adding descriptive words to enhance nouns in their writing to make it more exciting! Students will play a noun/adjective matching game and also complete descriptive paragraph with partner.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will learn to compare and contrast texts about life cycles using a Venn diagram. Then, using the Venn diagram, students will write an expository paragraph including an introductory sentence, comparing/contrasting sentences, and a concluding sentence.

Type: Lesson Plan

Would you rather ride in a spaceship or on a submarine? This is the question the students will ponder as they write an opinion piece, taking it through the writing process.

Type: Lesson Plan

This lesson uses nonfiction texts about Martin Luther King, Jr. to give students the opportunity to understand his life and why we still honor him today. Students will create a graphic organizer that uses adjectives to describe Martin Luther King, Jr. and use the information gained from reading the texts to support their descriptions. For their final assessment, students will write an opinion piece describing Martin Luther King, Jr. providing examples from his life that fit those adjectives.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will work in groups of two or three to read an article about one of the major human body parts. They will create a list of facts related to their body part and turn them into questions.

The students will be reading online articles from kidshealth.org. These articles can be read online or printed. Each article describes the major purpose for each body part, how it relates to other systems in the body, and fun facts. Videos are also included.

Each group will present their facts and questions generated with the entire class. The teacher will create an anchor chart for each major body part and post them in the classroom.

Each student will use the key details generated during their group work to assist them in writing a paragraph about their body part. A diagram will be completed to go along with their paper. The questions generated by each group will be compiled into a final assessment for the class.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson students will read the informational text The Life Cycle of a Butterfly by Lisa Trumbauer. Students will use elements of nonfiction, such as photographs and diagrams, to aid in their understanding of the text. They will create a graphic organizer and use it to produce an expository piece of writing that explains the stages of a butterfly life cycle.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will create a personal narrative by generating ideas for writing from their personal experiences, write details of their experience in an organized manner, and revise their draft to add details.

Type: Lesson Plan

Let's learn about penguins! Students will explore text features and the author's purpose for writing National Geographic Kids: Penguins. Using new knowledge, students will write an expository paragraph on penguins, including what they look like, what they eat, and where they live.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson students will listen to the story of Chrysanthemum by Kevin Henkes. Students will discuss how teasing can be hurtful and examine how characters respond to major events. To culminate this learning, students will write an opinion piece about the story including supporting reasons, transition words, and a conclusion.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this multi-day lesson, students will read informational text on germs, learn how germs are spread, and ways to avoid getting sick. They will identify the key details of the text and use the images (diagrams, photos, charts) in the text to help them understand the key points. The students will create a detail web using evidence from each text and will then write an explanatory paper explaining what they have learned. The students will also participate in a guided class discussion. The students will learn the guidelines and procedures for successful discussion and will also learn how to come prepared for discussion by providing supporting information from the texts they have read.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson students will learn how to make their sentences descriptive and more engaging. They will transform generic sentences into detailed and distinctive statements that allow the reader to visualize what the author wants us to "see." After writing descriptive sentences about an animal, the students will fill out a peer editing form, revise their writing, and play a guessing game.

Type: Lesson Plan

Children love the classic fairy tale, The Three Little Pigs. In these lessons, students will compare the story elements from the original versions with other fractured fairy tale versions. Students will also be delighted to use their creatively to create their own fractured fairy tale.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will identify and describe story elements and compare and contrast two versions of fairy tale Cinderella. Students will write an expository paragraph describing the similarities and differences of the two texts and provide textual evidence for support.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will work with their teacher and their classmates to look deeply at chapter one from the book Sarah, Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan. Students will asked to answer discussio questions, determine the meaning of unfamiliar words, and make inferences about the main character. The lessons will end with the writing of an expository text and the main character's perspective.

Type: Lesson Plan

Students will write a personal narrative about their best day of school.

Type: Lesson Plan

In this lesson, students will be introduced to several fables. They will learn the characteristics of a fable and learn that the lesson of a story is called the moral. Students will have the opportunity to idenify the moral of a fable and write an opinion piece about it.

Type: Lesson Plan

Did you know that wordless picture books can ignite creativity in your students? These lessons encourage students to tell interesting stories in their own words based on several wordless books. After practicing identifying story elements, students will write creatively to retell one of the stories.

Type: Lesson Plan

This teaching idea describes a project where students studied a specific topic about protecting the environment, created collages in the style of children's illustrator, Eric Carle, and wrote a book which includes 23 ways people can help our planet.

Type: Teaching Idea

This teaching idea shares an activity that students completed after a study of snakes. Second-grade students created a "what am I" book, written in the first person from the perspective of a snake. The first page includes information about a particular species of snake, including a description of physical appearance, habitat, food, predators and reproductive cycle. Students also created realistic drawings of each snake.

Type: Teaching Idea

In this teaching idea, students write their own memoir, then use text pulled from the memoir to create a self-portrait.

Type: Teaching Idea

This is a Project Based Learning Unit that includes research for community members and citizens. It also includes making and analyzing arrays, and making a presentation. 

Type: Unit/Lesson Sequence